My Speech as a Guest Speaker in OES

Feeling of greatness and dignity reign in my heart for you have chosen me as your guest speaker of
today’s significant occasion, the Commencement Exercises of School Year 2018-2019.

Before I go further with my speech, may I first congratulate the graduates for today marks the
attainment of your dreams. Today is a proof that you have surmounted the challenges of elementary
education. You are victors at this moment because you have attained your victory. You have acquired the
knowledge and skills necessary for you in stepping the next ladder of learning.

Secondly, I want to congratulate you parents for you are now harvesting the fruit of your sacrifices. You
have done a big part in molding these children from their birth until this very moment. You are the
forerunners in the education of your children, molding their behavior and characters, abilities and
knowledge.

The next persons whom I would like to congratulate are of course the teachers. You have successfully
done great responsibilities in bringing these children to what they are now. Your undying love, guidance
and commitment to teach these children have made great changes in their lives. We can say that they
are now better persons because of you.

We are all here, I must say, to celebrate the temporal fruit of unity amidst our diversity in descent,
status, ethnicity, affiliations, and beliefs. Yes, it is sadly temporal, but time and again, we always find a
slice of our precious time for many historic occasions like this. We are never really divided then. We
merely stand facing each other from various points and distances at the crossroads of unity.
Our graduation theme, Unity in Diversity: Quality Education for All, is an adequate description of what
has been going on in our educational system. All in white graduation robes today and I have witnessed
and experienced firsthand the changing curricular orientations – from teacher to student-centered
instructions, from individualized to collaborative learning, and from purely academic to holistic
approaches.

More than all academic workloads, which were nearly unrealistic, we have conquered as well many
things that might have hindered our becoming of better individuals – our weaknesses and frailties, our
egocentricities, our antisocial tendencies, and closemindedness. In meeting deadlines and academic
standards, we have learned how to build healthier communications, how to negotiate and prevent
conflicts, and how to work harmoniously together. In a micro-context, that is unity amidst diversity.

Unity in diversity, as a global human concept, seeks to transcend the notion that an ideal nation should
be comprised of a certain ideology or ethnicity. It suggests that far from being weakened by various
cultural strands, the nation is made stronger by acceptance of the many contributions made by its
constituent parts — its people coming from various walks of life.

Filipinos are never really divided. We merely stand facing each other from various points and distances at
the crossroads of unity. Our spirit of communal unity has never gone colder but has kept on flaming
through time. In its sustenance, education serves as the fuel, and hence, the continuous delivery of
quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating education of all Filipino learners irrespective of profiles and
stereotypes.

And we, as the younger generation given this great privilege, commit ourselves to the shared goals of
education – holistic development of the 21st century learners – and continuously nurture the future
leaders and nation-builders that lie within us.

As a parting gift, a great poet John Donne once said, and I requote: “We have become not a melting pot
but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different
dreams.”