BIZ BUZZ: Whistleblower woes?
As the whirlwind of war in the Middle East buffets the world, whistleblower woes are wafting across the Philippine corporate sphere.
That is, at least, from the point of view of one side of feuding siblings at educational publishing house Vibal Group Inc.
Points of contention include, but are not limited to, whether Maria Kristine Mandigma discovered and uncovered financial irregularities; whether she was subsequently illegally dismissed; and whether she was reinstated based on the government’s order.
Siding with Mandigma is a brother struggling against three sisters who hold majority shares. From his point of view, Mandigma is a whistleblower, which is, in cases of corporate misconduct, arguably the single most important figure in the chain from fraud to accountability. Also, such a figure is the first to pay a price for blowing the whistle.
While the Philippines has made some progress—at least on paper—to help, there is still no standalone, comprehensive whistleblower protection law covering private-sector employees who report financial misconduct within their own organizations.
In November 2025, Mandigma, still serving as CEO, filed a fraud complaint alleging a scheme involving fictitious supplier invoices recorded over more than a decade in the company’s books.
Her camp says that the Securities and Exchange Commission has since ordered the named respondents—the three sisters—to respond to the allegations.
But before the SEC proceeding moved forward, Mandigma had already been removed as CEO.
She had filed an illegal dismissal case with the National Labor Relations Commission, which her camp says ruled in January 2026 that the dismissal was illegal and ordered her reinstatement.
Earlier this month, a labor arbiter issued a writ of execution in March. In the end, Mandigma did not regain her position and the sisters prevailed.
In a statement using the company stationery, the sisters’ camp insists that there was no discovery of irregularities, no declaration from labor authorities that Mandigma was illegally dismissed, nor was there an agreement that allows her reinstatement as CEO.
A whistleblower protection law does not predetermine any outcome. It does not declare the reporter right and the reported wrong.
What it does is keep the reporter in a position to participate in the proceeding: employed, protected from retaliatory dismissal, shielded from manufactured countercomplaints.
The Vibal case, whatever its eventual resolution, is a useful argument for why the Philippines should have a standalone law to champion a whistleblower.
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
