Go rock the world
The timing of the planting of the sunflowers at University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman was perfect; the flowers were blooming right in time for last Sunday’s commencement exercises.
Early morning, the sun was out, although gray clouds drifted in and out ominously. As the ceremonies began, rain—not a drizzle but hard rain— poured down. Within a few seconds, the open amphitheater, where graduating students and their families had gathered, became a sea of maroon umbrellas. The administration was prepared.
The rain continued to pour as the processional and entrance of university officials began. But as UP Diliman’s chancellor, Carlo Vistan, entered, the rain stopped, prompting our emcees, Kara David-Cancio and Ivan Mayrina (both alumni at UP Diliman’s College of Media and Communications or CMC) to comment that the chancellor was that powerful.
There was power, too, as the commencement speaker came out to the stage, her hands outstretched in a way that made many of us feel hugged, individually.
Our speaker was Maria Jessica A. Soho, full of empathy as well as simplicity. Her introduction spoke of her graduating from Masskom, and a career that, this year, spans 40 years of fearless and compassionate reporting, bringing her to the most difficult hardship assignments, including Afghanistan. She covered the high and the mighty (all Philippine presidents that came after Ferdinand Marcos Sr.) even as she gave voice to the silenced and forgotten, including overseas Filipino workers and indigenous peoples.
Her speech began on an upbeat note, noting the just-concluded national elections and her view that there is indeed a youth vote and that the youth vote helped to generate hope.
She repeated the importance of loob (inner self) and kapwa (caring for others), intertwined with the need to always remain humble and grateful; to recognize that a UP education remains, sadly, a privilege; and that our new graduates need to be in touch with the realities outside of UP, upholding UP’s traditional values of honor, excellence, and service (then proposing maybe it should be service, honor, and excellence or SHE, whatever, but never to put excellence ahead of honor), in other words, integrity.
She spoke of the need to work hard, giving her examples from her work through the years. If I might paraphrase one of the most important pieces of advice she had, it was the need to get out of one’s comfort zones. She mentioned, in particular, the need to avoid echo chambers, her way of warning about how the internet and social media are trapping people, including our young scholars, in digital spaces where you only hear views that are similar to your own.
There was much, much more in Jessica’s speech, but I did want to refer as well to the valedictory delivered by Mark Andy Pedere, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Philippine Studies, summa cum laude. It was a speech that could not have been more appropriate as Mark Andy spoke of his family roots—grandparents who were farmers, and working-class parents. Here was someone who would not need to look for social realities.
He spoke of hopes and disappointments, his parents losing their jobs during the pandemic, when the factory they were working for closed down, plunging the family into debt. UP and state universities may be tuition-free, but many, like Mark Andy, have to find ways (diskarte) for day-to-day expenses.
Mark picked up work as a writer, social media manager, and tutor, but faced many handicaps: from being rejected, from living in the dorm (perhaps because he lived in Metro Manila, a rule that really should be reviewed), to Red-tagging.
UP diplomas, Mark observed, are often scarred and wounded from the many diskarte, and with so many problems faced in today’s world, how far would a diploma go without having to compromise one’s principles because of circumstances, local and global? He wondered aloud about the irony of his not knowing anything about farming and yet coming from grandparent farmers.
Mark picked up on the theme of this year’s graduation: Lunas (remedies), foremost of which was the need to counter the erasures of society that prevent people from recognizing what goes on in the Philippines and the world. Openly gay, he spoke of how the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans) sector must link up to other sectors, learning to listen, learning to care, through kolektibong utak at puso (collective brains and hearts). He closed with a poem he wrote dedicated to Palestinians who might have graduated.
Might have.
Two fine speakers on a day of rain and sunshine, resonating with Jessica’s call at the end of her speech, “Go rock the world.”
