InLife Executive Chairperson Nina D. Aguas shares her dream of touching the lives of a million men supporting women after InLife Sheroes has impacted more than ten million lives in 6 years.

Women are resilient, silently enduring struggles while remaining the backbone of their homes. As primary caregivers, they are a force to be reckoned with. Since its establishment in 2019, the InLife Sheroes Advocacy and Movement (InLife Sheroes) has been championing women empowerment, transforming their voices into a powerful call to action through its four pillars: financial literacy, health and wellness, women-specific solutions, and access to social and business networks. On March 12, InLife Sheroes celebrated its 6th anniversary through its Life, Camera, Action: Sheroes in Motion event held at the Insular Life Corporate Centre in Muntinlupa City, honoring the 1st InLife Sheroes Awards recipients for their courage, commitment, and advocacy.

Atty. Nelisa Guevara-Garcia: The Defender of the Voiceless

“Children are my primary clients,” Atty. Garcia shares. “Awareness is the first step. You can’t just choose an advocacy at random—it has to be something you can commit to. For me, there was a tipping point where I knew I could no longer stand by. I had to act,” Atty Lisa explains when asked why she advocated for human rights.

Her work has led to numerous convictions, even reaching the Supreme Court. However, she measures success not just by legal victories, but by the transformation of survivors. “All the women I’ve helped in my cases are my Sheroes. I’ve seen them grow and change their lives after traumatic experiences. I share this award with the women and children I represented in court who were victims and now survivors. I thank all of them for their courage.”

Marge Aviso: Empowering Communities Through Digital Innovation

“When I first started working from home, it became a turning point for me. I said, why not start training people in the barangays to learn about online work?” Marge recalls.

Her journey has been riddled with doubts and setbacks. “People questioned why I was teaching digital work in barangays. They assumed I was a scammer. But I kept pushing forward. If there’s a dream implanted in you, it’s there for a reason. Sometimes it’s scary but you just have to take the leap of faith. If your faith is very strong, you won’t be easily destroyed.”

Beyond business, Marge is driven by a deeper mission: breaking stereotypes. “Even now, in international conferences, people assume Filipinas are mere laborers rather than business owners. We need more women in tech—AI, metaverse, blockchain. All these technologies are here, and we need more people, women and youth; to understand these things so we can truly embrace and leverage them for our own good.”

Antoinette Taus: Champion of the Environment and the Underserved

The Power of a Voice, The Strength of a Movement

At the heart of this celebration was InLife Executive Chair Nina D. Aguas, who reflected on how the Sheroes Movement has grown from a bold ambition—reaching one million women in three years—to an unstoppable force that has impacted over ten million lives after six years.

“For too long, women were unheard—not because they had nothing to say, but because no one was listening,” Nina said. “InLife Sheroes has changed that. When a woman finds her voice, she finds her power. The InLife Sheroes is about everyday actions that create change, amplifying the voices of women, ensuring they are heard in boardrooms, businesses and communities. It is about breaking barriers and creating a future where every woman has the opportunity to thrive, not just survive. When one woman speaks, she inspires another to rise. When millions speak, the world listens.”

With InLife Sheroes surpassing its goal, Nina takes her dreams further. “Our collective dream is to touch the lives of a million men, supporting women if this is what it takes for the world to truly listen.

Aside from a plaque, winners will receive a life insurance policy for one year, and donation to their chosen advocacy or charitable institution.

Interested? Please send an email to: inlifesheroes@insular.com.ph for a copy of the nomination form. Deadline of entries is on November 25, 2025.

As this year’s InLife Sheroes Awardees have shown, life is not about waiting. It’s about taking the stage, owning the moment, and moving forward no matter what stands in the way. Before the celebration ended, InLife Sheroes made a powerful pledge: to “…hold space for ourselves and for our fellow Sheroes—a safe and brave space to own our roles, turn inspiration into action, and create the change we envision.”

The InLife Sheroes Advocacy and Movement 6th anniversary celebration featured performances by singer and actress Bituin Escalante, talented young singer, New York-based Dominique Aguas Alvarez, and the Philippine Educational Theater Association who performed a theater play featuring women empowered by the InLife Sheroes.

GCash, the Philippines’ leading finance superapp and cashless ecosystem, hosted She Can 2025 to recognize the leadership, resilience, and influence of its female employees and their significant contributions beyond their job titles. In acknowledging the valuable contributions of women in tech, GCash is setting a powerful example of how to make a difference in the world of innovation through diversity and inclusion.

She Can 2025 went beyond a simple awards ceremony, honoring women for their workplace contributions, resilience, and community impact. The initiative began with an open call for nominations, gathering 78 inspiring stories of women colleagues who lead by example, uplift others, and overcome challenges. From these, 12 honorees were selected across She Can Lead, She Can Inspire, and She Can Conquer, each showcasing unique strengths and unwavering perseverance.

At the heart of the celebration was the She Can Empowerment Forum, where noted journalists Ces Drilon, Bernadette Sembrano, and Jacque Manabat shared their personal experiences and insights about taking charge and breaking barriers. Manabat, a former ABS-CBN reporter, delivered a powerful message: "Iba ang lakas ng babae (The strength of women is unique). We don't let our scars define us but rather nurture those scars to make a difference, make an impact, and use our skills for good.” She encouraged women to step outside their comfort zones as a path to growth and self-discovery.

Martha Sazon, President and CEO of Mynt, the holding company of GCash, further amplified this message, emphasizing the company’s commitment to women empowerment: “At GCash, we don’t just celebrate women—we invest in their success. Women are leaders, innovators, and change-makers, and their resilience drives not just our company but entire communities forward. Through our initiatives, we are creating an ecosystem where women have the tools to thrive in and beyond their careers. When women rise, we all rise.”

(L-R) Renowned Filipino journalists Bernadette Sembrano, Ces Drilon, and Jacque Manabat joined GCash leaders during the awarding ceremony of the She Can 2025

The Philippines is at a critical juncture in its expansion into a thriving digital economy. With an increasing demand for connectivity, the country confronts a lack of digital infrastructure for essential financial services. Filipinos continue to face barriers to financial inclusion, where gender parity issues exist, and a significant segment of the population remains unbanked or underserved by traditional financial institutions.

The 2020 pandemic was a turning point in the country’s digital transformation. According to available data, an estimated 29% of the population was considered unbanked or underbanked in early 2020. Moreover, 23% had access to insurance, only 2% had access to formal credit during this period, and only 1% had access to investments.

Levelling the playing field and unlocking opportunities

With millions of users, GCash pursues its vision of “Finance For All” by providing Filipinos, regardless of gender, background, or socioeconomic standing, with access to an e-wallet, loans, investments, and insurance coverage, as well as financial support for micro, small, and medium enterprises.

For the predominantly women-led fintech company, pursuing this mission involves dedicated efforts to equip women with the digital tools to make informed financial decisions, invest in their future, and ultimately achieve financial independence. Sazon shared, “Our goal of Finance For All is inextricably linked to nation-building in the Philippines. We know this cannot be achieved without women’s inclusion, as we have seen that women's empowerment leads to uplifting communities.”

Today, five out of ten GCash users are women. Addressing the nuanced nature of personal finances, GCash also goes beyond basic services to support Filipinos through a comprehensive digital ecosystem that caters to their diverse needs.

AI as a bridge to gender-inclusive finance

GCash attributes a significant part of its progress as an enabler of financial inclusion to artificial intelligence (AI). A user’s integration into the GCash ecosystem starts with an AI-powered onboarding process. GCash was the first to use the eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer) process in the Philippines, scaling market penetration while using alternative data.

“Fifty percent of our population doesn’t have documents,” said Sazon. “How do we address that? We use AI to score them instead. Those who use the GCash app to make payments and transactions [can be scored]. Now, millions [can] get a credit score without relying on documents or showing collateral.”

AI has also enabled GCash to personalize its services to already onboarded users, helping analyze each user’s needs, custom-tailoring outreach, and providing individualized financial solutions ranging from microloans for small businesses to flexible investment opportunities and affordable insurance coverage.

Creating opportunities for women to pursue their financial goals is another way AI boosts gender-inclusive financial empowerment in the Philippines. Today, five out of 10 GSave and GLoan users are women, while seven out of 10 GInsure users are women. Notably, GCash is also able to accelerate inclusion through its groundbreaking features like GScore, GCash’s proprietary credit scoring system that determines a user’s creditworthiness using AI and a person’s in-app activity.

“[Users] might not have the traditional requirements, but they have a digital footprint,” cited Rowie Zamora, Chief Strategy Officer of GCash, at a WEF 2025 panel hosted by Deloitte.

“This has enabled us to unlock over USD 2 billion for microloans to 7 million Filipinos in the past several years,” she added. “That’s quite huge in a country where credit penetration has been in the low digits. Before the pandemic, only one percent of Filipinos had access to credit.”

Using AI to scale positive impact

For organizations like GCash, taking a people-centric approach to AI is key. It uses AI to enhance customer experience, streamline operations for greater efficiency, and preserve consumer trust in the digital finances space, as it offers alternatives that mitigate systemic barriers to financial inclusion, particularly for unbanked and traditionally underserved communities. Ultimately, these innovations aim to create a more inclusive and equitable financial system for all individuals.

GCash has also leveraged AI to create customer affinities that offer a deeper understanding of the market, paving the way for hyper-personalization that addresses a user’s needs with better precision. Through customer affinities, each user isn’t considered just a part of a demographic but is treated as their very own market segment. This approach has allowed GCash to scale its initiatives, from promoting financial literacy to supporting women-owned and women-led MSMEs.

The individualization of GCash’s suite of innovative in-app enablement platforms has allowed it to address financial concerns specific to Filipino women, who make up more than half of today’s social sellers who use cashless payment solutions.

“Each step toward financial inclusion is a step toward accelerating Filipino women’s economic empowerment,” concluded Sazon. “This month especially, we bear in mind what was reported by the World Economic Forum: that we stand to achieve full gender equality only in the year 2158 if we maintain our current pace. We at GCash feel the urgency now more than ever and aim to further utilize AI as tech for good.”

Leading Philippine fiber broadband and technology provider Converge ICT Solutions Inc. is leading the way in shaping the minds of tech-oriented youth as it recently concluded participation in the 11-day Google Developer Student Clubs Loyola’s Hackfest 2025 Horizon, a hackathon competition that provides a unique platform for students to apply their technical skills and develop innovative digital solutions for real-world challenges.

The winning solution to the Hackfest was a waste management system innovation created by PUP students.

Converge Chief Executive Advisor Eugene Yeo and Converge Chief Network Transformation Officer (CNTO) Paulo Martin ‘Santi’ Santos delivered messages underlining the path of digital transformation the Philippines is on, and students’ role in this future as the next generation of tech leaders and innovators.

Converge CEA Eugene Yeo shared his own experience as a start-up builder in the 90s, which he eventually sold to Yahoo

“There’s a huge opportunity in the Philippines to transform the way Filipinos live their digital lives. Converge built an amazing digital infrastructure but so what? If there are no solutions or no devices to leverage on that? That’s what we want to see at Converge, we want to go to the next level,” added Yeo during the opening ceremony of the Hackfest.

Converge CNTO regales the young developers with his experience in transforming the digital infrastructure of Unionbank and also selling his start-up to a bigger telco.

The duo crafted the main problem statement that the teams targeted to solve using their coding and programming know-how. The winning teams were :

The teams came up with innovative and scalable solutions that address UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and moreover, empower communities that face structural challenges in waste management, resource redistribution, and civic engagement.

Two Filipina tech leaders from Mynt, the holding company of GCash, the #1 finance super app in the Philippines—Martha Sazon, president & CEO, and Pebbles Sy, chief technology and operations officer—represented the country’s transformative adoption of connectivity, mobile tech, and the digital economy during the prestigious Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain

Sazon discussed how GCash first set out to meet an increased demand for seamless, mobile-first solutions among Filipinos as a money transfer app—but then went on to elevate its services by establishing a diverse and wide-ranging financial ecosystem that actively caters to unbanked and traditionally underserved sectors.

“Our money transfer services were the gateway to a broader digital economy. Across the years, and in response to our users’ needs, GCash has broadened its functionalities into a comprehensive selection of financial services, including savings, investments, insurance, and banking," explained Sazon. "Our work has empowered individuals to take control of their financial well-being and pursue economic opportunities previously out of reach, all from the convenience of their mobile phones.”

Sazon stressed that the key to the digital financial ecosystem’s success is how it focused on addressing systemic issues and the limits of traditional financial institutions: GCash aimed to break down fundamental barriers to inclusion, which included lack of infrastructure, lack of avenues for boosting financial literacy, and the lack of progressive solutions that allow for widespread access to services.

Today, GCash has accelerated financial inclusion in the Philippines, helping raise the number of customers with access to a bank account from 29% to 65%, those with access to formal credit from 2% to 8%, and those with access to insurance from 23% to 51%, all in four years.

The features of GCash range from payments and transfers that make online and offline commerce easier to lending solutions that utilize AI. A groundbreaking example of the latter is GCash’s in-house credit scoring model, GScore, which uses transactional behavior as a proxy for measuring a user’s creditworthiness and has ultimately changed the landscape of microlending.

GScore, in particular, has allowed GCash to disburse roughly $3.2 billion by 2024 to over seven million Filipinos, most of whom are women from underserved sectors. Its suite of solutions also includes tools for wealth management, with the company introducing bite-sized financial offerings to match the “sachet economy” of the Philippines.

“The conventional super app is defined as having multiple features in a single platform, but for us, a super app means being an everyday companion,” said Sazon. “It’s about constant innovation: We look at our daily use cases and find ways to make things better.”

During the "Platform Economy" MWC panel, which focused on increasing access to financial services through everyday apps and fintech ecosystems, Pebbles Sy shared how GCash's API integration has been a key factor in expanding reach and improving user experience.

She also noted how this approach has necessitated the continuous adoption and development of modular and reusable features that must work well with other app components: “Today, we’re connecting thousands of microservices on our platform through APIs. We also use APIs to connect with external partners like merchants and other service providers.”

According to Sy, when financial services are seamlessly integrated, they become second nature for its users. Thanks to APIs, GCash connects users with 1,200 billers and 17 insurers within the app, as well as with four partner banks for savings accounts and to a platform that enables Filipinos to invest with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Sy added, “This is where embedded finance goes beyond just inclusion. It’s not just about providing access to financial services; it’s about making them work for people [as they] build better financial habits, protect what they earn, and plan for the future.”

Citing Google’s e-Conomy Southeast Asia Report in collaboration with Temasek and Bain & Company, she shared that the Philippines emerged as the fastest-growing digital economy in the ASEAN region, where mobile money penetration more than quadrupled in the two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. These advancements highlight the profound economic impact of mobile money in the Philippines, which GCash is ready to safeguard and facilitate further.

She added, “At the end of the day, the goal is clear: We must make financial services accessible, safe, and empowering. We want to go beyond inclusion and see financial progress in Filipinos, which hopefully can [translate into] financial health and freedom.”