Quality matters!
THE Philippine Quality Award Program is a global competitiveness template that aims to encourage and engage public and private organizations and other stakeholders to strive for and attain performance excellence. It is a national award program that recognizes achievements of public and private sector organizations in their journey towards performance excellence. It is the centerpiece program of the National Action Agenda for Productivity (NAAP), the blueprint for the country’s integrated approach to improve economy-wide productivity during the term of former President Fidel V. Ramos in response to the growing challenges of globalization.
Created through Executive Order 448 on October 3, 1997, on February 28, 2001, it was institutionalized through the signing of Republic Act (RA) 9013, the Philippine Quality Awards Act which sets a standard of excellence to help Filipino organizations achieve world-class performance based on the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM).
It is a national quality award comparable with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) of the US. (This award was established by the US Congress in 1987 to raise awareness of quality management and recognize US companies that have implemented successful quality management systems. Awards can be given annually in six categories: Manufacturing, service, small business, education, healthcare and nonprofit. The award is named after the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, a proponent of quality management.)
To sustain the implementation of RA 9013 (PQA Act), the Philippine Quality Award Foundation, Inc. was organized on February, 1998, and was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April, 1998 as a non-stock, non-profit organization with fourteen (14) incorporators serving as the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
As stated in Section 13 of the PQA Act, the foundation shall manage an endowment fund for the PQA system. In addition, the Foundation shall generate funds to support the PQA program and help ensure its success in preparing Philippine organizations cope with the pressures of global competition. Its purposes include: To raise sufficient funds for the purpose of supporting the PQA Program and its operation; to accept donations in cash or in kind for the purpose of funding the PQA Program and the projects of the Foundation; to oversee the fund raised by the Foundation; to review and approve the plan relating to associated fund requirements for subsequent years to assure a successful Award Program; and to conduct, undertake or carry out all other activities which may be necessary, proper or incidental to the achievement of the above purposes and the attainment of the objectives of the PQA program under RA 9013 and in general, to do all acts and things for the welfare and best interest of the Foundation. The PQA Foundation has been valiantly pushing for PQA as a mechanism to instil quality consciousness and practice not only in Philippine industry and business but also in Philippine society.
The United Laboratories, Inc., was awarded the Philippine Quality Award for Performance Excellence in 2008, the highest award so far. In 2014, PQA Award for Proficiency in Quality Management was given to Rohm Electronics Philippines, Inc., SMC Yamamura Fuso Molds Corporation, and STMelectronics, Inc., while Commitment to Quality Management Award was given to the Department of Science and TechnologyRegion II, Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manila, and Lyceum of the Philippines University-Laguna. By law, the award is given by the President of the Republic. The 2015 (under President Simeon Benigno Aquino III) and 2016 (under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) recipients have not been awarded since Malacañang did not and has not held any awarding ceremonies.
It makes one ask – does quality matter for the previous and present administrations? I believe it should.