The Philippines has adopted a local equivalent of ISSA 5000. The Auditing and Assurance Standards Council approved Philippine Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000, or PSSA 5000, on January 27, 2025. The Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy then adopted it as part of Philippine auditing standards through Resolution No. 44 in June 2025.
This gives practitioners a dedicated standard for sustainability assurance as PFRS S1 and PFRS S2 reporting is phased in. It does not mean every Philippine company must immediately obtain assurance over its entire sustainability report.
What PSSA 5000 changes
PSSA 5000 adopts the international standard’s framework-neutral and topic-neutral approach. It can cover sustainability information prepared under PFRS S1 and S2, greenhouse gas criteria, regulatory requirements, or other suitable criteria.
The standard addresses limited and reasonable assurance and includes requirements for engagement acceptance, planning, risk assessment, evidence, estimates, forward-looking information, materiality, group work, misstatements, and reporting.
Its adoption should be read alongside the rules that determine which entities report and when assurance is required. Our Philippines PFRS S1 and S2 roadmap explains the tiered 2026–2029 disclosure rollout and assurance timing.
Disclosure adoption and assurance readiness are one programme
PFRS S1 and S2 implementation can create the evidence architecture PSSA 5000 assurance will test. Reporting teams should map each disclosure to:
- Applicable criteria and permitted reliefs.
- Reporting boundary and period.
- Source system or document.
- Calculation, estimate, or narrative preparation method.
- Data owner, preparer, reviewer, and approver.
- Control evidence and issue history.
This mapping should include narrative information. A governance disclosure may need board mandates and minutes; a risk disclosure may need registers and assessment records; a climate target may need an approved baseline, methodology, and progress calculation.
Strengthen greenhouse gas information first
Emissions are likely to remain a central assurance focus. Establish a complete source population across facilities, fuel use, purchased electricity, refrigerants, logistics, business travel, and material value-chain categories.
Keep emission factors under version control. Record their source, geography, publication year, units, global warming potentials, selection rationale, and approval. When data is estimated, preserve the missing-data assessment, estimation model, inputs, limitations, and review.
For Scope 3, create a hierarchy that moves from spend-based estimates toward activity and supplier-specific data where material and feasible. Data quality improvement should be documented rather than silently changing methods between years.
Clarify the assurance perimeter
An engagement can cover selected disclosures rather than the complete sustainability report. The company and practitioner should agree on the assured information, criteria, assurance level, reporting period, group components, and intended users.
Published materials must describe that perimeter accurately. Avoid placing a broad “assured” badge on a report when the conclusion applies only to selected Scope 1 and Scope 2 metrics.
Before fieldwork, conduct a readiness review that includes forward and backward tracing. Select reported metrics and trace them to evidence, then select source records and confirm they reached the reported population. Test both accuracy and completeness.
Prepare the organization, not just the data room
Source owners need to explain their information, controls, and judgements. Set evidence naming conventions, access rules, response deadlines, and escalation paths. Freeze approved reporting versions and require controlled approval for later changes.
Carbon Impact’s ISSA 5000 and PSSA 5000 readiness solution helps Philippine teams keep PFRS criteria, source data, calculations, evidence, and review controls connected.
This article reflects information available on August 10, 2026 and provides general information, not assurance or legal advice.
Sources
See how Carbon Impact supports ISSA 5000 reporting — from data collection to disclosure.