Delivered by Ambassador Leo Tito L. Ausan, Jr.

Ambassador Leo Tito L. Ausan, Jr. delivers an empowering message titled “YOU’RE DONE?, WHAT NEXT?, WHAT NOW?” to the 2,230 graduates of the Class of 2024–2025 during Central Philippine University’s 97th College Commencement Exercises on June 29, 2025.

YOU’RE DONE?, WHAT NEXT?, WHAT NOW?

(The Commencement Speech written and delivered before the 2,230+ strong, Class of 2024-2025 of the Central Philippine University, Jaro, Iloilo City, Philippines, during the 97th College Commencement Exercises, at 2;00 o’ clock in the afternoon, 29th June 2025, Sunday at the University Gymnasium.)

PART 1: GREETINGS!

Thanks so much for the very kind introduction, Vice President DR. FLORENCE P. BOGACIA and thank you for stepping into the shoes of my former classmate Vice President Irving Rio, who declined to perform this introductory chore.

I’m amazed indeed, that while CPU had graduated me forty-two long years ago, you, nevertheless, still know a lot of trivia about me to this day. I didn’t really imagine you would, after all those years had gone by. I can only strongly suspect, that after graduation, either CPU has so endearingly stalked and ghosted me, or have Googled me, before today!

While I’m, thrilled to the bones, to speak before you today, frankly, I’m also apprehensive as I am very well aware, that from behind this rostrum had spoken, in the past, an impressive array of honorable, distinguished, and illustrious individuals–that includes powerful politicians, spunky big business executives, CEO’s, & COOs, & wealthy businessmen. In fact, as I can fondly recall during our turn, we had, as speaker, the President and Chairman, of the Board of the prestigious Ortigas & Company business conglomerate in Metro Manila. Regrettably, truth to tell, I don’t recall anymore what he spoke to us about, back then. Therefore, I fully understand it’s unjustified for me to expect many of you to remember, 42 years hence, what I’m gonna speak to you about this afternoon. I, nevertheless, fervently hope that you will fully lend me your ears , anyway, so you shall, at the very least, remember, even just small portions of it, in case you happen to live that long, from today. No one’s reacting. Don’t you like the well- wish? Or perhaps you don’t want to entertain the prospect of being expected to be CPU’s Commencement Speaker by then. Being a mere alumnus who isn’t of the kind & class of the previous speakers I enumerated, it’s indeed an incredibly OVERWHELMING honor, to be back in this campus, this afternoon, and be with you inside this sprawling edifice, that’s clearly a lot more modern, elegant, and spacious than its retired, precursor, our Dear Old Rose Memorial Hall, that I ruefully, drove by on my way in. OVERWHELMING, particularly, because, on this auspicious moment, we’re joined collectively by President Ernest Howard, and three Vice Presidents, fortunately, none of whom faces impeachment charges as of today, we’re also merrily joined by the esteemed members of the CPU Board of Trustees, the indefatigable President of the Alumni Association, Inc. (CPUAAI), my compañero, Atty. Jeremy V. Bionat, and; the eminent Deans of all the Colleges; backed up by a good number of their respective Faculty; as well as the members of the legendary, CPU Corporation. When I was a student here, there never was any occasion that I can vividly recall, when I was present that this star- studded gathering ever happened! In as much as, almost all of CPUs big wigs are already here, I would like to “forthwith” (oh, forthwith”, is my favorite word these days) convey, my most pleasant Sunday afternoon greetings, now.

A pleasant Sunday afternoon, to you all, Sirs, and Madames, my afternoon greetings, also goes to all Fellow alumni, here present, The Parents, Grandparents, and Kinfolk of the members of this 2,230 strong Mega Class of 2024-2025, and to you, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen!…

Indeed, this fine gathering of distinguished busy ladies and gentlemen, SELDOM GATHERS. As in fact, IT NEVER GATHERS, except during a very special occasion, like this, the 97th College Commencement Exercises, an opportune moment for an academic institution, like CPU, to reckon and admit how much it has aged. If not take stock of what it has become and achieved, through the years. Thus, you can definitely, consider yourselves FORTUNATE, to be with them today, I strongly urge, that you take time to be mesmerized at, and internalize, their respective facial appearances and features, or avatars if you will, as they get to be introduced, individually, in the course of the program.

Having been invited as your Commencement Speaker, I also consider myself FORTUNATE, AS YOU ARE! If you allow me, I’ll share with you briefly now the particular circumstances, and the grim secret on how this came about. But each one of you must make a tacit vow of confidentiality within your good selves, not to divulge it, after I’ve done so., Promise?

On the 8th of January, this year, at exactly 9:51 in the evening MLA time, I received a private text message, in FBs Messenger, informing me discreetly, ahead of time, of CPU’s top-secret plan to invite me as your Commencement Speaker this June. Because, it unexpectedly, came from a longtime friend in the theater, and a friend of old, who isn’t yet that old, and no less than your current beloved President Ernest Howard, I, of course, forthwith accepted, without much hesitation, even if the invitation in black and white, is yet to follow, and came by courier, only on the 4th of March, after I had prodded him to have it sent over soonest, to enable me, to hurdle the terrible writer’s block, I’m confronted with, in drafting this speech. Somehow, after almost a month had gone by, I still badly needed some kind of nudge or push and more inspiration to write this piece onward and, I thought receiving the hard copy of the invitation will do the trick!

YES, “BELIEVE IT OR NOT”, I PERSONALLY WROTE THIS SPEECH! THIS ISN’T AI GENERATED OR WRITTEN BY A GHOST!!…. SERIOUSLY, I READILY ACCEPTED, PRESIDENT ERNEST HOWARD’S TEXTED INVITE.

Because it came to me as a CALL TO DUTY OF SORTS, being an alumnus of this prestigious University, that we all revere. I’m of the resolve, that each and every Centralian, when asked to do so, simply has no cogent reason to decline. Declining should, in fact, be made a ground for a cavalier, alumnus or alumna, to be stricken off the roster of alumni. I earnestly propose, this should be explicitly included in the Alumni Pledge, which is going to be administered, at the culmination of the program, President Jeremy?

Additionally, I accepted, because, I thought and felt, the ripe time for me, to come full circle with CPU, has finally come! After all, forty-two long years had elapsed, since I was graduated here in March 1983. I surmise, it’s now high time, to come back with a bang, right into Dear Central’s welcoming, tight embrace, and feel its warm breath blowing unto my brows, and face it squarely in the eye, cause now, I’m already an Ambassador, with a blue non- expiring lifetime, diplomatic passport, courtesy of Philippine Law and the Department of Foreign Affairs, and perhaps, now my Dear Central can already fittingly submit me, as Exhibit “A”, that her graduates, in fact, miraculously, succeed out there, in the whole wild world!!….

BUT PLEASE, OH PLEASE, MISLED BE NOT! That CPU, invited me over, in lieu of a powerful politician, spunky big business executives, and wealthy businessmen, and not someone else, among the many other outstanding CPU Alumni in the jungle-like world out there, to be your Commencement Speaker, means, I’m really someone, worthy inviting over to be so! That perhaps, and indeed, I’m really an outstanding alumnus of CPU! TRUTH to TELL, I’M NO BIG DEAL REALLY! In fact, if you were just, circumspect enough, and a bit more discerning, with my startling revelation that you’ve vowed to keep a secret, on how I came to be with you this afternoon, you will have already come to a similarly valid conclusion, that this aging fellow, who stands before you this very moment , who’s retiring from government service in exactly a month’s time, and is delivering a personally written Commencement Speech, because he can ill afford to pay someone else to write it for him, isn’t really someone special.

IN FACT, LIKE ANYONE OF YOU, HE IS MERE MORTAL AND CAN EVEN BE YOUR USUAL ORDINARY, “WHATCHA MACALLIT”, “TEXTMATE” OR “CHATMATE” …AS HE IS OF PRESIDENT ERNEST HOWARD’S!

HONESTLY, when, eventually, I received the invitation’s hard copy on 4th March. My heart literally jumped with joy. It’s true indeed, that CPU is summoning me to duty! Finally, the fragmentary ideas, I had gradually gathered as speech nuggets in my tablet, after replying in the affirmative to (my textmate’s, Private Message), miraculously, and magically, realigned and transformed, into this speech!

YES, I WORK ON A TABLET, THESE DAYS, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND, that “I TAKE TABLETS SO I CAN WORK”, AND I IMMEDIATELY BUCKLED DOWN TO WORK ON THIS ONE, ON 8TH JANUARY YET, AFTER I CONFIRMED WITH PRESIDENT ERNEST HOWARD, THAT I’M ACCEPTING AND COMING, which should clearly explain why this speech is gonna be rather lengthy and will transgress the 20-minute cut that President Ernest Howard, set for me, somewhat unfairly, I should say, after I had already almost finished with my final draft of it. However, instead of filing a motion for reconsideration, I just settled in my study, and smiled satisfied, with the thought that perhaps on hindsight, it wisely dawned upon President Ernest Howard, that because by profession I’m a lawyer, and in this country lawyers talk a lot, to our great dismay! I should be advised to make this short and sweet beforehand. Hence, if you shall find my speech today boring and lengthy. You only have President Ernest Howard to blame, for inviting me so early!!…

What thrills me further, as your Speaker today, is this singular opportunity to personally, congratulate all of you, in the presence of your family, friends, next of kinfolk, and everyone who believe in you and have extended a hand or two in seeing you through your University Education all these years, who have come, from far and wherever in our Fatherland and the World, to partake in the pride of your educational accomplishment today!

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2025 AND YOUR ARMY OF SUPPORTERS! Why don’t you all rise and resoundingly applaud in thankful gesture, your parents, friends, and kinfolk, who came not only to bear witness but also be assured, you indeed, graduate today! MY HEARTFELT CONGRATULATIONS! I UNDERSTAND HAND IN HAND, YOU’VE RESOLUTELY SURVIVED, A PANDEMIC! In fact, for many months before this year, you braved ECQs & GCQs, as well as MECQs & MGCQs which added more burden and misery to your already acronym overladen academic world. In fact, additionally, and despite the inconvenience, that puts to the test, the prominence and utility of your noses, you had to wear dramatically overpriced surgical masks to class, that unceremoniously deprived you daily, of a pretty Classmate’s full facial appearance, and, constrained you, to grudgingly, settle, for the standard of judging facial beauty, and communicating with others through talking eyes!

I’m further thrilled, because this opportunity to speak before you this afternoon, brings back in me fond memories of 42 years ago, when one afternoon in March, at the so-called BIG FIELD, just outside and obliquely fronting this gymnasium, that we then referred to officially as the University Parade Ground, I was listlessly seated, with about six hundred other graduates, many of whom were my classmates and four of whom were my girlfriends, none of whom became my wife, however. ALTHOUGH EVENTUALLY, ONE, fortunately, or otherwise, became my wife and lifetime pillar by night or day, and now lovingly addresses me Ambassador Pepe, completing the Pepe & Pilar tandem, but she’d opted, over my stern objections, to skip our College Commencement Exercises, at dusk of 24th March 1983….I PERCEIVE A KIND OF HUSH ANG SOME MURM’RING. GOTCHA THINKING THERE!.. My sincere apologies, but I’ve been strongly advised by my former speech writing mentor here in Central, that, to make speeches like this more interesting, I must ensure it’s sprinkled with some facts, that intrigue the kinds of Maritess. Any Marites in the crowd? Oh no one’s admitting?

PART 2: THE BODY & SOME PIECES OF ADVICE:

From where I stand right now, I’m additionally, intensely thrilled and largely amused to see a broad patch of young gentlemen and ladies in flowing sapphire blue gowns, we all fondly call togas! That in this very special occasion present itself with a significant meaning because it’s spelled T-O-G- A-S. Perhaps, appropriately, your uniformly wearing it during this occasion is really Divinely Ordained as it distinguishes you collectively when watched from above, by THE GREATEST DRONE OF ALL, as the ones who got away. Of course, the pun is intended. In the context of your contemporary cliché. TOTGAS, The ones who got away….

FRANKLY, 42 years ago, when TOTGAS weren’t yet a class and group of their own and while I was seated out there, at the parade ground, I wasn’t worried at all, for I was very certain, that at that very moment, I wasn’t alone who suffered that funny feeling of having fluttering butterflies, in one’s stomach, that for certain you now feel…. In fact, what really preoccupied my mind at that instance was the continuous flashing of a series of scenarios, of what awaited me, the next day and months and years, after graduation. While pretending to be stolidly seated, I repeatedly kept on muttering to and asking, myself in rapid succession several questions, as discreetly as possible, extremely cautious not to move my lips. Lest my co-graduates and teachers next to me seated will notice and start doubting not only my fitness to graduate, but also my sanity: “Leo, you’re done, and is graduating? What’s next for you? What now? Are you, in fact, ready for everything that lie in wait for you? I WAS ASKING MYSELF!!, over and over, and over again!!”…I respectfully invite you to also ask yourselves the same questions now!…Done? What’s next? What now?.

STARTING TOMORROW. There won’t anymore be classrooms in this sprawling campus for you. In as much as you’ll have no more classes to attend, Thus, there’s no need to schedule and assign classrooms for you anymore. Teachers and faculty shall be around no longer, to teach and mentor you further and give you homework at class session’s end while sheepishly grinning. Your allowances from home, will altogether be dramatically reduced, if not, abruptly stopped. You will already be, too embarrassed to ask your parents or relatives, who’ve been helping you go through College, for either more allowance budget, or increase, in your cellphone load, and texting allowance. Parents you may now take the budget back! Back home, your oft- controversial “privilege/exemption”, from performing menial daily home chores, at the pretext of a looming exam and being busy and deeply engrossed in your studies, shall immediately be lifted. You shall be starkly confronted by the sad fact, that your happy student days are definitely over, and the time has come, for you to face the world and pursue your dreams on your own, You will be greatly apprehensive, if not insecure. You shall plainly realize that while CPU has unselfishly approved your graduation, this doesn’t mean you’ve already succeeded in life!. GRADUATION DOESN’T BRING YOU SUCCESS ON A SILVER PLATTER OUTRIGHT! In fact, with allowances withdrawn & reduced, and privileges cancelled, IT MAKES YOUR LIFE A TAD MISERABLE. SUCCESS?, YOU MUST EARN IT STILL. THERE STILL IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE. If you must nimbly evade the treacherously, LONG AND WINDING ROAD OF JOBLESSNESSS. After several refused rather unacted, or “well get back to you” responded job applications, you shall eventually realize that while CPU, has unselfishly fulfilled its committed mission to instill in you in full a so-called EXCEL “Exemplary Christian Education for Life”, that’s purportedly responsive to the needs of the total person (that you all are) and the world, and has willingly graduated you after thoroughly deliberating upon the matter of whether or not you have, after frantic efforts, satisfactorily met all the requirements of graduation, by conferring upon you a degree with matching diploma in Filipino and English, signifying that it’s finally done with you, you aren’t really quite ready yet, to face the challenges that the fast changing world outside, has shrewdly strewn on your path to success. YES THERE’S STILL MUCH LEFT TO BE DONE. In the months ahead, there will even be instances that you will gradually start doubting, the very value of your diploma, especially when, everything that you’ve been expecting to happen after graduating become agonizingly slow in coming. The truth, however, is, it isn’t your diploma, that’s the issue but you! While it doesn’t necessarily come with success on a silver platter, it, nevertheless, evinces, that you are definitely fully inculcated with (EXCEL) “Exemplary Christian Education, for Life”- responsive to the needs of the total person, that you are and the world–, kindly note, that the last two words FOR & LIFE, taken together, partake doublemeaning, the first, refers to its utility “ to enable you to live” and the second, to the duration of its reliability, “ it’s sufficient to last your whole life through, for as long as you live”. THESE DOUBLE MEANING EMPHASIZES THAT THERE’S REALLY NO REASON FOR YOU TO BE WORRIED/SCARED TO FACE THE WORLD. WITH CPU’S EXCEL, YOU’RE, IN FACT, MORE THAN READY TO DO SO!

Of course, the world you’re stepping into by tomorrow is an altogether different world compared to that you turned your backs upon when you entered CPU’s campus through Gates 1, 2 and 3 to enroll, 4 to 5 years ago. You’re unavoidably, stepping right into a fast-changing world that lurks outside of CPU’s gates, that Greek philosopher Heraclitus, describes as one where the only thing constant is change. Or one impermanence. LET ME REMIND YOU TO BE ALWAYS ON ALERT. BRACE WITH THE BEST AND BOLDEST THAT YOU CAN EVER BE. THIS WORLD CHANGES ALMOST EVERYDAY. AND NEVER CEASES TO SURPRISE! It requires you to BE PREPARED at all times, like a boy scout. While I make this reminder, or warning if you will, I can’t help but recall a poster that sold popularly, in the shops in Manila, in the late 1970’s. These days we say it went “viral”. It depicted a sad-looking sulking orangutan that complained, “Just when I knew all the answers, they’ve changed all the questions.” You’ll have a similar feeling when unavoidably, confronting the fast changing world, that Heraclitus warned us all of as early as the days of Plato & Aristotle, just when you thought, you’re ready to take on it, it transforms into something else, that you aren’t quite ready to take on yet. Before you enrolled in CPU, the hiring of Philippine engineers and nurses abroad may have been furious and spiraling, this perhaps is what even swayed you, to take up the courses of nursing and engineering, you’re graduating with today. But now this has significantly subsided. Dampening, if not frustrating, your prospects of getting employed abroad soonest, upon graduation.

At the time, you could hardly access the internet through the phone in your pocket, now you can even easily summon a ride to go somewhere else, with it! Then our Fatherland, wasn’t yet pestered no end, with the issue of Chinese bullying– sovereignty eroding intrusions— at our exclusive economic zone or EEZ in West Philippine Sea. That’s another acronym for you! Within the same decade, you enrolled in CPU, our incumbent President, was held accountable by the people, for his dictatorial approaches in governance, and was overthrown, through a peaceful upheaval at EDSA, and had to hurriedly flee with his family to Hawaii to save their skin. Yours, who ruled the country for a brief portion of the pandemic years, and who added EJKs to your acronym overload, is now in the custody of the ICC, there you go again with another acronym! A couple of months ago. The world only had to manage spiraling fuel prices, consequent to the Russia–Ukraine conflict. A few weeks ago, this was aggravated almost overnight by the Israel vs. Iran conflict that suddenly erupted in the Middle East. The world that awaits you tomorrow, indeed, changes almost every day, it metamorphoses into something else new in many respects as days go by. Driven inexorably, by computerization and artificial intelligence and mankind’s seething disdain for peace and insatiable fetish to make war! These dramatic changes in many respects of human endeavor rapidly transpire, so that simply to keep apace, you can profusely perspire. YOU, CAN’T BE LEFT BEHIND. YOU MUSN’T ALLOW IT, TO LEAVE YOU BEHIND. KEEP APACE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, AND STAY EITHER RELEVANT OR OF CONSEQUENCE. SNUGLY BRACE YOURSELVES,READ UP MORE AND MORE, LIKE YOU’VE NEVER DONE BEFORE! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO BURN YOUR MIDNIGHT OIL. DO IT!

If you meet these changes at turtle pace, before you know it, the day after tomorrow, you, especially the gentlemen, might already need to scan a QR Code and respond to a series of questions before you can even start courting, someone else’s daughter! A SAD PREDICAMENT, INDEED, BUT HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THIS? Should you panic and sulk like the poster orangutan. DON’T YOU GET SCARED. This is THE NORMAL of a Heraclitan world!! As a graduate of CPU, stay calm, you’re more than ready to face its “acid-rock music”! OF COURSE, no one can really prepare adequately to face triumphantly a Heraclitan world! because the frequency of changes is too overwhelming and unexpected. But let me tell you a secret, now the second, you have to keep for me, today. As a CPU graduate, you are well-covered by the best life success assurance plan available, to any Christ believing graduate in the world to successfully, confront it!!

HERE GOES, EXUDE CONFIDENCE, AS YOU EMERGE OF THIS CAMPUS AFTER THIS PROGRAM YOU’RE ALREADY COMPREHENSIVELY COVERED BY IT. WHEN LIFE’S CONTINGENCIES GET ROUGH ON YOU. YOU CAN SECURELY RELY ON THIS DIVINELY CRAFTED UNFLINCHING LIFE ASSURANCE PLAN, THAT HAS BEEN LAID OUT FOR YOUR PROSPERITY AND NOT MEANT TO HARM YOU, IT EVEN GIVES YOU HOPE AND A FUTURE. REMEMBER YOUR CHRISTIAN EMPHASIS WEEK SESSIONS AND JEREMIAH 29:11? That go as follows?, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…And it’s free, your premium doesn’t even need to be paid in hard-earned cash or currency, but in the form of your FAITHFULNESS to the Lord!!!, Anyone who professes that faithfulness costs money is a BIG SCAMMER!! SEND HIM TO JAIL! BETTER SAID THAN DONE? LET ME SHARE WITH YOU HOW I DID IT MY BITTERSWEET WAY AS A CENTRALIAN.

In 1983, CPU graciously awarded me with Latin honors upon my graduation, a fact, now calligraphed beautifully on the face of my diploma at home. Thankfully, for purposes of becoming a lawyer, it enabled me to coast along and enter the formidable portal of the UP College of Law, what to me is the most prestigious law school in the country, my sincere apologies, of course, go to other law schools outside of UP.

On the very first day of classes, in UP Law, feeling humbled but oozing with confidence on myself, as any Centralian, who’s profoundly endowed with EXCEL (Exemplary Christian Education for Life) should be, I glided into the Classroom and occupied my assigned seat and desk, chest out and heads up. Only to come to know , after an hour that day in June 1984, that in our Freshman Class Section “A” alone, there were about ten of us, who graduated cum laudes, in our respective pre law courses, in fact a few in our class of thirty, were, magnas, and a couple were summas. Upon so knowing, I shifted to a sitting pose with my chest deflated and my head bowed. I was a nobody, after all, in the Freshman Class Section “A”. It was only when our Constitutional Law Professor, whose “being a terror” reputation preceded him in corridor chats in the College, handed out our first assignment at the end of our maiden class session, that the boys, among us were separated from the men, and the chaff were winnowed from the grain.

“The Maiden Assignment”, that apparently was designed to “awe and shock” us, was for us to be ready for individualized Socratic (question & answer type) oral recitation, while seated alone on a chair at the center aisle of the classroom. ,by next meeting the next day at the same hour, for which purpose, we had to read in the original , footnotes included, two (2) landmark decisions of the Supreme Court, first, the case of Javellana vs. Executive Secretary ( that revolved on the legality and legitimacy of the controversial 1973 Philippine Constitution, as ratified) and second, the case Pamil vs. Teleron (that dealt with the eligibility of a priest, to run for an elective municipal position), that taken together, were more than two hundred (200) pages long. As kneejerk reaction I remember myself rushing to call by landline long distance call, my girlfriend, in Zarraga, Iloilo from Diliman. Quezon City. Yes, she’s the one who wasn’t with me at the parade ground in March 1983, (Steve Jobs hasn’t yet invented the smartphone then.) I complained to her, that with the acute shortness of time given to us, and the limited number of volumes reporting on the lengthy decisions in the library, it was both grossly unjustified and unreasonable, if not an impossibility, for our professor to expect us to read and comprehend both decisions , exhaustively, and recite on it thoroughly the next day. Upon checking out the original decisions in the multi-volume SCRA, the encyclopedic Supreme Court Reports Annotated, that’s practically the Philippine Practicing Lawyer’s Bible, I realized, that wherever and however, I started reading the two cases, I won’t finish reading and understand both anyway. And if this is the way things are done, in the days to come, I may transfer to another law school next year. BUT IT’S A GREAT BLESSING INDEED, to have a Centralian girlfriend, who’ll listen and stand by you, regardless of the circumstances you face, particularly, when you sound and act panicky and seemingly on the verge of giving up. She listened for a while and let me finish ranting, Then lashed back: with her two point rebuke of me. “What happened to you?” You’re a Centralian! You can do it. (1) Pray hard, and (2) GO, and start reading!” Shaken back to my senses. I picked up my law school briefcase, that contained the thick machine copies of the two decisions, and after grabbing a quick lunch, proceeded to pray at one corner of the UP Chapel, a short walk from the College, then went back to my boarding house. On the jeepney on my way to my boarding house, I was scolding myself repeatedly, for easily forgetting that as a Centralian, I had a life success assurance plan, that got me well-covered. Upon reaching my room and slumping on my bed. I immediately commenced reading. Foregoing sleep for the night, by dawn the next day before our neighbor’s rooster has crowed thrice, thankfully, I had already finished reading both decisions. What got me through? Now it can be told. It were, firstly, my personally honed speed reading and comprehension skills acquired and developed during my campus free times, at & in CPUs reading center, then supervised by Ma’am Francia, and spartanly housed at the ground floor of the Techno Building, and secondly, my sheer determination to become a lawyer.

After a sleepless night of focused reading torment, a warm bath, and sumptuous breakfast, (I forgot all about dinner that evening), The next day, I went confidently, on my way to class an hour early, I was ready for the feared Socratic recitation, from a so-called hotseat, at the center-aisle of our classroom, though nervous and dreading, that I’d be called to recite. However, I was warmly consoled and emboldened, when I came to know before class commenced, that my classmates had also suffered a similar no-dinner, sleepless torment overnight. And that, if I was scared to recite, they, too were.

IT WAS THE FIRST AND THE LAST OF IT. IT NEVER RECURRED, After our first meeting that fateful day when recitation grades of 3s & 5s & 4’s rained in the Classroom. My classmates and I were able to devise a way to thenceforth, manage unreasonably voluminous case assignments. Taking a tip from those in the higher years in the College, we divided ourselves into study groups. And divided, equally among ourselves ahead of time, the number of cases expected to be assigned and read, equally among ourselves. Tasking each one to read a case ahead and to prepare a brief case digest of the facts, issues and ruling thereon, to be distributed a copy to each groupmate before class started. This made things light and easy for us all, thenceforth. We just had to divide the workload and rely on and trust each other’s understanding and industry, in utilizing an almost heaven-sent scheme, that worked well for those in the senior years in the College, we thought, if it worked well for them, there’s no reason it won’t for us. Thenceforth, I never figured in any panic, “might as well quit” moment, anymore. My girlfriend’s two-pointed advice, (1) Pray hard & (2) start working on the problem, worked wonderfully for me, not only for a day, but for the rest of my law study in the College of Law. In fact, it seemed, that THE MORE I PRAYED, AND WORKED HARDER, THE LESS AND LESS PROBLEMS I ENCOUNTERED, ALONG THE WAY TO MY SENIOR YEAR IN THE COLLEGE. EVERYTHING somehow became easy for me to handle. While at the get go. My becoming a lawyer, seemed unachievable, it has become very much reachable. I progressed through my quad year law course, almost in the breeze, through prayers and working very hard. My girlfriend’s two-point to success formula, complimented, by the Jeremiah 29:11’s, Divine Life Success Assurance Plan, unraveled smoothly, for me, until I took the 1987 Bar Examinations and passed it in 1988. In fact, it continued to serve me in good stead in my diplomatic career path, and for the entire period of 26 years when I labored to rise in the much-vaunted Foreign Service career ladder from the lowest officer designation of Vice Consul to Ambassador, Even my confirmation hearings before the Commission on Appointments, never hit serious snags. The more I became prayerful and faithful, The more it worked for me!
If, it worked for me being Centralian, It can likewise, for you! NO ONE HAS A MONOPOLY OF PRAYERFULNESS & FAITHFULNESS! TRY IT STARTING TOMORROW!

PART 3: THE SEND-OFF & 8 FOOTNOTES

Another thing that thrills me today is my being in a party. The send-off party, that will send you off unto the world. And maybe I can have the last say on how you can squarely face it triumphantly! INTERESTINGLY, we diplomats, always would like to have the last say on things! As it’s one sure way to get remembered.

TOMORROW, THE LAST DAY OF JUNE 2025, you shall face the world, fully armed with EXCEL, a kind of real education, you can be confident in and brim hope with, “Be like a glass filled to the brim with water!”

Be confident and ambitious have a sense of purpose, be relevant, be of some use. Empty yourselves unto the world. Use your EXCEL to serve your fellow men. Empty yourselves unto the world. It’s only in emptying yourself of some of the EXCEL water you’ve been filled with that you can be of use again. In doing so, make use of the knowledge you’ve blessedly acquired from CPU, It’s only in emptying yourself of some of the water that you can be of use as a glass again to quench the thirst of many more! What you acquired from CPU and duly represented by your diplomas, is excellently working real Christian Education (education that results into real intelligence as opposed to artificial intelligence. With it, you can, in fact be deemed as “tunay na edukado”, (genuinely educated with real education, and knowledge), I exhort you. USE IT. IT WORKS. It isn’t AI, artificial intelligence. Your predecessors and including myself have proven and are proof that it works and can work. You must just enhance it with appropriate skill sets and “a persona”, that will enable you to qualify for and handle a job better than the rest of the world. In confronting the challenges of this world, in order to succeed, it’s up to you to ensure that you’re indeed worthy of your diploma and its issuance and what it really stands for. Once you receive it. I advise you to take time to read and scrutinize it, word for word if you will. Don’t take it, haphazardly, (and for granted, as others do), by immediately having it framed and hung on a wall, for the world to see, only to gather dust and thereafter, be forgotten, instead carefully read and understand each and every word it contains and you’ll come to realize, that it merely states a fact, that you’ve been conferred with a degree. But it is eerily silent on WHAT STUFF FOR SUCCESS YOU’RE REALLY MADE OF. In the course of time, particularly when you’re already job hunting, and working for higher achievements, you’ll have to prove to a prospective employer that you’ve got this stuff to succeed. IT’S ACTUALLY THIS STUFF, that prospective employers, and companies seek in you, this encompasses your core values, skill sets, person ableness, and psychological make up, which are vital and essential in the position you apply for. By brandishing your diploma and, even hanging it on your neck, you don’t yet prove yourself worthy of a job. For instance, when you’re a nursing graduate, your diploma doesn’t say that your TLC tender loving care, skills that we refer to in Hiligaynon, as “tatap libang, kag kugos”, are exemplary, you may yet need to present proof of this fact. An engineering graduate, you are? Your diploma is nevertheless, mum on your skill in computer-aided design, you will eventually need to prove, how good your CAD skills are pertaining to a specific project. A political science graduate, you can be?, But your diploma doesn’t attest to your thorough, incisive, practicable political analyses, that you must deliver impressively and present given a specific factual political scenario.

Please be reminded, in our everyday lives, when we employ a painter. We don’t just hire someone who comes along showing off a certificate of employment and a TESDA Certificate, and comes along tugging a paint brush and a roller, we would require him to demonstrate, he can make good use of it to our satisfaction.

CORE VALUES and SPECIFIC SKILL SETS are vital in job hunting and success in life, A few important questions come to fore at this moment, Do you even know the fine difference between a CV, a Bio-Data and a resumé? Have you got anyone of these impressively prepared already or you just filled out a pro forma form sold on the sidewalks – that usually go straight to the bins of would be employers? Do you possess the proper skills to pass an interview? How’s your facility of the English language? Are you literate, in fact? Or merely “functionally illiterate- that according to the Department of Education can read and write but can’t comprehend & understand? Is your English vocabulary reasonably adequate? How personable are you? Do you have the rudimentary skills needed to face this highly technical world? Can you work efficiently with standard Office, equipment and software? Or you’ve only mastered the mini apps in your smartphone?

CLASS 2024-2025, you’d underwent a rare-kind of battle testing, toughening, and wisening up, you did it with flying colors, through the almost impregnable pandemic crucible, You are surely and tougher than the graduates ahead of you. And more than ready to face this world’s music!

Another piece of advice, for you. I’ve been advised by a former high school teacher of mine, who like President Ernest Howard is also a textmate to this time, to give you as many as I possibly can today. If you noticed this is the first piece of advice. I’m giving you. After graduation, stay in touch with you teachers as much as possible. While with your graduation, your faculty are definitely done with you. This doesn’t mean, that you’re done with your personal physical faculties, and basic senses, your sense of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. When you’re out in the jungle-like world out there and struggling to survive, all the more you will need to make use of each of your faculties to the hilt. It is only in continuing to make use of each of them that you can boost your sense of purpose in life. This because, with it, YOU CAN LIVE A MINDFUL LIFE ENGULFED BY A STRONG FEELING OF CARE FOR THE WORLD AND YOUR FELLOWMEN, because, you can perceive and feel the needs of others, as well as the injustices and inadequacies that they around you suffer, not to mention, anticipate challenges and peril, and keenly observe dire need, for things to be improved for the better. IT’S IN FACT THE VERY SECRET, WHY ARTISTS & ACHIEVERS IN THIS WORLD FLOURISH!, and can’t stay still!

MAY I SHARE A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THIS LIGHT. when I was posted, to our Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong in 2019, in as much as I joined a fully complimented post, in one of the biggest epicenters of the Filipino diaspora, in the world today, I COULD HAVE JUST TAKEN IT EASY, as I was just a lowly Consul at the time. But my being An EXCEL imbued Centralian, prevailed upon me to do something in the post, to improve on the services being provided to our people in that part of the world. When I reported to join our post in Hong Kong, its Assistance-to Nationals ATN Section, was under the auspices of highly qualified and experienced colleagues and was, in fact, functioning very-well, in extending, and providing legal assistance, to our distressed, Kababayans…but after a while, I noticed something was amiss, about which, I had to do something, That is, while our distressed Kababayans were being provided lawyers and free legal assistance, for their cases, that arise, in Hong Kong, for legal issues & concerns arising in the Philippines, they weren’t, and there was a disturbingly large number of them who were in this predicament. In fact, it is these legal concerns and issues, that they and their kin faced in the Philippines (like the following: their property has been illegally occupied by a neighbor; a child had been bullied and hurt in school; a son has been planted evidence in a buy bust operation; they had been cheated in simple money transactions in the Philippines; collection of substantial amounts of lent money, etc.; that bothered them greatly); and affected their work efficiency, resulting into graver distressful problems in their employment, like dismissal from work, particularly, because they didn’t know what to do with a specific legally un-assisted problem in the Philippines. To address this, I proposed, to my boss the Consul General, that we establish a free “Legal-aid Desk” for these type of cases and clients, confident with my early 90’s law practice experience here in Iloilo, I volunteered to man it, myself, and do the coordinating with the IBP’s national leadership, for appropriate, complementing, legal assistance support in the Philippines. My Consul General found merit in my proposal and gave it his nod. Thenceforth, all cases of our compatriots, that arose in Hong Kong, were attended to and assisted, by our ATN desk, while those cases with jurisdictional elements arising in the Philippines, were dealt with by yours truly at the free Legal Aid desk. This dramatically decongested our ATN Section, enabling it to focus more on court cases that required the presence of Consulate personnel in court and in jail. Notably, the IBP Leadership was just too happy to provide the lawyers needed by our distressed Kababayans in cities, provinces and municipalities, which they hail from in the Philippines.

May I invite you to note, a gaping hole in our current justice system, because the families of our OFWs in the Philippines are perceived to be moneyed, they can’t on certain occasions avail of free legal services through the Public Attorney’s Offices, and have to settle for expensive legal services being provided by private law practitioners. Happily, a case referral, from our Free Legal Aid Desk in Hongkong enabled them to obtain legal assistance from the IBP that led to a resolution of many of their nagging cases. Correspondingly, the IBP, itself achieved a good sense of purpose, as its very own legal aid desk found optimum utilization, by their providing lawyers to our clients, who came at the average rate of three a day. Regrettably, when I was eventually promoted to ambassador, the desk had to close down. Unfortunately, the ATN Section just didn’t have the capacity to take over the volume of cases it handled.

8 FAREWELL FOOTNOTES

I know you’re all excited to go and celebrate now, so to bid you adieu. Here are some footnotes of farewell, while the jungle-like world, that waits outside this campus, keeps ever-changing. THE FUTURE ISN’T BLEAK AT ALL:

1. Being a Centralian, your well-covered by God’s Plan to prosper and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future.(Jeremiah, 29:11, “For I know the plans, I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you HOPE and a FUTURE.”), For continued coverage, only your free faithfulness is the required premium;
2. When times get rough. Always, fall back on God; pray and buckle down to work;
3. By graduation your faculty, may have done away with you, but it’s no reason to do away with your own personal faculties;
4. Your having been instilled with EXCEL (Exemplary Christian Education for Life), has fashioned a Christian missionary, return it to the Lord, by way of service to others (Romans 14:7-8, is unambiguous. “For none of us lives for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, So whether we live or die. We belong to the Lord.”)
5. Keep supplementing, what aren’t found in your diplomas! Your degree is just a tool for you to succeed, you must yet prove that you know how to make good use of it, in order to succeed. It’s how life goes about;
6. Innovate, be creative, think out-of-the-box, believe that there’s truth in the age-old adage, there are many ways to skin a cat; Diplomacy isn’t all cocktails, dinners, conventions, meetings, and conferences, it can also poetry be- In Bangladesh, where beggars recite poetry, while begging in Gulshan, the main business center of Dhaka, I accomplished my maiden ambassadorial mission through poetry, by pouring myself out. Even if I had to go sleepless, and was already being nagged by my pillar, for waking up in the dead of the night, to write poems that my Poetry muse, urged me to write. I never expected that it ultimately will lead to my becoming the first Filipino ever to be invited to Bangladesh’s annual, internationally attended, National Poetry Festival and a friend of their Prime Minister and lovable people;
7. If you can modify the question to enable yourself to present the answers and the better side of things, and accomplish your mission, do it; last year, I was invited for a talk by another University in this City.to speak on the boring and corny topic of what makes up an Ambassador’s Work Day, because it was scheduled to be at 2:o’clock in the afternoon, when even young students will find difficulty in keeping awake, I instead talked on the subject “ How an ordinary Juan de la Cruz can become an Ambassador!” that got my audience enthralled and awake all throughout the two-hour period allotted. Just advise me President Ernest, when I can come to talk to your students on this topic, Don’t sulk because the answer that you came to know, addresses a Question no longer;
8. Consistent with your Godliness, as a Centralian, be aware of your surrounding always, for always, it will offer another question, you can use your answers on. Address the injustices and inadequacies around you, don’t shirk from these. Be ever mindful, of the needs of others, try your very best to address these; FULLY ENGAGE YOUR SENSES!!

CLASS OF 2024-2025, WITH THAT SAID, I SEND YOU OFF, YOU CAN ALL CONFIDENTLY GO! CONGRATULATIONS, GODSPEED, & GOOD LUCK!!!
GOOD AFTERNOON, BLESSINGS & PRAYERS!!!