HE WALKS more slowly than he used to and his back is not as straight as it was when he founded accounting giant SyCip, Gorres and Velayo over 60 years ago.

But other than these few outward signs, Washington SyCip remains the envy of his colleagues.

His mind is as sharp as ever, and he does not compare notes about hypertension, diabetes or arthritis. Because unlike his much younger friends, SyCip does not suffer from any of these debilitating ailments.

Credit this to good genes, a healthy lifestyle and a voracious appetite for learning and discovering new experiences that has not waned even after more than eight decades of walking this earth.

SyCip, who is celebrating his 88th birth anniversary on June 30, tells the Philippine Daily Inquirer that because he keeps his mind and body busy, he is able to contribute his time and expertise to groups involved in his pet projects ? basic education, microfinance and rural health.

He is dedicating the rest of his years to these endeavors because he believes that through these main themes, poverty can be reduced in the Philippines.

?I am on the board of so many companies because I try my best to be of service,? SyCip says.

Being of service means being at his Makati office everyday before 7 in the morning. He then catches up on his correspondence and talks to people who need his advice, before leaving for one of his many meetings. His evenings are usually spent in one function or another.

He says his schedule is so packed it?s as if he never retired.

SyCip estimates that last year, he spent one of every three days abroad for meetings and speaking engagements.

?I am trying to reduce that a little this year, although maybe my family is glad that I am not here too often,? jokes SyCip, who is a doting grandfather to seven apos (grandchildren).

Those frequent trips do help him, though, because he says he gets his regular exercise from walking up and down the hallways of airports. He fears that doing more than that would only lead to a knee or hip operation.

Looking back on his 88 years, SyCip says he could not possibly ask for more, although he does confess that had he known how exhilarating it is to be involved in so many and varied projects here and abroad, he would have retired at 65 and not 75.

?It?s a lot of fun to be on the company side, and not on the audit side where I spent most of my career,? he shares. ?I would have wanted to cross over much earlier than I did.?

He feels the same fire in his belly today as when he put up SGV in 1946, prompted by his vision of great opportunities in the aftermath of World War II.

SGV started out as W. SyCip & Co., a one-man operation that held office at the 5th floor of the old Trade and Commerce Building in Manila. Its first client was a stock brokerage ? Tansengco & Co. Inc. ? which occupied the ground floor of the same building.

A year after setting up his outfit, SyCip recruited Alfredo Velayo, a childhood friend, and later brought in Bureau of Internal Revenue examiner Vicente Jose. SyCip was chief executive while Velayo acted as chief operating officer. Jose was the one-man tax division.

W. SyCip & Co. became SyCip, Velayo, Jose and Co. in April 1947 as it took in new partners. It only had five employees at the time, including the partners. There were just a handful of clients and the firm shared a small office space with SyCip?s brothers, David and Alex.

Today, SGV is the leading financial consultancy firm in the country as it continues to attract the best minds in the field, which is just the way SyCip likes it.

Distinguished SGV alumni include former Trade secretaries Roberto V. Ongpin and Rizalino Navarro; Jaime Laya, who became Central Bank governor; former Finance Secretary Roberto de Ocampo; Manuel Estrella, who headed the Philippine National Oil Co.; former PLDT president Antonio Cojuangco; Sen. Manuel Villar; and Felipe Alfonso of the Asian Institute of Management.

It is also because he feels that SGV is in very good hands that SyCip can turn his attention to doing what he still can for the Philippines.

?There is so much to do in a developing nation, and I?m lucky enough to have accomplished something that has some kind of significance,? he says. ?In developed countries, what you do may not have as much an impact as in developing countries like the Philippines.?

He says he still derives a sense of fulfillment from knowing that he still has the mind and the body to contribute to nation-building. It helps of course that he?s not the type to just sit back and relax in the sunshine.

?There is still so much to do,? says SyCip, who is looking forward to turning at least 100 years old.