19th Commencement Exercises
BATUAN COLLEGES
Batuan, Bohol
Commencement Speaker:
Nestor M. Pestelos
Founder and President, Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF)
Theme : The Academe as Seat of Journey to Progress
Good afternoon to all of you. Thank you, Dr Consolacion Vinluan, BCI President, for inviting me to be with you on this important occasion which is both your commencement exercises and also a celebration of International Women’s Day.
I feel honored to be with you today on the 19th Commencement Exercises of your academic institution. It is fitting that you have chosen as theme “The Academe as Seat of Journey to Progress.” After nineteen years of existence as an academic institiution, Batuan Colleges has been in such journey to produce, as stated in your goals and objectives, the following:
• qualified teachers who serve as vital instruments in upgrading educational standards and
improving the quality of life;
• professionals for leadership posts in the public and private institutions in various fields of
endeavor adapted to the rapidly changing local, regional, national and international
environments;
• researchers who are willing to explore new world of knowledge and experience by discovering,
testing, and nurturing ideas and theories in the scientific and technological fields, and to share
new found knowledge and skills to enrich and preserve the natural resources and heritage;
• scholars who respond effectively to the ever-changing needs and conditions of the society by
applying new knowledge and innovations to solve problems with emphasis on local and/or
worldwide concerns;
• extension workers who design better cultural communities as reflected in extension programs
developed to respond to economic, cultural and ethnic circumstances;
• skilled workers who respond to the demands of domestic and international communities; and
• community leaders who encourage civic participation in the promotion of better quality of life.
All these goals and objectives are consistent with the three key functions of an academic institution which are instruction, research and extension. The journey to progress expressed in this year’s theme of your commencement exercises has to be seen in the context of these three key functions.
I see my task this afternoon as an effort to clarify what we mean by progress and how will your being graduates of Batuan Colleges, after having acquired skills in your chosen fields of education, elementary and secondary education, as well as technical and vocational education, can contribute to family and community welfare, as well as to rebuilding our country as a whole.
Let me start by saying that as graduates of Batuan Colleges, you are expected to better understand yourself, your mission in life and that you see such mission in terms of further improving your skills and expanding your vision to be of better service to your family, community and country.
This is to say that the journey to progress as stated in this year’s theme of your commencement exercises begins with yourself, that you have to think of yourself as belonging to a family, your local community and society as a whole. Whatever you intend to do after your graduation today, you have to think that you are part of a journey that involves not only yourself but also your family, your local community and your country.
To clarify what I mean, I have decided not to bore you with an academic lecture, but to tell you about specific lessons which are drawn from my own life. I will do this in the hope that this sharing can help you better understand your own self as part of this journey that your Alma Mater wants you to continue with the skills and values you have learned from your stay here in this academic institution.
By next month, I will turn 73 and the best gift I can give to myself is to feel that by sharing these lessons to you I can also be part of this journey towards progress that you and your Alma Mater are committed to take even after today’s commencement exercises.
These lessons I will share with you I have found useful in defining my path in each journey I have taken in this life:
First, learn to reflect each day on your experiences and see what can be done better in the way you have carried out the day’s activities and improve similar activities in the future.
Philosophers call this introspection, while religious people call it meditation.
It’s actually the act of going deeper into ourselves despite the possible noise around us to rediscover our inner self and find the humility to accept mistakes and, more importantly, the resolve to do better next time.
It’s also a moment to appreciate the things we have done right, to be grateful to gestures of thoughtfulness done to us by family members and others.
Introspection or meditation is in a way like a self-cleansing process so that we can start fresh with each new day given to us.
Lesson from experience
I had a difficult childhood and growing up period and the only way for me to cope with the bad situation was to meditate on my father’s grave. My father died at the young age of 23 when I was four years old and my sister was two years old. He was a calesa driver. Mother came to work in a desiccated coconut factory after my Father’s death.
I grew up in a family of women, with my grandmother, mother and younger sister. It was a difficult period because I could not tell them anything that was happening to me in school. For instance, I could not buy snacks during recess and so I was looking at my classmates as they rushed near the school fence where the vendors were lined up twice a day.
There were times when I would be bullied by my bigger classmates. On such occasion, I would take a jeepney ride to the cemetery to visit my father’s grave to tell him about my problems. My visits to my father’s grave taught me how to meditate, how to reflect on my situation and even if I could not be clear about my decisions, at least I had somebody to talk to.
Students nowadays are luckier because they have guidance counsellors or class advisers who could listen to them when they are stressed and did not know what to do. In this way, the school, aside from the home, helps one in this journey towards having self-awareness and eventually gain control over one’s life.
Despite the help from family and the school, it is still important for young people to have the habit to meditate, to reflect, to take things calmly when problems mount. Through meditation, a person gains mastery over oneself and is in a better position to win over adversities.
Second, learn early in life to plan the details of each activity that you want to do. Always pay attention to details. Never leave anything to chance. Aside from planning for each activity, plan in the long term so that you and your family are in control of what will happen to you.
I have learned that a person with a plan and a strategy will succeed in life. Otherwise, other people will plan for you and you will not be able to achieve what you want to do.
It pays to know the simple steps in strategic or long-term planning by asking ourselves these key questions:
• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to go?
• How do I get there?
• How do I know I have arrived?
Lesson from experience
For my high school education, I left for the capital town, Lucena, bringing along my sister, who continued her elementary schooling there, and my grandmother to look after us. Mother was left in our home barrio, Lagalag in Tiaong, Quezon. She had to keep working at the factory to support the family, and my sister and I through school.
The three of us could go home to visit Mother only during holidays and the summer breaks. I would always go to my Father’s grave during such visits as a matter of habit and also to have a one-way talk with him. In one such visit, I had the first shock of my life. In the place where my Father’s bones were laid to rest, I saw a well-decorated tomb with fresh flowers and fruits and candles.
The place where my Father’s grave was located had become the grave for the town’s richest Chinese businessman. I ran to the factory where Mother was working to complain about it. She calmly told me that if for ten years we could not pay the cemetery fee of Php 50 a year, the Church could rent out the space to others. The Church was not obliged to inform the family where they would dispose of the bones.
I remember running from the factory to the convent where the parish priest was staying. It was around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. He was taking a nap. There was nobody in the balcony at that time. There I swore I would not go back to the Church again. It took me years to go back to its fold again.
The traumatic experience scarred me for life. I felt restless most of the time. I told my Mother and Grandmother and sister I would spend some time looking for the bones of my Father. Well that was figuratively; I would look for the bones of my Father in the hearts and minds of the poor.
I remember leaving the Legion of Mary in which I was a member. I did it because I disliked the other members simply because they looked rich.
This strong pro-poor bias characterized my life during and after college. I joined protest marches and rallied against the Martial Law dictatorship. I eventually became part of the underground movement. I became a college drop-out. Then I got arrested and spent a few months in jail. Instead of being kept there longer, I was assigned to projects supported by the Government, such as the Green Revolution, Environmental Center of the Philippines and Project Compassion.
During this time when I was living and working in the office at Nayong Pilipino, although my movement was restricted, I was able to broaden my understanding on how the development process is carried out at government level. I became close to young people from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and government agencies in education, health, agriculture, and social welfare. I began to understand that despite constraints, development activities that reached out to the communities could still happen.
More importantly, I learned about strategic planning and thought how life could have been easier for myself, our family and friends if had I learned this earlier.
During this critical period, I came in contact with my old school, UP Los Banos, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that courses relevant to social development were starting to be conceptualized and put in place. I realized during this period the academe has the potential to be the repository of experiences and tools relevant to development. On account of its relative stability and academic integrity, it is in a better position to resist political pressure.
I remember the time when I left the University and taught English literature and Journalism at the Pedro Guevarra Memorial School in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. This brief experience taught me the sacrifices of public school teachers. It was my Grandmother and Mother who provided me allowance during the eight months I had no salary. I came to appreciate the sacrifices of teachers in working with low salary and long, tedious hours teaching both the bright students and the slow learners.
Third, implement your plan, taking into account the need to be flexible, if there are too many problems that are met in carrying out plans. Be resolute in putting your plan into action.
Calmly analyze each problem and tackle those easiest to solve first to gain confidence and to proceed solving the other problems in a systematic manner.
As we have learned from our teachers – Do not put off for tomorrow what we can do today. Act, act, act. Otherwise your dreams will remain plans, good on paper but not of value to ourselves, our families, and our work places, and the communities where we live.
Lesson from Experience
What happened to me since 1982 to the present have all been based on a long-term plan that I prepared. I wanted to do something about my messy personal life and rebuild my professional career without losing focus on my development mission. Coming to Bohol and living here was part of that plan. Bohol helped me to mend my life based on my personal decision in line with the wishes of my Grandmother, Mother and Sister. My wife, Jojie, and I exhumed their remains from the public cemetery in my home province and brought them here so that nobody could dispose of their bones without our knowledge.
I helped established the UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center here in Bohol with pioneers of the country’s community development program. We raised the funds ourselves to establish the center to become the repository of experiences
and tools. for community development projects.
UNICEF made possible my doing academic work at the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, University of Bradford in England and eventually the Asian Institute of Management. With the help of close friends and colleagues in development, I managed to implement my plan, overcome temporary setbacks and achieve the intended goal for the plan. In all these years, the academe became a source of additional skills and inspiration for me to pursue the development path that I decided to embark on despite all the difficulties.
Fourth, uphold the values imparted to you in school, at home and the places of worship in whatever faith you believe in as long as these values are in accord with enduring human values to preserve life and ensure prosperity for all.
Find fulfillment not only in the pursuit of personal goals but also in causes that benefit society as a whole, such as those related to poverty reduction, protection and preservation of the environment, gender equality and social justice.
First, take pride in your school, Batuan Colleges, which has accomplished much in its 19 years of existence. The vision of its Founder, Dr. Consolacion Vinluan, is to establish an institution that would enable its graduates to live meaningful lives in their career as teachers and in applying skills gained in relevant vocational and technical courses.
Due to this focus, Batuan Colleges will help ensure that real local development take place of relevance to families and communities in common efforts to achieve progress. By producing teachers committed to educating young people, your Alma Mater is helping build the nation in the hearts and minds of those who will inherit it for themselves and their children. By imparting employable skills among the young people, most of them from marginalized and disadvantaged communities and households, your Alma Mater is helping ensure that young people will be part of the solutions to social problems rather than become the problems themselves.
Be proud of the fact that from four students when it was founded in 1994, the enrolment has grown to more than 400 and that for being a one-room school it has grown to having three two-storey buildings. This indicates that your school is truly becoming a key partner of Government and civil society in this journey towards progress.
I have taken note of the fact that Batuan Colleges, although established primarily to serve the needs of the people of Batuan, now have students from Tagbilaran City and other municipalities. This indicates the increasing relevance of the role of Batuan Colleges to the overall development goal of the Province of Bohol.
You must also be happy about the recognition given to your Alma Mater by partner institutions such as TESDA and the awards received by some of its graduates for their outstanding work and accomplishments. It is also worth noting that Batuan Colleges has established partnership with the Urdaneta City University in Pangasinan for various graduate programs in accountancy, information technology and tourism.
It is also worth noting that your Alma Mater is the only academic institution in the province awarded the TESDA-ADB Job Directed Scholarship Program for competencies in various technical and vocational courses.
We at our NGO, the Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF) which succeeded the Ilaw ng Buhay in earlier years, are honored that Batuan Colleges has been our partner since that time when we were implementing the Canadian-funded Local Governance Strengthening Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED) from 2010 to 2012. It is an honor to report that under this project, BLDF facilitated assistance for the innovative Rice Museum, the organization of a cultural collective and the preparation of a marketing plan for Balay sa Humay. On our own, BLDF extended microfinance support to Balay sa Humay during those early years.
Even without external projects that we both implement, BLDF continues to be involved in Balay sa Humay, bringing our visitors here to see how the project is maintained and expanded by our colleagues from Batuan Colleges. Yes, our NGO, Bohol Local Development Foundation, is truly proud of what your Alma Mater is doing for the cause of local development in Bohol.
On behalf of BLDF, I would like to announce that in recognition of your outstanding work in tourism, we have nominated Batuan Colleges to be registered as part of a consortium under the ADB Canada Tourism Skills Grant Scheme. The nomination has been approved by the Project Secretariat. Under this project, your Alma Mater will be able to send at least 10 participants for training in several courses to be conducted at various time slots from July to December 2015. The participants can be teachers, eco-tourism project coordinators and trainers, as well as practicum students in tourism-related courses.
The training will cover the following subject matter areas:
• Product and program development including skills in cultural production, food and souvernir
manufacturing, tours designing and guiding;
• Service management, in administration and technical support, hospitality and customer
relations, safety and environment management;
• Training in social preparation and participation of communities in areas selected for community
tourism, including Organizational Development for People’s Organizations (planning,
monitoring, mentoring, evaluation);
• Marketing and Publicity Program development, including training in sales, audience and market
development, communications strategy and production of media collateral, to include
mainstream outlets and social media; and
• Training in the launch of key products and services.
Aside from Batuan Colleges, the other members of the Consortium that will benefit from the ADB Canada training grant are:
1. KASING SINING
2. BLDF (Bohol Local Development Foundation)
3. BEA (Baclayon Entrepreneurs Association)
4. PROCESS
5. LA BOHOLANA TOURS
6. HOUSE OF UBE
7. BISU
Lesson from Experience
Here is the key lesson I have learned from working in twenty five projects over the last 40 years in a total of 15 countries, with local governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, religious groups, the United Nations and its agencies, and all sorts of advocacies and movements:
All the people of the world, whether they are Christians or non-Christians, pagans or otherwise, believe in a better life. Those who believe in extremism to pursue their aims are in the minority in any country, race or religion. Hence, unity in common goals is possible as shown by all nations signing a global development agenda such as the Millennium Development Goals 2000 to 2015 which seeks to cut by half the number of people who are considered poor. Now we are at the threshold of signing another global agreement on Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.
Fifth, read, read, read. And think, think, think. But it’s worth remembering what the Irish poet William Butler Yeat says: “Education is not the filling of a pail. but the lighting of a fire.”
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not enough. We must use it to light a fire within us, to discover our passion for without it we cannot aspire to transform ourselves, our families, our neighborhood and our society as a whole.
Lesson from Experience:
The first book I read outside those prescribed in classrooms was a dictionary given to me as gift by Miss Cruz, my teacher in Grade !V. At around the same time, a bundle of copies of a national newspaper, fell from a passenger bus, while I was walking from school. They were copies of the Manila Chronicle, the first newspaper I read.
Both the dictionary and the newspaper served as my first introduction to the world and its wonders. I read both from page to page and discovered not only the meaning of English words, but also other places outside our barrio, nature and societies in other parts of the globe, the vast universe outside our planet.
We need to read not only to gather information but to use what we learn to have a better view of ourselves and the world. It makes life more challenging and stimulating as we broaden our knowledge about reality, nature and culture.
The academe helps us nurture this habit of reading and thinking about what we read. Reading can help us discover our own passion, the path to excellence in whatever field we have chosen to pursue.
Sixth, follow your heart, as the great digital age guru, Steve Jobs, put it a commencement address at Stanford University several years before he died. This is also the final lesson that I am going to tell you.
Let me say repeat it here so you may find it in your heart to reflect on it when you reach home:
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
That is assuming you have a heart and that you know where it is leading you.
Hence, your first task when you go home after receiving your diplomas and certificates is to be sure about your journey, where you are going and to make sure your heart is in the right place for the long journey ahead of you. Your Alma Mater has done its duty to show you the way and equip you with some skills and values to make this important journey.
Indeed it is your time now to take the journey and find your new day for yourselves, your family, your community and your country.
Thank you.
NMP/07 March 2015/5.57 a.m.
Revised: 08 March 2015/9.34 a.m.
