My Valedictory Address

My Valedictory Address

DATE: OCTOBER 10, 2010

nakita ko sa shirt ng babae sa harap ko, tatak sa likod ng loose fitting Adidas shirt nya:

Some sports use balls

REAL SPORTS require two

Naalala ko lang na applicable at related sya sa issues ko today

October 11, 2010

My perceptions are not perfect but they exist.

To those with ears to hear words through their eyes:

As the prime and sole mover of my life, the only one to accept commendation or the only one designated to put the blame on and to ostracize for every mistake. 

I have been looking forward to this moment when I once again get the chance to interact with The Manila Collegian. As part of high school education’s curriculum we had a background on the essentials of campus journalism. And the main characteristic impinged among us was that it is the responsibility of media not only to accurately inform the people but to encourage them to freely make informed decisions and pursue corresponding actions. This is what I have seen as the distinctive contradiction of Kule from the established definition of journalism I have known so well. Journalism is supposedly untouched by opinion but acts as a beacon of truth to guide the people on the paths they would choose, not a clue light defining for the people what is beneficial for them, suggesting to them what it is that they should do or choose; the power of suggestion is never to be underestimated, the heuristics of decision making lead us to different deciding fallacies our nature has repeatedly fallen into – that of heuristics of availability and premature closure.

I have no doubt on the dedication and the devotion of the staff for every issue proves this. But in claiming to secure our freedom as a whole, Kule has limited freedom by establishing a definition of it which they are intent on protecting.

That for the search for the next UP President, it is very stimulating..

The idea of strengthening and establishing morality among the peoples as the most essential  key to the development of the Philippines or of any system, organization or group is real. I pledge that I view this as the most central among the factors that could change the country and the university. Let us not dissociate the management of the country from that of the university – the university as a constituent and smaller scale version of the country. However, it is also true that all ideas and intents have to be operationalized to take effect. This is where management and implementation pitches in.

So we define education as a right. And a right exists as an agreement equally shared and applicable to and by all the members of a specific society or for any entity eligible to the set definitions of a beneficiary.

The collection of people comprising a society has to have a mouthpiece or leader which oversees the situations and monitors the application and implementation of what has been agreed upon. This is what the government is supposedly for so we demand that they use the authority we have bestowed on them to see to it that our individual rights are exercised and protected. And so we deem that our obtaining education is a responsibility of the government, after all the resources for the functionality of this right is from the general pool, the collated contribution of every member. By having qualified ourselves to a right, we have subjected ourselves to the law.

What we fail to see is that which makes a right is not only that we are entitled to it and that mechanisms by which we can exercise it are to be available and operational, but that we are responsible to the attainment of it as we have agreed upon before among ourselves through our ancestors and as members of this society to whom these rights are applicable. Our not insisting on the attainment of our rights is a breach of it.

We are not only to push the government to use authority and resource to see to it that rights are secured and protected but also to respect our right and the power with which we have come up with a right and commissioned a body to monitor and implement it (government) – the law. If the government does not appropriate funds adequately to meet this right for every person, that does not mean that our only response option to secure this right is telling the government so and pushing them to act to meet this. It is also our individual privilege and burden to seek other ways and means to individually attain it.

Yes, it is only reasonable that we demand state subsidy from the government but if they don’t it reflects that the exercise of our other right – suffrage - is nil. And by the same definition of a right, we are to be responsible for every right.

The negative effect of an exercise of right may be a burden to another right but that does not mean we have only to demand fulfillment of our rights from those we have empowered for its implementation.

If budget is small for demands, then find other means to increase budget aside from state subsidy (it is the government’s right to not concede to our right to speech and expression based on their definition of public welfare). We are not to limit ourselves to state subsidy only for we know we will perish.

Besides, there is a tendency for the individual to not push through or work for the attainment of the right for the main reason that it is always available, and that he/she is reserved a slot for it and may finish it any time he/she wants or that he/she could relinquish this right by virtue of his/her other rights, misled by the notion that it’s his/her prerogative to attain it or not. That does not mean either that we are to tolerate their (the government’s) not respecting our (the peoples’/ the public’s) definition of public welfare.

There is an option to provide a cost recovery/sharing scheme for each operant of the right, the government and the individual, to have their contribution to its attainment.  In short, PPP is okay, accreditation is okay. They may not be all positive but they are not completely negative either and seeing it prospectively, the benefits (towards the attainment of the right) may outweigh the burdens.

PPP may be in the form of:

1.        cost cutting by optimizing resources

(eg. government office regulation on use of electricity – aircon thermostat and schedule of use, PSP, cellphone, PC office charging; office supply optimization – bond paper, printer ink strictly for government purposes not personal use; etc.)

2.       or through fund generation by maximizing resources

·         use of idle lands (for lease, not sale and not to competing industries),

·         maybe auditorium/space rent-outs for events (charges also apply for facility use and electricity consumption),

·         application of UP Charter financial flexibility etc.

·         aside from alumni and organization/agency support,

3.       and by other methods

while still maintaining ownership of properties and non-disruption of institutional functions.

Additional funds within the university ensure more power to subsidize students and reduce low admission (caused by previous ToFI) and somehow safeguard no ToFI implementation as a resort to meet budget deficiency.

Enhancement of scholarship program and student earning programs are also helpful to rouse up interest or meet up individual financial needs which affects/is affected by education. This way, students get a headstart on life after school through the incremental exposure to work in relative to income. All this are in line with the goal of development as a global citizen to which global education, besides being an avenue for income generation, social modernization and over-all institutional improvement, requires accreditation for standardization.

We should not be averted to change but cautious and selective in our undertakings regarding them. The world is changing and we should be receptive to change if we are to keep up with the innovations brought by parts of it.

As for deciding the next UP president based on their previous track record, there seep the inevitable inclusions of doubt as to whether their previous actions and beliefs would be reflective of the decision and actions they would pursue given the power to do so on our behalf. Another strain brought by our e right to choose. Do their past responses carry greater probability of repetition once in position?

Our assurance that the leaders we install would be for our collective/ for the public welfare relies on the instilled morality of the person and on his/her perception of accountability of power to those who have entrusted him/her of theirs on their behalf.

And yes, a scholar/citizen not only has a right to excellence but also to uphold and adhere to morals and nationalism anytime, anywhere, in any situation. And that our rights – to life, education, vote, express – have consequences and for all its outcomes we are liable. Eligibility to a right entails liability to its results.

The issue of social currency is a well-accepted one and is a refresher on the nature of being human. The faces of social currency - helpfulness, sharing, charity, and mercy - boost humanism by human interaction, cooperation, gratitude, equity and indebtedness beyond measure, harboring and strengthening relationships. It is an anti-thesis of the constant nagging of consumerism, capitalism, commercialization, commodities, economics, finance, and trade – all on the perspective of money and its seemingly pervasive inevitability which divides peoples further and heralds inequity, poverty, discrimination and justifies hurting others, insensitivity and selfishness all the while instilling self-reliance and competitiveness.