Non-CPA finds home in CPA firm

When Atty. Romeo Duran joined a public accounting firm in 1998, he was slightly apprehensive that the odds might be stacked against him. Not a certified public accountant (CPA) – not even an accountancy graduate – he thought his chances of making it big at Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A) were slim. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Having engaged in the various aspects of law practice since 1900, including specialization in the field of taxation, he decided that a change of scene was in order. It was, he recounts, the synergy between accounting and tax law that landed him on the doorstep of a CPA firm.

"Tax law and accounting are definitely different fields, but there is a relation between them. Tax issues can be understood more deeply if the accounting aspect is also taken into consideration," Duran explains. In 1998, he stepped into P&A as a tax manager.

As it turned out, Duran’s gamble of leaving the safe and trying the uncertain could not have come at a more opportune time.

Before he celebrated his first anniversary with P&A, he was sent to the US to work with the New York City office of P&A’s international affiliate at that time. This two-year overseas training program gave him the chance to specialize in international taxation and international tax structuring and exposed him to business perspectives of other countries.

Upon his return to the Philippines, Duran continued to shine. Banking on his rich experience in taxation – further strengthened by his assignment in the Big Apple – and his law and economics degrees from Ateneo de Manila University, he became, in 2002, a Principal of P&A’s Tax Division.

Now on his seventh year with P&A, Duran has obtained wide-ranging experience in preparing tax opinions and handling tax cases with government and regulatory agencies for local and multinational companies. He has also co-authored numerous studies and position papers and has participated in drafting various tax-and-investment-related measures.

Having earned his seat on P&A’s top executive team, Duran is fully aware of the greater responsibilities now thrust upon him: "When you are managing people, you realize that you are no longer working only for yourself. You are helping other people shape their own future."

In shaping their future, young professionals would do well to listen to Duran. Admitting that he too has had his fair share of shortcomings, he remarks: "There will be times when you feel that you could have done better. You will not succeed in everything, but what matters is that you try. What matters is that you remain resolute despite failure."

This steely resolve and positive outlook continue to take him places, and he does not regret leaving his comfort zone. "I enjoy what I’m doing right now, and I see myself pursuing it as a long-term career. I’m proud of what P&A stands for – professional integrity, technical competence, responsiveness. I believe it is the dynamic combination of these that makes P&A what it is now," Duran explains. It seems that, in a setting he had previously pegged as CPA-dominated, this non-CPA feels perfectly at home.