To my fellow public servants, my co-workers in government, my fellow youth leaders, magandang araw

Sa diwa ng Araw ng Kagitingan na ating ipinagdiwang noong Lunes, ilang segundong katahimikan ang ialay natin para sa mga bayaning nagbuwis ng buhay para sa kalayaang tinatamasa natin ngayon.

Mamaya po tatalakayin ko ang ugnayan ng kabataan at kabayanihan. Mag-uulat muna ang inyong lingkod sa parliamentary status ng mga panukalang batas na may kinalaman sa Sangguniang Kabataan. Palaging tinatanong sa akin: Mabubuwag ba ang SK? O reporma ba ang gagawin? May term extension ba? May halalan ba sa susunod na taon?

Una, bakit ba tayo tutol sa mungkahing buwagin ang SK? Dahil ang akusasyon nila sa SK tulad ng korupsiyon, na kahit tama sa maraming pagkakataon, ay higit na dapat ituro pabalik sa mga mas nakakatanda sa pamahalaan. Hindi SK ang pasimuno ng korupsiyon sa bansa. Hindi SK ang nabigo kundi ang bulok na sistemang pulitikal na nagkulang na magbigay ng mga wastong halimbawa para sa mga bata. Bakit SK lang ang bubuwagin kung korupsiyon lang ang dahilan? Buwagin ang Kongreso. Buwagin ang AFP. Walang ahensiya ng pamahalaan ang bukas sa mungkahing reporma maliban sa SK. Hindi tinatanggi ang problemang bumabalot sa SK pero hindi solusyon ang abolisyon.

Kamusta na ang SK sa Kongreso? Nasa technical working group pa rin ang pending bills ukol sa SK. Pero sa yugtong ito ay pwede na nating masabi na nabigo na ang tangka ng ilang mga pulitiko na buwagin ang SK. Gayunpaman, may mga banta pa rin tayong dapat bantayan.

Oo, pumayag na ang mga abolitionist sa pananatili ng SK. Pero, ang kondisyon, gusto nilang tanggalin ang kabataan sa mga konsehong bayan. Nais nilang bawiin ang tagumpay ng ating sektor na may boses at boto sa mga lokal na pamahalaan. Layunin nilang itansporma ang SK mula sa isang institusyong may pambansang saklaw at may potensiyal na pag-isahin ang interes ng kabataan tungo sa mga maliliit na samahan na lang ng mga kabataan sa mga barangay. Kung may Boy Scout sa mga paaralan, SK ang katumbas sa mga komunidad. Walang mali sa intensiyong itulak ang SK na maging mas aktibo sa mga usaping panglokal, pero hindi ba’t pag-atras ang pagpayag na alisan ng boses at boto ang mga kabataan sa mga konsehong bayan? Pinaglaban ng mga nauna sa atin ang karapatan ng kabataang magkaroon ng kinatawan sa mga lokal na pamahalaan; bakit natin ito ngayon ibabasura?

Isa pang argumento ng ating mga katunggali: kasi daw ang boto ng SK sa konseho ay nabibili, pinag-aawayan ng mga pulitiko. Tama. Pero bakit yung boto ng ABC ayaw tanggalin? At kung ang problema ay korupsiyon at pakikialam ng mga pulitiko, bakit ang solusyon ay alisin ang voting power ng kabataan? Ipagbawal ang pamimili ng boto, harangin ang interbensiyong ilegal ni Mayor o Governor. Totoo na sa kasalukuyan ang boto ng SK ay hindi nagagamit para sa mas malawak na kapakinabangan ng sektor. Pero kung nasa tamang oryentasyon ito, at matapang na tumitindig ang SK bilang boses ng kabataan, ang isang boto bawat konseho ay may potensiyal na magamit sa pagsulong ng interes ng mga kabataan sa komunidad.

May ilang mga kasunduang pinagtibay na sa bahagi ng mga mambabatas na bumubuo sa reform bloc. Anu-ano ang mga repormang isusulong natin? Una, ang edad ay itataas natin sa 18-24. Pangalawa, may financial autonomy ang SK subalit may responsibilidad itong magpatupad ng mga transparency measure. Pangatlo, tatlong ex-officio member ang ihahalal na magsisilbi sa konseho ng isang taon. Palalakasin natin ang Katipunan ng Kabataan bilang sangay na may malakas na boses sa pangangasiwa sa mga gawain ng SK. Hinigpitan natin ang kuwalipikasyon ng magiging SK: dapat walang kamag-anak na pulitiko sa bayan, dapat nag-aaral o nagtatrabaho sa probinsiya, at dapat handang maging ex-officio member kahit walang sahod. Nais nating patingkarin ang diwa ng boluntarismo o paglilingkod sa komunidad sa hanay ng mga kabataan habang sinasanay sila sa paraan ng pamamahala sa bansa. Nais din nating ilapit ang SK sa mga grupong nagsasabuhay ng alternatibong paraan ng pamumuno.

May mga mungkahing silipin din ang civil service eligibility ng SK, rebyu sa pagpapatupad ng scholarship para sa SK sa mga pampublikong pamantasan at pagbibigay ng iba pang non cash incentives sa mga kagawad.

Sapat ba ang mga repormang ito para tuluyang mailayo na sa kasamaan at kapahamakan ang SK? Hindi. Hangga’t ang sistema sa kabuuan ay hindi nababago, wala dapat asahan na pundamental rin na pagbabago sa SK bilang bahagi ito ng reaksiyonaryong kaayusan. Gayunpaman, bilang kabataan, bilang lider-kabataan, pwedeng tumindig ang SK sa iba’t ibang isyung pambayan. Pwede itong maging konsiyensiya ng pamahalaan. Be young whistleblowers in the local government. Dapat kritikal, progresibo, at mapangahas ito sa lahat ng aspeto.

Para sa akin, hindi yung SK Reform Bill ang susi sa pananatili ng SK sa pamahalaan. Kailangan tanggap at unawa ng publiko o ng nakararami ang silbi ng SK. Dapat makita nila ang kawastuhan ng pagkakaroon ng boses ng kabataan sa mga konsehong bayan. Paano? Dapat kumawala ang kasalukuyang SK sa makitid at tradisyunal na pamantayan at pamamaraan ng pamumuno. Pwede sa simula ay magbalangkas ng plano ang SK kung paano ito tutugon sa ilang mahahalagang usaping pambayan tulad ng pagtanggol ng kalikasan, paglunsad ng voters registration at voters education, paglahok sa debate ukol sa K-12 ng Department of Education, pagsugpo sa korupsiyon, at pagbandila ng nasyonalismo.

Kamakailan lang ay galling ako ng Baguio at nabalitaan ko na naglabas ng manipesto ang SK Baguio laban sa plano ng SM na magputol ng 182 pine trees para sa itatayo nitong multilevel parking. Binati ko ang SK kasi ang LGU ng Baguio hindi man lang naglabas ng resolusyon hinggil sa usaping ito.

Kausapin ninyo na ang DENR kung paano kayo lalahok sa National Greening Program. Alamin ninyo mula sa Deped at Ched kung paano ituturo ang climate change sa mga paaralan at komunidad. Tutol ba kayo sa mining? May mining applications ba sa inyong lugar? Ano ang tindig ng kabataan dito?

May bagong kurikulum na ipapatupad ang DepEd ngayong Hunyo. Baka pwedeng humingi kayo ng pormal na oryentasyon kung paano ang paghahanda ng DepEd sa inyong lugar. Dapat makialam ang mga bata sa usaping ito kasi may kongkreto itong epekto sa pag-aaral ng inyong constituents.

Lapitan ninyo rin ang Comelec kung paano kayo tutulong sa voters registration. Magpanukala kayo ng satellite registration sa inyong lugar.

Noong 1990s nakilala ang SK sa kanyang anti-drugs advocacy maliban sa mga paliga tuwing summer. Panahon na upang maging mas aktibo ang SK sa usapin naman ng pagtatanggol ng kalikasan. Ramdam na natin ang negatibong epekto ng climate change sa bansa. Kung gusto nating manahin ang isang mas malinis na kinabukasan, dapat ngayon pa lang ay handa na tayong umaksiyon. Bukod sa tree planting at coastal clean-up, marami pang pwedeng gawin ang kabataan upang buhayin ang bagong kaisipan at gawi hinggil sa pagligtas ng kapaligiran.

Hindi sapat na tuwid ang daan. Zigzag ang daan papuntang Baguio. Tuwid nga ang daan pero substandard pala ang materyales na ginamit, walang punong matatanaw sa gilid, sa halip ang makikita’y tarpaulin ads at mga epal billboard, walang bahay na madadaanan dahil eyesore daw para sa mga turista, tuwid na daan kahit binabaha at laging may landslide. Ang hamon sa atin, dapat tiyakin na ang daang matuwid ay para sa lahat at pakikinabangan ng lahat (hindi lang sa mga may hacienda, Porsche, at mga kabarilan).

Huwag kayo pumayag na sa inyong termino magkaroon ng pinal na desisyon na buwagin ang SK. Huwag kayo pumayag na sa inyong termino mawalan ng boses at kinatawan ang kabataan sa mga konsehong bayan. Hindi lumang SK ang pinagtatanggol natin kundi ang karapatan ng susunod na henerasyon.

Sana magpatuloy kayo sa paglilingkod sa komunidad at bayan kahit tapos na ang inyong termino. Hindi sa SK natatapos ang ating ambag para mas maging maliwanag ang kinabukasan ng lahat. Patunayan ninyo na SK man o hindi, kayo ay tapat sa inyong panata na maging tunay na makabayan at maaasahang anak ng bayan. Tatlong daang libo ang SK; ito rin dapat ang bilang na handang kumilos sa lansangan o kung saan man kung kinakailangan para ipakita sa lahat na ang kabataan ay nagmamahal sa inang bayan.

Ang kabataan dapat tulad ng ibon – nag-aasam maging malaya; dapat tulad ng agila: mataas ang lipad, matayog ang pangarap, malawak at masaklaw ang pananaw. Mula kay Matanglawin sa nobela ni Rizal, Ibong Mandaragit na sinulat ni Amado Hernandez, tapos noong 1986 narinig natin ang awiting Bayan Ko at ang popular na linyang ‘Ibon man may layang lumipad’, at ngayon mayroon tayong mga Angry Birds. Mga kabataan, I want you to be like the angry birds. Labanan ang tiwali, isuplong ang mga baboy sa pamahalaan (paumanhin sa mga baboy), at higit sa lahat gamitin ang galit, ang ideyalismo, at tapang ng kabataan para sa tunay at makabuluhang pagbabago sa lipunan.

Related articles:

SK at Pagbabago
Araw ng kabataan
Reorient the SK

Tuwing graduation ay nasusubok muli ang katatagan ng ating mga guro. They are among the bravest people in the world. Marahil nalulungkot kayo ngayon dahil iiwanan ninyo na ang hayskul kung saan nakilala ninyo ang inyong mga kaibigan at BFF. Pero sa totoo lang, mas malungkot ang inyong mga guro. Pagkatapos ng apat na taon, ang mga batang kanilang inalagaan, tinuruan, at ginabayan ay aalis na lang ng bigla. Alam nilang bahagi ito ng propesyon; alam din nilang ang pagtuturo mismo ay walang katumbas na salapi kundi ang kaligayahang maging bahagi ng inyong buhay; at alam din nilang ang iba sa inyo’y bibisita sa hinaharap pero ang karamihan siguro hindi na muli makakabalik sa kampus para makamusta ang inyong mga guro. At sa darating na hunyo, bagong schoolyear na naman; bagong batch na gagabayan, tuturuan, at mamahalin. Ganito ang buhay sa paaralan, transient ang mga estudyante. Darating, mananatili ng ilang taon, at aalis din tungo sa kanilang bagong mundo. Para sa dedikasyon sa pagtuturo, sa kanilang pag-alay ng buhay at panahon para sa inyong edukasyon, mga magsisipagtapos, palakpakan ninyo ang inyong mga guro.

Bakit spesyal ang hayskul? Bakit iiyak ang marami sa inyo mamaya? Bakit kahit ilang dekada na ang lumipas ay mananatiling sariwa ang alaala ng inyong inilagi dito? Marahil dahil pumasok kayo sa hayskul na musmos pa lamang at ngayon ay ganap na kayong mga kabataan. Maraming nagbago sa inyong pag-iisip, pag-uugali, at katawan sa nakalipas na apat na taon at saksi ang inyong mga kaklase sa mga pagbabagong ito. Wala kayong masisikreto sa kanila kaya habambuhay ninyo silang mga kaibigan. Dahil hayskul, talagang pilyo, makukulit, palabiro pero pinagsasabay ang pag-aaral. Hindi muna masyadong seryoso sa buhay. May nagpapaaral pa sa atin at medyo inosente pa ang tingin sa mga bagay-bagay.

Lahat yan iiwanan ninyo na ngayon. May bago na kayong mundo. Yung marami didiretso sa kolehiyo. Yung iba baka magtrabaho muna. Maghanda dahil hindi magiging madali ang paglalakbay. Marami kayong sasaguting tanong sa mga susunod na buwan at taon: Tama ba ang kursong kinuha ko? Nasa tamang kolehiyo ba ako? Sinasayang ko lang ba ang buhay ko? Ano ang magiging kinabukasan ko? Bakit hindi niya ako mahal? Bakit laging galit si tatay at nanay sa akin? Bakit may nararamdaman ako sa kapwa ko babae? Relaks lang. Kahit 2012 na, hindi pa katapusan ng mundo. Normal ang magkaroon ng problema, normal ang makaranas ng kalituhan, normal ang maging di-tiyak sa mga desisyon sa buhay. Hindi naman tayo perpekto dahil tao lang tayo. So in the next few years, expect alienation, confusion, cynicism, boredom.

Ang mahalaga, at ito ang pakiusap ko sa inyo, wag sumuko sa problema. Wag idaan sa bisyo. Wag isisi sa iba ang inyong kabiguang harapin ang iba’t ibang pagsubok sa buhay. Wag hayaang mangibabaw ang galit. Dapat pag-ibig lang. Magmahal na parang walang bukas. Pero sana mag-iwan ng sapat na pagmamahal para sa sarili.

Sa kolehiyo makikilala ninyo ang iba’t ibang personalidad. Walang sikreto sa kolehiyo maliban sa inaasahan na kayo ay maging mas responsable sa pangangasiwa ng inyong oras. At gawin ninyong mas makabuluhan ang buhay kolehiyo sa paglahok sa maraming aktibidad sa labas ng klasrum. At laging tandaan sana, nag-aaral tayo hindi lamang para yumaman (bonus na lang yun) kundi para maging mas matalino at mabuting tao.

Para sa akin ang pag-aaral ay hindi dapat hiwalay sa paggampan ng ating tungkulin bilang mamamayan ng lipunan. Dahil tayo ay iskolar ng bayan, dapat inaalay natin ang ating angking talino sa komunidad. Ibinabalik natin sa bayan kung ano man ang natutunan natin.

Mabigat at marami ang mga problema ng bansa: kahirapan, korupsiyon, krimen. Pero alam ninyo na marahil ang mga tinukoy ko dahil pinag-aralan ninyo yan sa hayskul. Mula ngayon, maglaan sana kayo ng panahon kung paano sa susunod na henerasyon ay hindi na ito malaking usapin. Kailangan ko itong banggitin dahil ang atensiyon ng kabataan ngayon ay nahahati sa maraming bagay. Sa pelikulang Wall-E, tila hypnotized ang mga taong nakatira sa spaceship; wala silang pakialam sa iba o sa paligid dahil nakatutok ang kanilang mga mata sa mga personalized screen; wala silang pisikal na aktibidad kundi ang mag click o kumain. Hindi ba pamilyar ang imahen? Hindi ba’t sa kasalukuyan ay manghang-mangha tayo sa mga bagong gadget – cellphone noon, kindle, smarthphone, tablet PC ngayon – na kahit sa daan o byahe ay dito nakapokus ang ating atensiyon? At pag nasa bahay o opisina, kung hindi TV ay sa computer pa rin tayo nakatambay. Walang pagtutol sa paggamit ng teknolohiya para sa mas mabilis na komunikasyon at pagkuha ng impormasyon pero aminin natin, may epekto ito kung paano tayo nakikisalamuha sa iba dahil hinahatak tayo nito paloob sa ating sariling mundo. Nagiging convenient ang virtual interaction kaya minsan nakakaligtaan natin na dapat mas maging aktibo tayo sa offline na mundo.

Hindi kaya’t umaatras tayo sa totoong mundo dahil nababagsikan tayo sa mga taong nakikilala natin? Pero kung lahat tayo ay magiging abala sa ating sariling mundo, kung ang pineperpekto natin ay ang ating FB profile, sino ang maiiwan sa maduming mundo para ituwid ang mali?

Paano magsisimula? Ituon ang paningin natin mula sa mga lcd screen tungo sa ating paligid. Aktibong alamin ang nangyayari sa ating komunidad. Walang dahilan para maging ignorante ngayon. Lahat pwedeng i-google. Makialam sa mga usaping bayan. Kausapin ang mga opisyal. Umakisyon.

Lahat ng pagbabago nagsisimula sa pagtatanong. Lahat ng rebolusyon nagsisimula sa isang ideya. Paano maging changemaker sa panahon ngayon? Sabi ni Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Walang mas makapangyarihang ideya sa mundo maliban sa ideya ng pag-ibig. Pag-ibig sa bayan ang dahilan kung bakit nagbuwis ng buhay ang mga bayaning dinadakila natin. Noong Lunes ay Araw ng Kagitingan. Pag-ibig sa pamilya ang inspirasyon ng milyun-milyong OFW kung bakit natitiis nila ang maging malayo sa bansa. Pero pag-ibig din ang dahilan ng maraming kasawian, kalungkutan, at kasamaan sa mundo. Madalas napagkakamali kasi na pag-ibig din ang agresyon. Pero ang pag-ibig na tama, kahit labis, magbubunga ng mas maraming kasiyahan.

Turo ng simbahan, humayo kayo at magparami. Graduates, humayo kayo, magparami at maghasik ng karunungan at pagmamahal sa mundo.

I’m delighted and extremely honored to speak before the graduating class of 2012. Twenty years ago, I was also seated there, proud and happy that I’m about to get my elementary diploma. But I remember that I also felt sad because I will be leaving the campus which had been my second home for six years. (Hindi pa coed ang high school noon).

So what’s the difference between our graduation in 1992 and this year’s event? Well, for one thing we didn’t have an LCD projector, wala pang digital camera noon, at electric fan lang ang gamit sa auditorium. I’m certain that your grad photos will be instantly uploaded this evening in various social networks samantalang kami, iisa o dalawang kuha na lang ata ang natitira sa aming mga photo album.

But there are things which never change. Lahat naligo sa araw na ito (hopefully), bagong linis ang sapatos, bagong tahi ang mga gala uniform at barong, abot hanggang dito ang amoy ng inyong pabango, lahat excited umakyat ng entablado, lahat kakain ng masarap mamayang gabi. Mahaba ang programa pero mas mahaba ang picture taking mamaya. Why do we hold these rituals every year?

Because this a special day for everybody. But graduation isn’t just about the graduates. We organize this event every year so that we can dedicate it to the special persons in our life who sacrificed so much so that we can get a good education. Graduation should be renamed Thanksgiving Day; it’s the time to express our gratitude to our parents and teachers.

You must be very happy now since you will be high school students soon but your teachers and parents are happier. Today, your teachers will once again affirm the dignity of the teaching profession. Masaya sila hindi dahil aalis na ang mga pasaway at makukulit kundi dahil ang mga batang tinuruan nila nang buong pasensiya at tiyaga ay handa ng sumabak sa mas malalaking hamon ng pag-aaral. So graduates, clap your hands and honor your teachers.

Pero ang pinakamasaya sa araw na ito ay ang inyong mga magulang. Pag nagkaroon na kayo ng anak na nag-aaral, lubusan ninyo ng mauunawaan ang kanilang sakripisyo. Paano nila pinagsabay ang trabaho habang nag-aalaga ng bata, paano araw-araw ay may baon o pagkain kayong kinakain, paano araw-araw ay nakaplanstsa na ang inyong mga uniform sa umaga. In 1992, only my father attended my graduation because my mother was already working in another country. Your parents too sacrificed a lot so that you can have a good education. For their selfless love, and for choosing St Marys for your basic education, graduates clap your hands and honor your parents.

Graduates, be proud of your Marian education. There are two reasons why I will be eternally grateful to St Mary’s. First, I met my wife in St. Mary’s. No, she wasn’t my classmate, she’s a year younger than me. Ka-school bus ko siya. We met again in college. And second, I developed the passion for learning, the hunger to read, the curiosity about life in this campus.

The buzzword today is Information technology. Sabi nila we are living daw in the Information Age. I agree. But don’t equate IT with laptops, computers, and smartphones. What’s more important and necessary for you to survive, compete and excel is that you develop the basic and critical learning skills. Yang computer at cellphone bagay lang yan. After a few years pwede ninyo na bilhin yan ng mas mura.

Since technology is improving rapidly, we must be ready too in applying the new technology in our lives. How? Back to the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic. In today’s Information Age, it’s easy to learn how to open a laptop and surf the internet. But you must have the skills to filter relevant information from the trash. We should only consume information that matters. We should delete the spam and the unproductive software applications that waste our time and energy.

Don’t equate research with search. Don’t equate reading with the posting of status updates. Don’t equate writing with texting. So future high school students, go to the library not google and wikipedia. Read a novel or a short story, read the classics of literature – they broaden our horizon and imagination; and sabi nga ng DOT, reading is more fun than stalking your friends on Facebook. Write letters in the traditional way and don’t use texting or even jejemon language in your emails. Why? Because letter writing is a basic skill that you can use when you apply a job, when you request something from the government, and even when you compose a love letter.

Turn off the computer, TV, PSP, and cellphone from time to time. Play outside your home (with permission from your parents) with your offline friends. You can only acquire social skills if you’re interacting in the real world and not in the virtual world.

There is another aspect of Marian education which is not known by many people. I’m referring to the school’s commitment to train young individuals who understand the concept of service to man and service to community. Many people assume that I became active in public affairs because of my UP education. It’s correct. But I also credit the formative years I spent here in St. Mary’s which allowed me to easily recognize the value of public service and citizenship in my high school and college years. How can I ignore the influence of St. Mary’s when our founder, Mother Ignacia, is recognized by many historians, including our national artist Nick Joaquin, as one of the pioneers of the women’s movement in the country? The Beaterio, to quote Joaquin, “is the most enduring creation of native enterprise.”

Graduates, you will pursue different careers in the future. I wish you all the success in whatever vocation you will choose. But since I’m your speaker today, I will encourage you to be active in public affairs. Join politics, advocate good governance and be changemakers in our society. Marians, I want you to be like the plants fighting the zombies. Marians, I want you to be like the angry birds.

My dear graduates, the world will end in 2012 according to the Mayans but in your case, you will be facing a bigger new world in the next few months. I’m confident that St. Mary’s has trained you well. Treasure this gift of education. Be wise, be bold.

Again, thank you St. Mary’s for this opportunity to speak before the graduating class of 2012. Congratulations Bath 2012!

If there is more powerful achievement than education, it is imagination. You are college diploma holders and you are officially recognized by the community as educated individuals. But it doesn’t mean your mind is only reserved for strictly academic and technical matters. It’s equally important that we use our mental abilities to dream of new things and new ideas. Education has taught us how to open a laptop, write our thesis, and research our assignment on the web; but imagination allows us to rethink our way of doing things and forces us to create innovations. A generation ago, the idea that personal computers can be portable, keyboard-less, and wireless was unthinkable. Actually, most of the great and wonderful inventions that we enjoy today were once ridiculed as wild ideas.

In 1870 Bishop Milton Wright dismissed the idea that man will learn how to fly. He said: “The millennium is at hand. Man has invented everything that can be invented. He has done all he can do.” He added, “Don’t you know that flight is reserved for angels.” But what happened after that? His two children, Orville and Wilbur, made and flew the world’s first airplane. Lesson: Today’s laughable idea is the standard knowledge of tomorrow. So if you made a silly suggestion in class, it shouldn’t be outrightly dismissed. Your vindication will come in the future.

In 1943, Thomas Watson Jr. of IBM confidently asserted that “there is a world market for maybe five computers.” How many of you have computers here? Lesson: Don’t believe what experts are always telling us. Whether you’re a carpenter or a CEO, our knowledge and understanding of our world is always limited. What’s important is that we continue to improve our way of life.

Schools exist not simply because it aims to be the repository of human knowledge. They aren’t banks where we enroll so that information can be deposited in our heads. As training institutions, they provide us with necessary skills, attitudes, and know-how so that we can have productive and meaningful lives.

An educated person recognizes that he needs to learn more, acquire more wisdom, and experience more knowledge about life and the world of man. He’s humble enough to appreciate that every person, rich or poor, has something to contribute in the advance of human civilization.

The school’s mission is to equip us with the basic skills so that we can continue the search for truth and enlightenment even after the end of our formal schooling. Its aim is to produce a breed of young individuals who are curious and passionate about life and learning.

I admire college graduates who are academically proficient and ‘obese’ with too much information. But our world will reserve a special place in recognition of dreamers, innovators, and social revolutionaries whose out-of-this-world imaginations have fundamentally changed the way we live. Again, I emphasize the value of imagination.

While web surfing, I read this poetic description of the Empire State Building, one of the tallest and most famous buildings in the world:

“It was a thrilling experience to be whizzed in a “lift” a quarter of a mile heavenward, and to see New York spread out like a marvellous tapestry beneath us.

“There was the Hudson – more like the flash of a sword-blade than a noble river. The little island of Manhattan, set like a jewel in its nest of rainbow waters, stared up into my face, and the solar system circled about my head! Why, I thought, the sun and the stars are suburbs of New York, and I never knew it! I had a sort of wild desire to invest in a bit of real estate on one of the planets. All sense of depression and hard times vanished, I felt like being frivolous with the stars. But that was only for a moment. I am too static to feel quite natural in a Star View cottage on the Milky Way, which must be something of a merry-go-round even on quiet days.”

It was written by a blind person, Ms Helen Keller. Lesson: Don’t underestimate the power of imagination. If a blind person can write such beautiful words about the experience of seeing something majestic, what’s stopping us from experiencing the same thing? Sadly, instead of ‘seeing’, we are merely visually absorbing scenes in front of our computer screens these days.

One more thing, we succeed in life if we experience its wholeness and not if we accumulate some overrated material things.

My dear graduates, life is a constant struggle. You lose if you abandon your dreams and if you allow one setback to determine the future of your life. There’s truth to what philosopher and retired basketball superstar Michael Jordan said in one his TV ads: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games, 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” It doesn’t matter if you fail several times as long as you know how to stand up and learn how to fight back.

We are living in an instant world, a fastfood society. Instant noodles. Instant search results. Instant news. Instant communication. Many of us also expect to succeed instantly. We want to realize our dreams instantly. But life can’t be forced to give instant answers to our questions. We can’t change the world in two minutes. Even climate change required centuries of destructive human practices before it mutated into a terror phenomenon. If after a few years, you still haven’t achieved your life goals, don’t despair. Learn from the story of the Chinese bamboo tree.

“You take a little seed, plant it, water it, and fertilise it for a whole year, and nothing happens
The second year you water it and fertilise it, and nothing happens
The third year you water it and fertilise it, and nothing happens.
The fourth year you water it and fertilise it, and nothing happens.
The fifth year you continue to water and fertilise the seed and then sometime during the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree grows 90 feet in six weeks.”

My dear graduates: Patience. My dear graduates: Determination.

Besides, career-oriented successful persons are not always the happiest people in the world. Or if ever you pursue that road, I hope you will not reach the destination at the expense of other people. Don’t lose your humanity; don’t transform into cold calculating machines just for the single-minded pursuit of career success. The godfather in the Godfather II film was alone even after he successfully eliminated his enemies, including his own brother. The Facebook founder in the film Social Network was also alone at the top, desperately adding a former girlfriend in his network of friends, even after creating the most successful website in history and even if his net worth is already more than a billion dollars. You may be the most powerful person in the country today but tomorrow you might spend an extended vacation at the Veterans Memorial Hospital. It’s lonely up there in the throne and CEO seat especially if you’re unable to share your success with another person.

The gift of youth shouldn’t be wasted. What’s this gift that the youth inherently possess? It’s neither beauty nor vanity but time. Time is what we have which our elders have already lost and wanted to reclaim. But we also grow old if we throw away our ideas and ideals. We can remain young by being faithful to our chosen mission in life. We can be like Benjamin Button who rediscovered the power of youth in his aging years.

Our precious time shouldn’t be exclusively devoted to our personal enrichment. Our mortal life is only good for 70, 80, 90 years (if you’re lucky) and in the greater scheme of things, that’s a relatively brief period. So it’s wise that our time should be ‘wasted’ in the pursuit of noble dreams.

The youth have time, knowledge, and passion. But don’t confuse time with our happy hours. Don’t equate knowledge with wisdom. Don’t merge passion with aggression. Time is spent well if it serves the cause of humanity. Internet-knowledge becomes useful if it leads to the discovery of truth. If fueled by idealism, passion becomes a wonderful creation of love. Love that nourishes life.

The most intelligent students in the UP System are enrolled in UP Manila. I have three reasons for asserting this: First, UP’s Oblation scholars are studying here. Second, the top UPCAT passers are also based in the campus. And third, that’s what my wife has been telling me who is by the way a graduate of Development Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, UP Manila.

Congratulations in advance to the organizing committee for the successful 2012 National Conference on Behavioral Sciences. It’s an honor to be invited to keynote this gathering of students, teachers, and researchers in the field of Behavioral Sciences. I’m not from the academe but I was trained as an educator. I will address you today as a student of politics who views human behavior in relation to the social context.

The topics chosen in the panel presentations reflect the various disciplines that encompass your field. There are presentations about family, clinical health, same sex, work culture, and teaching dynamics. In particular, I’m interested to listen to the discussion about the party list system since I have my own views on this issue.

Maybe one of these days I’ll write a paper about the psychological capacity or incapacity of members of Congress. Or perhaps the profile of matriarchs and patriarchs of prominent and local political dynasties would be an interesting topic as well. After two terms in Congress, I’m somewhat an expert witness on these issues.

The conference is being held while the whole country is commemorating the 26th anniversary of the 1986 Edsa uprising. Maybe it’s relevant to survey the perceptions of post-Edsa babies about the People Power revolution. Or since Enrile is still alive, maybe you can also conduct a research about octogenarian politicians in a country dominated by young voters.

The conference venue is situated near political institutions which are locked in a bitter power struggle. Beside UP Manila is the Supreme Court where the Chief Justice holds office. He is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate which is located in nearby Pasay. Yesterday, former President Gloria Arroyo entered a not guilty plea in the Pasay RTC. As students of Behavioral Science, maybe you can look for interesting research angles to deepen our understanding of these political events. For example, an analytical and critical analysis of CJ Corona speeches; or a paper deconstructing the legal jargon in the impeachment trial and how it’s being interpreted by the masa; or a fashion piece about the different neck braces of Congresswoman Arroyo.

There are many articles of impeachment, oops, research topics, which you can highlight to probe the political, social, psychological, and cultural dimensions of the impeachment. We should not allow politicians and lawyers to dominate the debate. The impeachment is a political process that needs to be explained to all; and to focus exclusively on the legal aspects of the event limits the knowledge and wisdom that our people can derive from monitoring the trial. The challenge to Behavioral Science students is to popularize the theoretical tools you are using in the academe so that other social institutions like the media can be effective agents of enlightenment and not disinformation.

The point is that our privileged education should always serve the needs of the larger community. Our discussions shouldn’t be divorced from the real problems encountered by our subjects. We can’t speak in esoteric academic language all the time because the impact of our researches must be explained in clear and unambiguous terms to policymakers and the general public.

I think the other goal of the conference is to improve Behavioral Science education in the Philippines. But we can’t address this issue without mentioning the overall state of Philippine education. I won’t delve into the specifics of the problems besetting the country’s education system since I’m confident that we’re all familiar with these issues; but I’d like to highlight some points which directly affect Behavioral Sciences and the social sciences in general.

There are two policy reforms being readied by the government: K-12 and the Congress-initiated proposal to form another Education Commission to review and overhaul Philippine education.

K-12 will be pilot implemented this year while full implementation will take place in 3-4 years. Deped is currently initiating a curricular review. We learned that some Tesda subjects will be integrated in high school and advanced mathematics will be taught too. There has been a lot of criticism to the decision to remove science education in the first grade while the Catholic Church continues to oppose the introduction of Reproductive Health topics in schools. Meanwhile, consumer education will remind students not to buy pirated goods and they will learn how to play the Stock Market. It’s good that computer education, human rights education, and climate change awareness are already included in the basic curriculum package.

Curriculum design is the most politically important aspect of public education but the people are often not democratically consulted on this matter. Technocrats and bureaucrats always decide which subjects should be taught inside schools. Therefore, the Behavioral Sciences camp must make representation to advocate the inclusion of Behavioral Science concepts in the general education curriculum. You must be part of the curriculum review team so that the obsessive desire to excel in science and mathematics can be balanced by the equally important goal of producing young graduates who have strong backgrounds in history, culture, and social sciences.

I don’t subscribe to the narrow viewpoint that the task of education is merely job preparation. It should be more than that. The role of schools and teachers is still to educate a new breed of ‘total’ persons, critical thinking persons, who can contribute to the advance of civilization. Social sciences, including behavioral sciences, are essential components in the holistic development of a person.

More than the K-12 program, I’m looking forward to the proposed Edcom2 which would give us opportunity to review the orientation of Philippine education. The market-driven character of the country’s higher education is a major weakness which should be rectified. We are actually supplying the manpower needs of other nations and big foreign corporations which are based here instead of addressing the specific requirements of the local economy. Our education, designed by the Americans and their little brown brothers in the academe, caters to the needs of other countries which prevents it from being a significant factor in jumpstarting an innovative economy.

Global competitiveness is worshipped as if it’s the end goal of human civilization. The collateral damage in this myopic drive to numeric excellence is the human, social, and behavioral sciences which have to fight literally for survival in the academe. Profit, output, job matching, industry requirement – the social sciences must adhere to these new indicators of relevance in order to remain in the university. The rise of corporate values in the academe should not distract the social sciences from tackling issues that concern the welfare of the ordinary citizens, including topics that challenge the supremacy of corporate and elitist thinking in our opinion-making institutions.

I hope the conference will also lead to the critical evaluation of our scholarship practices and research methodologies. While objectivity is the standard, it shouldn’t lead to the presentation of a research subject in isolation to the larger social environment. Our empirical researches should be linked to broader studies about the political and social structures of society. I raised this point because sometimes our extreme fascination with our subject, in particular our obsession to document, analyze, and categorize the poor, the queer, and the marginalized may prevent us from relating their experiences to the other social forces which are crucial in determining the roots of the issues we are studying.

For example, the problem with the official reports on poverty which legislators and the Executive use in the drafting of programs is that they don’t tackle the principal role of neoliberalism, the dominant dogma in the Western world today, in explaining the continuing backwardness of the Philippines. Unfortunately, there are poverty studies that reproduce the ideological categories that sustain the discrimination and further marginalization of the poor. They view the poor as passive victims who merely require charity from the non-poor and token assistance interventions from government agencies. But the poor as an organized bloc struggling for bold reforms in governance? They are often treated as a national security concern.

The theme of the conference, “Promoting the Behavioral Sciences: Synergy in Action”, essentially captures the appropriate framework in pursuing our academic work. Not all theoretical studies have practical value but they must be relevant and integrated to the everyday lives of the people in our community. The academe must not insulate itself from the real world; it must aim to change the world.

The keywords of my presentation are youth, good governance, and sustainable human development. The thesis is easy to formulate: The youth have a significant role to perform in promoting good governance in the country to achieve sustainable human development. But how do we concretely realize this mission? How do we effectively tap the youth’s vast potential to bring reforms in our country? Let’s discuss the keywords first.

Youth

The Philippines has a very young population; the youth sector comprises about one-third of the population. If we will include children, almost half of the country can be considered young. How young is this generation? Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was already 73 years old when our teenagers today were born in 1997.

A big youth population is good for the economy since we can benefit from the talent, skills, energy, and idealism of young people. In short, young people are our human resources, our human capital. But certain conditions exist in order to maximize the potential of the youth. First, young people must be given adequate education and training. Second, their other basic rights are fulfilled like health, leisure time, and participation in societal affairs. Third, they must have access to decent jobs and opportunities for career growth. And fourth, they must be encouraged and given the freedom to lead in various organizations and institutions. I must add that the right of young people to dissent, to criticize, must be respected. Recently, the UN declared internet access as a human right. Are your human rights being violated?

What are the characteristics of today’s generation? Many of you can be called ‘Arroyo Babies.’ You grew up in the decade dominated by this politician, former President now Congresswoman, and Veteran Hospital’s most famous patient, Gloria Arroyo. You are also called ‘Digital Natives’ since IT almost became mainstream during your formative years. My generation sang ‘Ibon man may layang lumipad’ in Edsa while you on the other hand are playing with the angry birds.

To leave the country as OFWs is still the popular option of many young Filipinos. The BPO sector, meanwhile, continues to attract more young workers. Contractualization is accepted as a standard business practice instead of viewing it as an affront on human dignity. There are two career choices which seem to be anathema to young people: one is to work in the farms (students prefer Farmville over real rice fields) and second is either to be a politician or to be active in politics.

Good Governance

I can understand why many young people turn their backs on politics. Who would want to be associated with trapos, warlords, and other dark characters of Philippine politics? But if we will abandon politics, the government will be dominated forever by political dynasties. And why should we reduce political participation into electoral politics? We can still take an active role in politics without necessarily becoming politicians.

Good governance these days is defined by identifying the negative behavior of political leaders. It’s often invoked to battle corruption, abuse of power, and inefficient delivery of services. During my student days, Marcos was the supreme evil symbol for bad governance. Then Estrada came in 1998 and while he was no Marcos, he was ousted from power in our pursuit of good governance. Today, it’s clear that Arroyo is the preferred target of our righteous indignation. The Corona impeachment must be viewed as part of the demand to make Arroyo accountable for her many sins against the people.

Good governance is often discussed separately from people power which I think is wrong. The first term usually refers to the behavior of public officials while the latter is invoked during great political moments. But good governance and people power are directly related. We can successfully achieve good governance through people power. Politicians must not be given the exclusive right to enforce good governance since they can distort or dilute its substantial meaning. Magiging business transaction, accommodation, wheeling-dealing, horse-trading ang mangyayari kapag sila lang ang lalaban. We, the people, the boss, must reclaim our leadership in this battle.

On the other hand, the failure or refusal to empower the grassroots, the rejection of people power politics, must be condemned as a violation of the principles of good governance. How can you preach good governance while depriving the people of their right to take a greater role in the country’s political affairs?

Transparency is the buzzword today and it’s often cited as an effective approach to promote good governance. Thus the campaign for the swift passage of a Freedom of Information law. Young people are also being asked to join the transparency bandwagon by reminding them to engage our leaders and agencies through the aggressive use of social media networks. It’s convenient because the tools are already available, internet use is on the rise, and virtual collectives can be organized in support of a campaign (think of #itsmorefuninthephilippines).

Last year, netizens demonstrated how public officials can be humiliated if they are less honest about their work. DPWH officials learned it through the photoshopped way. But there are other tools we can develop to expose bad governance like maps, videos, and the ubiquitous use of twitter hashtags.

The transparency campaign must be sustained and it must be pursued even if the FOI bill becomes a law. Why? Because we have numerous anti-corruption programs and laws yet we still have one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. Corruption is the best Public-Private Partnership showcase in the country.

From Quirino’s Integrity Board, Magsaysay’s Presidential Complaints and Action Committee, Garcia’s Presidential Committee on Administrative Performance Efficiency, Macapagal’s Presidential Anti-Graft Committee, Marcos’ Complaints and Investigation Office, Aquino’s Presidential Commission on Good Government, Ramos’ Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption, Estrada’s Inter-agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council to Arroyo’s Presidential Anti-Graft Commission – we don’t have a shortage of anti-corruption initiatives in the past half-century. Should I mention too the anti-corruption laws that are still in effect today?

So yes, pass the FOI bill. Release the SALN of Corona and other officials. But let’s not stop with that. Good governance requires that we must be vigilant and aggressive in demanding the implementation of our laws and programs. When was the last time you wrote to your public officials?

‘It’s the economy, student’

Aquino said ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.’ It’s simplistic but it made him a winner in the polls. It’s a catchy and impressive slogan but it doesn’t mean we have to believe it. Last week, Arroyo the professor published an essay entitled ‘It’s the economy, student’ to criticize the weak leadership of his successor. In the essay, Arroyo ridiculed Aquino’s anti-corruption slogan: “It is in poverty that we find the material roots of the problem of corruption – because the political system based on patronage–and ultimately, corruption to support patronage–is made possible only by the large gap between the rich and the poor. This will persist until and unless we enlarge the economic pie.”

Arroyo made some valid points in the essay especially about the need to expand the economy. Unfortunately, she should be the last person to lecture us about inclusive economic growth. Yes, GDP numbers improved during her watch but it didn’t lead to equitable growth. The rich became richer while the poor became poorer despite losing their kidneys.

If Aquino doesn’t want the ‘boss’ to be busabos, he must reverse the policies of his predecessor. Unfortunately, he is even expanding the bad legacies of Arroyo like the misnamed conditional cash transfer, foreign debt accumulation, and labor export.

Indeed, the economic fundamentals seemed sound during the time of Arroyo but quality of life deteriorated in the country. Lesson: economic numbers are rendered meaningless by the continuing poverty in the country. But this is no longer a new conclusion. In fact, the Philippines is supportive of innovative international campaigns to combat poverty like the Millennium Development Goals 2015. There is already consensus that the broad human development framework must be adopted if we want our people to escape the inter-generational poverty curse.

So why are we still poor despite the recent tweaking of poverty statistics by our so-called poverty experts? Again, the answer is no longer a mystery since we already knew that the problem is structural. Poverty persists because the system is designed to benefit the privileged few.

This is precisely the reason why the rise of global ‘occupy’ movements in 2011 was welcomed as an inspiring development for those who dream of a better world. The ‘occupy’ protests questioned the system sustained by greed and obscene hoarding of wealth by a cabal of corporations and evil geniuses on one hand, and the pauperized conditions of workers on the other. The ‘occupy’ message is applicable in the Philippines and it should replace the condescending attitude of blaming the ‘lazy poor’ for their destitute conditions.

End of the (old) world

The answer to bad governance is people power. The alternative to poverty is human development. The youth who will inherit this society must decisively act now if they want a more prosperous and peaceful future. Most likely the world will not end in 2012 but for the majority who are excluded from enjoying the wealth of nations, life is nearly synonymous with death.

We need young people who will fight the old system of exploitation, oppression, and injustice. Fortunately, we have the militant example of young people who made a big impact in our history. Our republic was founded by young visionaries like Rizal, Bonifacio, Aguinaldo, and Jacinto; young revolutionaries fought the Spanish, American, and Japanese colonizers; our modern martyrs were students and young workers who defied Martial Law. We ousted Marcos and Estrada. We rejected the US Bases Treaty in 1991.

The promise of the new government is daang matuwid. Our task is to ensure that this new road will be open for all and not only for hacenderos and Porsche owners. Change should not be dictated to us; we should put forward our agenda of genuine change. Otherwise, we will only witness some cosmetic changes in the country.

It’s not enough that we merely absorb and accept the daily dose of information offered to us by mainstream media. Empowering the people requires that they are armed with correct information and a comprehensive understanding of our societal problems. We are in a unique position to perform the task of spreading and sharing relevant information to our various social networks. For example, we should aim to explain the relationship of good governance and sustainable human development, environment protection, and people empowerment. Yes, illegal logging is to blame for the floods in north Mindanao. But what about legal logging, legal mining, and other destructive practices sanctioned by the state?

I recognize that many of you are afraid, reluctant, and even doubt the power of young people participating in advocacy movements. We were told that joining or even supporting causes is dangerous, ineffective, and obsolete. But if we will examine our recent history, some of the most dramatic political episodes which made a huge impact in the country were direct actions and struggles of our people. Besides, do we want to inhabit a world where political engagement is limited to adding causes on Facebook, signing online petitions, and organizing virtual rallies? I can assure you that Filipino politicians are not afraid of online activism because 1) they don’t read; 2) they don’t manage their social media accounts; 3) you don’t vote in their districts and cities. But let’s replicate the outstanding practice of Arab Spring activists who have effectively combined online and offline activism to express their democratic demands.

While researching on employment issues, I stumbled upon an article written by a young American who defends the idea of working as a community organizer. He recalls this conversation he had with his mother. His mother asked him this: “You’re a bright young man. You went to college, didn’t you? I just cannot understand why a bright young man like you would go to college, get that degree and become a community organizer.”

His mother added: “’Cause the pay is low, the hours is long, and don’t nobody appreciate you.”

What was the reply of the son? He said: “It needs to be done, and not enough folks are doing it.”

Who is this young graduate who decided to become a community organizer right after college? His name is Barack Obama and he is now the president of the United States.

American poet Samuel Ullman explained how people grow old. “Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.”

My fellow youth, stay young, dream big for our nation, be brave and fight the oppressors. We are young and we should dedicate the best years of our life in the service of the poor. We should be like the angry birds. We should be like the plants fighting the zombies. Tanong sa isang commercial: Para saan ka bumabangon?

When I (first) arrived here (in 2008), people were talking only about two things: Obama and the recession. Obama promised change and the voters believed him. His victory was seen as something that would usher in a new political era. But the political euphoria immediately died down when the inconvenient truths of the economy were finally revealed. It soon became apparent that the minimum wage earners will be the most vulnerable sector if the recession worsens. Indeed, workers lost their homes while banks received bail-out funds, thousands were laid-off from work while bank executives were given fat bonuses. The American Dream became a nightmare for those who are barely surviving from paycheck to paycheck.

This was America in 2008. Three years later, it seems the situation has changed for the worse. Obama is still Obama, promising here and there about hope and change. Wall Street is still Wall Street, accumulating more fictitious wealth for the corporate shareholders at the expense of the working classes which produce the real wealth of society. Bank executives are allowed to ruin the economy through their black magic (popularly known as speculative investments) and their irresponsible behavior is ignored by the government. They hoard the money during good times but they require everybody in society to make a lot of sacrifice to help solve the financial mess they created.

During the Cold War, it was believed that if the US sneezes, the world gets a cold. It’s still true today: the virus of the US financial crisis has spread to many parts of the world.

But if there is something to cheer today, it’s the rising and visible resistance of the masses in the virtual and offline worlds. The people’s struggles are intensifying. The birds are even angry, the plants are fighting the zombies, and the fighting collectives are multiplying.

What is the role of Filipino migrants in this global counterstrike against the exploitative financial and economic system whose controlling apparatus is located here in the US?

You perform a very special and significant task. Special because you echo the devastating impact of neoliberal globalization in the Third World. Your militant presence, your voices, your status updates, your organizing in the grassroots can unmask the evil economic order. Significant because as you struggle for better protection for migrants you are also strengthening the people’s capacity to defeat the empire. You are slaying the dragon inside its lair.

It’s inevitable that your actions are both local and global; and you must realize that their impact is also felt locally and globally. I admire the inventiveness of the migrant’s movement because you are able to articulate your demands in a foreign land without losing your symbolic and organic ties with the homeland. I salute NAFCON for affirming the link between the immigrant rights movement in the US and the struggle of the Filipino people in the Philippines for genuine democracy, freedom, peace and justice. This admirable political standpoint must inspire Filipinos in the US to act decisively against economic inequality, corporate greed, racism, and political repression; and this should bring them closer to the revolution which is raging in the Philippines as they become part of the global people’s movement for genuine change.

Or in other words, Filipinos must realize that shouting and marching for immigrant rights in the US will also contribute to the victory of the people’s movement in the Philippines. As you militantly assert your political demands here, the unjust domination of a corrupt and highly abusive political-economic system in the Philippines is weakened too. You can’t present a genuine alternative to the public without disturbing the hegemony of the empire here in the belly of the beast and in the peripheries of the kingdom. If you punch, a tyrant somewhere in the Philippines will receive the blow. So punch hard like Pacquiao.

But NAFCON and its member organizations are relevant not only because of your interventions in behalf of all Filipino migrants but also because you are determined to address the roots of the problems confronting the community. You are correct to highlight the feudal backwardness of the Philippines and the despotic rule of oligarchs in the archipelago as the culprit for the forced migration of Filipinos to distant shores. It’s essential to pinpoint the criminal responsibility of politicians, past and present, in maintaining a system that draws its sustenance from the sweat, blood, and labor of migrant Filipinos.

What kind of government allows its own people to be exported to other countries and expects the continued inflow of remittances to keep the economy afloat? What do we call a policy that shamelessly sells the labor power and dignity of Filipinos to the altar of the global market? How can we accept the argument that the damaging impact of migration like separated families, the exodus of skilled professionals, the exploitation of cheap Filipino labor, the silent agony of discriminated Filipinos who experience various humiliating forms of racism – can we endure and ignore this suffering just because the OFW remittances constitute the black gold of the Philippine economy?

Only a leadership with a shortage of imagination could proclaim that no alternative is available to this social set-up; that we have to continue exporting our own people; and that we still need to experience more pain and anguish for a longer time. If this is the way our government thinks, then we have no choice but to do the only honorable and right thing and that is to export all our politicians to other countries. Or to Mars if no one will accept them.

I have some bad news to share and also some good news as pasalubong from Pinas.

The bad news is that the present supremo of the Philippine Islands is no torch bearer of genuine change so the situation in the country is bound to worsen. Why do we say that? Because 1) President Noynoy Aquino, the son of two democracy icons, the country’s most illustrious bachelor, the brother of Kris, the former owner of a second-hand Porsche, the hacendero president is surrounded by advisers who faithfully cling to the neoliberal dogma; 2) After more than a year in office, his single concrete achievement as president is the elimination of wang wang in the streets but the more insidious forms of wang wang mentality like the refusal of landlords to distribute their lands to small farmers are tolerated; 3) There is no review of anti-people policies implemented by previous governments like the reduction of state subsidies to social services, unabated profiteering of oil companies, and active promotion of labor export.

The Daang Matuwid is now operational but it’s only for Porsche cars, the president’s friends and kamag-anak. And if you are lucky, you can pass but you must pay high toll fees, VAT included.

What should migrants do? As the boss of Pnoy, demand reforms, assert your migrants’ agenda. Remind him that decent jobs will not be created if he continues to subscribe to a discredited economic thinking. Make him understand too that progress shouldn’t be equated with abstract numbers like GDP, foreign investments, and rising profits of big corporations. We are more concerned about the quality of living in society like the social opportunities for the poor, relevant education, accessible health care, peace in the community, delivery of social justice, solidarity, bayanihan in society. These are the things that truly matter.

Most of all, migrants should show to Pnoy and to other ruling oligarchs that you are prepared to exert the full potential of your power, and I do not only mean your purchasing power, but the power to change the world, the power to refashion a new social order.

2011 is an important year for the people’s movement. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Edsa Dos Uprising, the 20th year of the historic Senate vote that rejected the US Bases Treaty, the 25th year of the EDSA People Power, the 40th year of the Diliman Commune. The year started with the Arab Spring uprisings; then the Occupy Wall Street protest inspired several ‘Occupy’ actions. In the Philippines, farmers and workers conducted an ‘Occupy Mendiola’ protest a few days ago. They said they are the 75 percent of the population who are urging the other 24 percent to join the struggle in resisting the oppressive rule of the 1 percent.

But after we ‘Occupy’, we must organize. Otherwise, the repressive state will attempt to seize control of the spaces we liberated. The protesters in Wall Street and other ‘Occupy’ sites need to regroup, expand, and organize the people, the masses who are preoccupied with something else.

I said earlier that I have some good news as pasalubong. I’m happy to announce that the people’s movement in the Philippines is getting stronger and bolder. The parliament of the streets has been successful in presenting the people’s agenda; and it has been consistent in unmasking the bankrupt and reactionary programs of the Aquino government. Meanwhile, the mass movement in the countryside for genuine agrarian reform and the protection of our finite natural resources continues to frighten the enemies of the people. Day by day, inch by inch, zone by zone, victory is getting nearer.

This is my pasalubong. What about your pabaon to me? Well, I can report back to our kasamas in the Philippines that the Filipino community in the US, led by NAFCON and other allied organizations, is ready to enter into a new era of resurgent struggles. The community is prepared to boost the full potential of the mass movement in advancing the rights of migrants, the workers, the poor, in solidarity with all those who are struggling for a better world, a new future.

Once again, I salute the NAFCON for leading the noble fight of Filipinos in the US. Laban mga kasama! Tuluy-tuloy sa pakikibaka! Mabuhay ang migranteng Pilipino!

I salute all our teachers this morning (special mention to my elementary math teacher and philosophy teacher in college who are both here). Thank you for the gift of knowledge. Congratulations to the organizers of the conference, our participants, our speakers, all of us who are gathered today as we affirm our commitment to share the power of learning and dignity of teaching in the world.

I’m often introduced as a blogger, activist, and legislator. But before that, I was an educator. To teach was my original dream in college. Mr Fermin, the Principal of Miriam High School and one of the core initiators of the conference can attest to that since he was my blockmate and seatmate in college. Through this conference, my desire to be a teacher was rekindled. So thank you Miriam College.

Today, the world mourns the death of Steve Jobs. We pay tribute to a man who gave us Apple, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Most of all, we are thankful for all the revolutionary ideas and dreams that he had shared with us. Jobs was a school drop out. So is Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Joseph Estrada of San Juan. Except for the last person I mentioned, these individuals are hailed by almost everybody in the world for inventing things and ideas that change the way we live and work.

So should we all drop out from schools? Of course not. But the story of Jobs and other superstar drop outs should force us to re-examine the schooling process. Schools will never lose their relevance but the learning process can either improve or deteriorate depending on our efforts to make it work. Then and now, we try to answer these questions: Do students always learn better through formal schooling? How do we harness and integrate formal and informal learning? How do we make education responsive to the needs of individuals, families, and our communities?

Teachers play a big role in motivating students to experiment with ideas and to believe in their abilities. They make it easy for us to accept, understand, and even change the present conditions of the world. But if students stumble along the way, teachers are often the first to be blamed by arrogant bureaucrats, clueless commentators, and shallow scholars. If students get low grades in national examinations, teachers are criticized for failing to educate the youth.

When Soviet Russia launched the Sputnik satellite into space in the 1950s, policymakers blamed the U.S. education system for causing the United States to lose to Russia in the bid to conquer space. No less a statesman than former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote then: “Educators, parents and students must be continuously stirred up by the defects in our educational system. They must be induced to abandon the educational path that, rather blindly, they have been following as a result of John Dewey’s teachings.”

Dewey was the foremost American educator and philosopher during the first half of the 20th century. He criticized the methods of teaching in schools and successfully required the inclusion of play, vocational studies, work and leisure in the curriculum. His works became a bible for educators disillusioned with the ravages of industrial ideology over education. Experiments in pedagogies concerned with encouraging the experience of the learner as a first step in learning became widespread.

Of course Eisenhower was wrong to blame Dewey. But the president and military strategists found a convenient scapegoat for America’s failure to send the fist satellite into orbit. The U.S. government used Sputnik to justify widespread reforms in the education sector. Sputnik suddenly created a high demand for scientists, engineers and technology experts. The United States started producing thousands of PhD academicians in weeks.

The obsession to beat the Russians forced U.S. schools to abandon the educational reforms proposed by Dewey and other radical philosophers. A decade later, students from major U.S. universities criticized the undemocratic character of American schools. On the other hand, many insist that the focus given by the government and academe on science, technology and math after the launching of Sputnik has allowed the public to own and enjoy their laptops, cell phones and the Internet today.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama said that he hopes for another ‘Sputnik moment’ that would spur American education. He clearly saw the direct link of education in revitalizing industries that will not only create jobs and livelihood but also contribute to the economy’s competitiveness.

But the view that education should faithfully sustain the imperatives of the corporate economy is not universally embraced. Radical educators of the 1960s like Jonathan Kozol, Paul Goodman, and Ivan Ilich criticized the dehumanizing set-up in our schools. Instead of enriching humanity, schools are systematically redirecting the creativity and passion of the youth to strictly conformist and conventional directions.

Paulo Freire, author of the book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, emphasized the value of dialogue, reflection, and action in schools to help the oppressed articulate their oppression, break the culture of passivity, and begin to understand social reality and how to change their present condition. In order not to be tools of oppression in a very exploitative society, teachers should consciously adopt a democratic teaching method that respects the ‘cultural capital’ of the learner.

Resistance Theorists like Henry Giroux, Peter Mclaren, and Michael Apple warned against the creeping invasion of conservative and corporate ethos in the formal schooling system. Under the guise of promoting efficiency, schools are transformed into mass-production assembly units producing graduates who possess skills and the right attitude required by the corporate and global economy.

There was a time when schools trained students to become responsible citizens. Today, schools mold students to be competitive in the job market. But education should be more than just job preparation. The liberating power of education shouldn’t be misused to convert students into mere consumers who are interested on how to increase their purchasing power instead of their real power to change the world.

In the 1990s, school reforms were justified to promote globalization. While I support the globalization of research, the healthy exchange of academic discourse, the improvement of communications and distance learning, I’m against the globalization of education-for-profit which translated into reduced state subsidies for schools, anomalous partnerships with big business, and attack on the democratic rights of teachers and students.

As schools scrambled and competed for dwindling public funds, they instituted reforms that conform to the narrow standards of business efficiency like non-unionized teaching workforce, market-driven academic programs, and depoliticized student body. In short, what deteriorated in the past decade was not merely the quality of education but also the fighting capacity, the democratic potential, of our schools.

And maybe we didn’t notice the transformation because we got distracted with the ubiquitous emergence of Information Technology. We immediately recognized its varied pedagogic applications. Somehow, we expected it to be a solution to some of our problems like rural-urban education gap, shortage of resource materials, and inequality in schools.

Indeed, it initially made teaching a little bit easier. Communication is now faster, news and information are instantly available, and teachers can share experiences through virtual means. Classroom teaching can be more fun if IT is effectively utilized. So many web and mobile applications, including interactive teaching modules, can still be developed to address the needs of the academe. IT is still in its infancy and schools should continue to embrace the wonderful opportunities offered by this technology.

But IT also created new problems for teachers. For example, the digital gap has contributed to inequality in society. But the biggest challenge is how to properly motivate the new generation of students, the digital natives, whose worldview, attitude, and behavior were already shaped by the rise of IT in society.

Thanks to the internet, many students today are obsessive fact-checkers who expect instant results for the little effort they exerted. They equate googling with research while Wikipedia is seen as a reliable online library. There are students who do not even rephrase what they copied from websites. Thanks to texting, online chat and microblogging, many students are incapable of expressing beyond 140 characters. Reading is reduced to monitoring the status updates of their Facebook friends. Multitasking means opening several tabs on the internet browser. Good citizenship is accomplished by signing online petitions or supporting advocacy pages.

IT didn’t render teachers obsolete. On the contrary, we need more teachers who will guide students on how to maximize the learning potential of IT. It isn’t the capacity to absorb information that counts but the skill to filter the relevant data from trash or spam. Students must learn how to effectively organize, interpret, and use the data he receives from the web. IT is useless if students don’t have the basic communication skills. IT is just empty entertainment if not linked to other meaningful and offline activities of students. Teachers will continue to be relevant despite the laughable prediction that robots will replace teachers in the classroom. Didn’t they predict the same thing when TV was invented?

The internet can make a person a walking encyclopedia but not necessarily an enlightened or educated individual. One can be obese with excessive data intake but it doesn’t instantly make him a better person. The role of schools and teachers is still to educate a new breed of ‘total’ persons, critical thinking persons, who can contribute to the advance of civilization.

But enhancing the skills of students is only one of the duties of our educators. Part of their mission should be to cultivate individuals with a strong sense of social responsibility. Students must see themselves not as individuals competing against each other but as members of the same community. The spirit of solidarity must be promoted in schools so that students will be inspired to stand up for the rights of the weak and minority. It’s a necessary antidote to the dominant thinking which reinforces individualism and unhealthy competition.

Teachers are political creatures and schools are political institutions. Teachers must realize that they can’t completely hide their own biases inside the classrooms. Instead of denying it, they must admit in the open their political standpoint. They must be encouraged to participate in the social struggles of the day. Why? Because political solutions are needed to fix education problems because the organization and distribution of knowledge in a society has always been a political question. And teachers are most credible in articulating the essential issues that confront the schooling system.

At the minimum, schools must be cultural sites where there is “contestation and struggle for meaning,” where student resistance is positively analyzed, where conflict is theorized as a step in completing the project of democracy. But it shouldn’t stop there. Schools are not autonomous sites that operate in an uncorrupted social universe. They mirror the imperfections of the community. They reproduce the values, habits, and know-how that are required for the survival of our social institutions. Therefore, we cannot sincerely advocate a better education system without yearning and fighting for a better social set-up. If we really desire good schools, we should build a more progressive society. Therefore, the democratization movement inside schools should not be divorced from the struggles of various social forces. If we refuse to recognize the political character of education issues or the relationship of the struggle for meaningful schooling with the broader socio-political process, all conflicts inside schools would remain parochial concerns with no power to alter the educational landscape. De-politicized school conflicts pit teachers, students, and administrators against one another while the real enemies of the people are unscathed. Political school struggles should involve everybody in the campus against the unequal social order and those who defend and control it.

Teachers as ‘organic intellectuals’ who recognize the humanistic value of the teaching process, the political impact of their work inside schools, and the imperative to speak, organize and act for genuine social change.

Che Guevarra said that “a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” Teachers teach because they believe that it’s a noble thing to do. They teach because they are dedicated to the idea of sharing the power of life and love. They teach because they continue to believe in humanity and progress. Teachers are therefore among the genuine revolutionaries of society.

Mr Speaker I rise to defend the right of our youth to participate in political activities. Last Saturday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte urged the students to focus on their studies instead of participating in rallies. The remark was issued a day after the successful staging of a nationwide strike of students, teachers, school officials and members of concerned sectors who forged a strong unity to defend of our State Universities and Colleges (SUCs). The strike was organized for three reasons: 1) To protest the budget cuts and insufficient funding for our state schools; 2) To demand the realignment of the budget bill so that more funds can be used for the expansion and improvement of public higher education; 3) To urge the Aquino government to review its higher education policy.

Instead of belittling last Friday’s protest action, Malacanang should properly address the demands presented by the students. Instead of discouraging the youth to actively engage our political leaders, Malacanang should welcome the participation of young people in politics.

Ms Valte and other Malacanang propagandists should not underestimate the students who joined the strike. They might be surprised to discover that the strikers are among the most committed scholars of our schools. The students must be commended for finding time and sacrificing so that they can link arms with other iskolars ng bayan in collectively asserting their legitimate demands to the government. They skipped classes not because they are abandoning schooling but because they wanted better education. They marched on the streets not because they are school delinquents but because they wanted to remind the government that its policies on education and funding priorities are forcing many young people to drop out from schools. It is precisely out of supreme dedication to learning that motivated the students to organize the strike.

Malacanang should know better that students are capable of performing well in schools while taking an active role in campus and even national politics. To speak and act decisively on various social and political issues are among the important duties of our young citizens. These are part of the youth’s learning development; these are essential components of citizen education in a democratic society.

Valte and the other propagandists seem to forget that from time to time, Malacanang itself is organizing public assemblies and even rallies where student participation is often made a school requirement. The President himself has been very consistent in his appeal for active youth participation in the public affairs. In a recent speech, the president even reminisced about his involvement in the student movement during the Martial Law years.

It is wrong for student activists to organize rallies but it becomes acceptable if approved by Malacanang? Public assemblies and rallies are not beneficial to society but they become an integral component of citizenship if endorsed by Malacanang? Our elders did the right thing when they marched on the streets in their youth, but students today are irresponsible if they skip classes to attend protest actions?

Encouraging the youth to study better isn’t wrong. What is unacceptable is the refusal to recognize that the youth become better educated if they are also immersed in the social and political affairs of the country. We need more student strikers, not less.

Malacanang shouldn’t limit the capacity of young people to perform great political actions. It shouldn’t reduce youth political engagement into wearing of yellow ribbons and posting comments on the President’s social network pages. Young people today, like the earlier generations, are willing and capable of creating history.

Last week’s strike was something we should have anticipated. We cannot reduce the funds for social services without provoking the anger of our citizens. We cannot impose budget cuts and allocate insufficient funds for social services without generating public unrest.

Mr Speaker, distinguished colleagues, we live in dire times. Domestically and globally, budget cuts, price hikes, continuous rights violations and social strife continue to inspire countless young people to rely on the collective wisdom and power of the oppressed to build a better and more humane, progressive society.

Youths all over the world are up in arms. Youth and student riots in London, Chile, Spain, Madagascar, Columbia, Germany, Malaysia and elsewhere in the world are testament to how volatile the present global economic crisis is. Youths 17-25 years old are jobless, students are protesting against budget cuts and tuition and price increases. The whole world is in debt.

The Philippines is not an exception. Our conditions are not different, if worse, from other countries. And as in other countries, the youth and student movement is undeniably a moving force in the fight for substantial social reforms.

Indeed, the string of massive student protests that erupted during the past few months were only a logical response to the aggravating crisis brought about by the disarray in the current global economic order. Economies that once seemed unscathed are now experiencing economic recessions. In order to curb their impending decline, countries intensify their privatization, deregulation and liberalization schemes—the three essential components of the current dominant economic framework notoriously known as neoliberalism.

Malamang ay nagtataka rin kayo: Di hamak na mas mahirap na bansa ang Pilipinas kaysa mga bansang nabanggit ko, pero bakit hindi pa nagra-riot ang mga kabataan dito?

Mr Speaker, distinguished colleagues, we have our youth and student movement to thank for. Kailangang maunawaan ng marami na mapagpasya pa rin ang organisasyon ng mga kabataang aktibista sa paghikayat na magkaroon ng pagkakaisa sa ating bansa. Kung ano ang mayroon tayo at wala ang iba – ito ang buong kilusang kabataan at estudyante na naninindigang hindi riots at hindi anarkiya ang sasagot sa krisis. Sa kabila ng lahat, namamayani ang disiplina at matibay na organisadong pagkilos ng ating mga kabataang aktibista. Sa ganitong diwa, dapat pa nga natin pasalamatan ang mga organisasyong tulad ng League of Filipino Students (LFS) at iba pang mga makabayang organisasyon ng kabataan na nakikibaka para sa mas magandang bukas para sa ating bayan. Kung kaya’t ang pahayag kamakailan ng Pangulo kung saan hinambing niya ang Executive Committee ng LFS sa diktaturya ay hindi makatwiran at lalong hindi katanggap-tanggap.

The social policies of the Aquino administration, clear as clear can be, nourish the ground for critical dissent. What the Palace is telling our youth now is to be silent while their right to education and social services is continuously violated. Reports early today contain a statement from DBM Secretary Butch Abad saying that our youth should make do with insufficient funds for our public higher education. It is this kind of utter insensitivity of the Aquino administration that forces our youth and people to heighten the struggle for their basic rights.

More strikes, not less, will definitely rock the nation as the youth and people fight for their future.

1. The president, through the budget message, reported that in order to improve maternal health, and the well-being of infants, the government has allocated P5.1 billion for the implementation of the Health Facilities Enhancement Program. But what he failed to mention was that the funding was actually reduced from the current P7.1 billion to the proposed P5.1 billion. I hope that the reduction will not seriously affect the delivery of maternal and infant healthcare in the country.

2. In the 2010 budget, under Healthcare Assistance, the government allocated P36 million for ‘Subsidy to Indigent Patients for Confinement in Specialty Hospitals and for the use of specialized equipment.’ In 2011, the budget was reduced to P16 million; but at least there was a subsidy intended for indigents because the item was completely removed in the 2012 budget bill. I’m worried that this fund scrapping will deprive the indigent patients of health services that are unavailable in government hospitals. Is this the government’s latest poverty reduction measure? Eliminate the poor by denying them access to appropriate healthcare and service?

3. It’s unfortunate that the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses item of several hospitals was not increased. In fact, 5 of the 12 Metro Manila-based special hospitals, and 18 of the 54 local hospitals nationwide didn’t receive an increase in their MOOE allotment. Because of this limited MOOE budget, hospitals have implemented an increase in the rates of health services they are offering to our people. Also, mandatory discounts like senior citizens’ and government employees’ discounts remain unfunded thereby competing for limited MOOE allotment.

While we welcome the P94 million token increase in the MOOE of our specialty hospitals or Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation hospitals (Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, and Philippine Heart Center), it’s important to highlight that the hospitals have not regained the P970.6 million cut in their MOOE since 2010.

4. We learned too from the president’s budget message that the government has allotted P224 million to fund programs against HIV and other infectious diseases. I have two suggestions to the Department of Health with regard to this allocation: 1) Specify the amount to be used to address the particular diseases. How much from the P224 million will be used to combat HIV? How much for dengue? And how much for food and water borne diseases? 2) The DOH should also allot more funds to address HIV/AIDS. This is now a youth problem and I hope the government will realize the urgency of strengthening our health system to curb the rise of this dreaded disease.

5. At the proper time, this representation will be proposing amendments to the budget bill so that social service institutions like the DOH will receive more funds from the government. The UN prescription is that at the minimum, 5 percent of the country’s GDP is allotted to health service.

It’s quite disturbing that our health agency doesn’t receive the high fund support that it deserves to get from the government.

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