Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the Philippines try to adhere to various accrediting standards and qualifications as well as several quality assurance (QA) mechanisms locally and internationally, including the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) Criteria for Performance Excellence, which is modeled after Malcolm Baldrige of the United States of America. The PQA program is a worldwide competitiveness model that encourages and engages public and private sector organizations and other stakeholders to strive for and achieve performance excellence. The study investigated the compliance of selected Philippine HEIs on the PQA process categories namely, categories 1- leadership, 2- strategy, 3- customer, 4- measurement, analysis, and knowledge management, 5- workforce focus, 6- operations focus (categories 1-6) and 7- results (category 7). It explored the first two categories of the leadership triad of the PQA, i.e. leadership and strategy, that emphasize the importance of 'leadership focus' on strategic planning. By looking at the differences in the level of compliance on PQA requirements when grouped according to HEIs' firmographic profile, it showed that the level of compliance of HEIs under the leadership requirement is consistently very high while strategy requirements are from high to very high. Readiness among the HEIs in terms of Level 1 PQA criteria is present, despite the non-submission for PQA assessment. To ensure full and sustainable quality assurance compliance, a continuous quality improvement plan was recommended to help senior leaders of the organizations improve compliance on basic, overall, and multiple requirements required by both categories of the PQA Criteria for continuous performance excellence.