‘To the parents and guardians of the graduates, congratulations on the fruits of your labor. And to the teachers who were with the students on this, their journey of learning especially during this time of the pandemic, Mabuhay — and may your tribe increase.’
AROUND the country, students of varying grade levels are either graduating or moving up even while health protocols prohibit mass gatherings, making graduations virtual events.
That’s somehow sad because I distinctly remember how graduation day was always a big thing, whether it was for elementary school, high school or college. I even remember our graduation song at UP High School/Integrated School; and I also remember that I was the only one in a light blue barong because we didn’t notice the small note in the announcement sent to parents that the boys had to come in white or off white barongs.
So like it or not I stuck out in a sea of whites. “Kulang sa kula,” I should have explained.
Virtual graduations take away a lot of the fun and excitement for both graduates and parents, and of course the eating that follows. In the 1960s and 1970s the Max’s branch in the Roces district of Quezon City, off Morato, was a go-to place for middle class families for their post-graduation celebrations.
It’s that season again these days except, as mentioned earlier, everything is virtual these days. And this year the DepEd has chosen this as the theme for all graduations: “Kalidad ng Edukasyon Lalong Patatagin sa Gitna ng Pandemya.”
I was asked to be a speaker at the graduation of the senior high school program of EnzoTech in Calatagan, Batangas. EnzoTech is funded by the Enrique Zobel Foundation and is focused on providing educational opportunities to the youth of Calatagan and nearby LGUs. Of course, I was informed of the DepEd topic.
Then it dawned on me: the principle of encouraging and strengthening the quality of education during a time of crisis was not new to the EZF. To be more precise, it was not new to Enrique Zobel who, in the 1970s, lived it in a most dramatic way. As I told the graduating class who were too young to even know of the events, the Philippines was a troubled country in the 70s, Mindanao in particular. And one time the town of Jolo in Sulu was razed to the ground. Among those displaced were Filipino-Muslim scholars, mostly Tausug, whose education was now imperiled.
Zobel came to the rescue. An old property of Ayala in the Poblacion district of Makati was converted into a dormitory to house over 100 of these scholars, many of whom eventually joined either government or the private sector. One individual who could never forget this was Almarim Centi Tillah, brother of former senator Santanina Rasul, and a former OIC governor of Tawi-Tawi. Whenever Al would see me in the 1990s and we would end up talking about what EZ did for his fellow Tausogs, he could not resist turning emotional.
And that’s what I told the graduating class — that because of this event in 1970s which demonstrated the very principle the DepEd wished me to talk about today, I was certain the Enrique Zobel would be mighty pleased to know that his foundation carries on the work in his memory.
To everyone graduating this year, good luck as you move on to the next level in the ladder of education. To the parents and guardians of the graduates, congratulations on the fruits of your labor. And to the teachers who were with the students on this, their journey of learning especially during this time of the pandemic, Mabuhay — and may your tribe increase.
