Our national treasures (3)

Dr. Jaime “Jimmy” Laya, chairman and president of Philtrust Bank and one of the country’s foremost certified public accountants, is also an arts and culture patron, with a colorful career in public service and education.

In 2022, President Bongbong Marcos appointed Laya chairman of the Cultural Center of the Philippines with the primary task of overseeing the renovation of the Tanghalang Pambansa, with plans to reopen the building by 2025.

Ladies and gentlemen, our national treasure for today is no other than Dr. Jaime “Jimmy” Laya, a living treasure under whom I began my first assignment in the field as resident auditor of the Ministry of the Budget in 1977, where shortly I discerned his natural inclination for the arts and culture when he planned the construction of the budget complex along the Pasig River, naming the first structure of the three buildings the Espinosa building.

More did I learn of him as an artist when in 1979 he was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. head of the Intramuros Administration and CoA Chairman Francisco Tantuico Jr. designated me as its concurrent resident auditor.

Laya, then Minister of the Budget was, at the same time, chairman of the Intramuros Administration until 1986.

My appreciation of arts and culture developed and flourished while serving as a resident auditor in the restoration and development of Intramuros as a monument to the Hispanic period of Philippine history.

Knowing the functions of the agency under audit helped me in reviewing intelligently the economy and effectiveness of the utilization of government resources in implementing the mandate of restoring the walls of Intramuros, the authenticity of the artworks being acquired, and the cost-effectiveness of the acquisition.

Dr. Laya as head of the Intramuros Administration was the chief implementor to ensure that the general appearance of Intramuros conformed to Philippine-Spanish architecture of the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

During that period from 1975, all his published work had been mainly on economics, business, education, fiscal management, money and banking.

Quite abruptly, he said goodbye to full-time government service and the academe in February 1986.

All these years, he would now and then write on culture and the arts, an endeavor that he said he mentally classified as fun, not serious work.

The result was an anthology, consisting of his occasional exertions which to many who have read them consider each one a masterpiece and a national treasure.

With the background of many colors and the most appropriate music of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra that befits our topic of the day, I shall present, in his own words, some of these masterpieces, not all, that would require an encyclopedic volume if indeed we intend to do justice to the work of Dr. Laya. After this episode today, we shall have two more on him — on Tuesday, 1 October, and Thursday, 3 October.

Before entering government service, Dr. Laya was a professor of business administration and dean at the University of the Philippines until 1975. From 1975 to 1986, Dr. Jaime C. Laya held the following positions: Minister of the Budget 1975-81; Minister of Education and Sports 1981-86; Chairman of the Monetary Board, Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines 1981-84; Deputy Governor for Supervision and Examination 1974-78 and concurrently deputy director general for plans and policy of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and Minister of the Budget; Head of Intramuros Administration 1979-86.

Dr. Laya graduated from the University of the Philippines (BSBA) magna cum laude, 1957; Georgia Institute of Technology (M.S., 1960); and Stanford University (Ph.D., 1965). He is a certified public accountant.

Jaime C. Laya is the founder and chairman of Laya Mananghaya & Co., a Philippine member firm of KPMG International, one of the “Big Five” international professional services firms that offer audit, tax, and management consultancy services.

(To be continued)