Robert “Bobby” Sy ’88 Named as PRC’s 2023 Outstanding Professional of the Year in Real Estate Service

The Philippine Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) recently named realtor Robert Marie “Bobby” Sy as the Outstanding Professional of the Year 2023 in the field of real estate service.

The PRC gives out the Outstanding Professional of the Year Award to professionals who have demonstrated exceptional achievements, service, and contributions in their respective fields of specialty.

In conferring the award, the PRC cited Mr. Sy’s “distinguished” contributions in the field of real estate service and his “exemplary” service to his profession. The PRC credited the realtor for helping initiate the creation of the first post-baccalaureate diploma program in real estate management in 2002 at DLSU-College of St. Benilde which helped address the need for a formal real estate education in the Philippines. The PRC also hailed Mr. Sy for actively endorsing the promulgation of a Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) for appraisal practitioners modeled after the practice standards of the US Appraisal Institute while president of the Philippine Association of Realty Appraisers (PARA) in 2003. He was also instrumental in crafting a uniform standard of practice for real estate consultancy as head of the Institute of Philippine Real Estate Consultants (IPREC) in 2004.

As president of the Philippine Association of Realtors Boards, Inc. (PAREB) in 2005, Mr. Sy helped lobby for House and Senate bills which sought to professionalize the real estate service practice and culminated in the passing of the Real Estate Service Act (RESA) – a law that helps regulate the real estate industry in the Philippines - in 2009.

In its citation, the PRC credits the realtor for “renewing and strengthening network linkages with counterpart organizations in other countries; representing the country in international real estate conferences speaking on the Philippine’s property market; sitting as juror in international real estate property awards; serving as a member of the Realty Service Council of the Philippines (RESCOP); serving as an examiner for the licensure examination for real estate consultancy; advocating for investments towards regional development and contributing to nation building by providing mass housing and socialized housing units in his housing development projects in Bulacan in order to help address the housing backlog of the country.”

Mr. Sy holds a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in public administration from the University of the Philippines.

by Ricky Rionda