ABSTRACT

This chapter examines how CSR is perceived and practised in the Philippines. Considering its history as a former colony of Spain (for 300 years) and the United States (for 50 years), the Philippines provides a fascinating example of blurring boundaries and complex contradictions. The fieldwork in the Philippines involved working with the stakeholders of one multinational company and one Filipino-owned company involved in their respective interpretations of CSR. While there were similarities in the companies’ approaches to CSR, there were differences in their focus with one establishing itself in livelihood generation and education and the other in disaster rehabilitation. This chapter likewise paints a CSR canvas of the transcendent social changes realized through concerted social development efforts by multiple stakeholders in a developing country beset by endemic corruption. The imageries tell of indifference morphing to engagement, victimization to empowerment and disaster to recovery. This is the story of Philippine CSR in the making, warts and all.