IN her two best-selling books, Passages and Pathfinders, author Gail Sheehy documents the roadmap of adult life through the stories of real people. Each time we go from one stage of our lives to the next, we face a transition or a turning point that she calls a “passage.” The central point of the books is that our personalities need not stop developing. There’s no last passage even in retirement. In fact, she presents retirement as a call to make a creative change—to grow to our full potential.
According to the stories found in the books, the best of life happen to those who let go of old roles and find a renewal of purpose. Instead of declining, there are men and women in their post 50s who embrace a Second Adulthood and progress through entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity. Some call this a process of reinventing oneself.
One example of an individual who is reinventing himself is Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., the Executive Secretary of the late President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino for six years.
During his term, his office was not only at the center of the action; it was the center of the action. Yet we never read much about him much because he preferred not to be in the limelight, but it was his office that got the President’s programs moving. As executive secretary, he faced challenges on a daily basis.
Then as now, his way of responding to challenges is to take the proverbial bull by the horns. And the bull right now is Manuel L. Quezon University, or MLQU for short, where he sits as the university president.
Like a good matador, Ochoa is sizing up the present bullish challenge, trying to find out how best he can have mastery over it. He is the type who does not flinch, one who thrives on the seemingly impossible. The bigger the task, the more he gets hepped up.
One afternoon, our team of communications specialists had a lively and freewheeling exchange with him in his office along Edsa, near GMA 7. In that session, over cups of coffee, he talked about exploring the idea of re-inventing MLQU.
Just for context, Manuel L. Quezon University was founded in 1947, by eminent Filipinos such as the Senator Lorenzo Tanada, Justice Jose B.L. Reyes, Justice Arsenio Dizon and a few other prominent achievers.
They lit the torch of the MLQU brand of education that has since then distinguished itself above the rest: rooted in the classics with a strong nationalistic bent. This is succinctly embodied in the university motto: pro patria et jure (for country and rule of law).
The vision of the said founders was clear: a school that would mold and shape a roster of patriotic young “nation builders” in diverse fields of endeavor.
Since then, young men and women have trodden and walked through its halls and eventually went on to become illustrious and renowned lawyers, justices, public servants, agents of the law as well as architects and engineers who helped build and strengthen the pillars of our society anchored on the rule of law. Their honored achievements are now part of MLQU’s legacy.
In October 2014, property developer New San Jose Builders Inc. (NSJB) acquired ownership of MLQU. A Filipino owned company established in 1986, headed by its chairman and owner, Jose Rizalino Acuzar. It is the company behind Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan and as well as several residential tower projects in Metro Manila, among others.
When this was announced, there was a sentiment among critics as well as a few alumni that MLQU would be turned into just another real property development project of NSJB.
The entry of Ochoa as president quieted down the qualms. While he is not from the academe, he has accepted the daunting challenge of breathing new life into an old school that has fallen into hard times and transform it into a viable proposition again. He is determined to continue its legacy as a venerable molder of nation builders in keeping with the founders’ original vision.
This commitment has led to investments in resources, facilities and equipment, a more conducive learning environment, the offering of new programs, recruitment and development of faculty, and partnership with government and nongovernment institutions.
Today, he admits that the academic landscape is changing. The digital age and the pandemic have turned everything into a new ballgame. In fact, the pandemic has changed the game by “forcing” the shift to the digital realm much sooner than the world wanted. This is not only true in public governance or business and industry but also in education.
Ochoa is being compelled to adjust and adapt to the exigencies of the times, adopting any digital solution within reach to get MLQU going during the long and interminable lockdowns. But he sees beyond the pandemic. He is fully aware that the world, and particularly education, cannot and will not go back to what it was before. This is why he is determined to pursue the digitalization of an old school like MLQU even farther.
He is treading on uncharted ground and he is doing it by the seat of his pants because there are no tested and proven templates to show him how to navigate it. Not in the university setting anyway. So he is just winging it, guided by an informed, common sensical mind. He constantly and continuously monitors the radar, looking around, listening, and absorbing and sounding off people like me.
What’s good about Ochoa is that he is not walled in by traditions that might stymie other school administrators. He does not pretend nor aspire to have any doctorate degrees in education or similar area of expertise. He can only rely on an innate guile, instinct, abilidad, his past experience as an administrator of a city and chief of staff of a president.
He often likes to break the mold in the way he approaches problems or issues. His mantra seems to be: why not? He is willing to try any idea that might work and discard it if it doesn’t and then move on to another idea.
While Ochoa is busy future fitting MLQU, he is also determined to put MLQU back on the radar as a top-notch law school. There was a time when the university had a 100 percent passing average in the bar exams. For the longest time, MLQU was the default place for bar exam reviewers, many of whom went on to be in the top 10. Even Ochoa said it was at MLQU where he spent time reviewing for his bar exam.
He intends to make Law one of the flagship courses of the university as a way of honoring the distinguished achievements of its past law graduates. Consequently, he has managed to recruit a first class legal professional and educator as the new dean for the School of Law, together with a coterie of quality law professors. A highly regarded former Supreme Court Justice who is an MLQU alumnus will soon come on board as a Dean emeritus or something. Recently Ochoa signed a memorandum of agreement with the prestigious The Asia Foundation for the establishment and management of the MLQU Law Clinic, to make competent legal assistance more accessible to indigents and the disadvantaged. This he said would expose law students to actual law practice and prepare them adequately for the real world.
This transition or “passage” from “little president” of the land to the president of a venerable old university in the process of being re-envisioned is full of challenges that can daunt any individual. Having found a renewed sense of purpose and fully aware that education is the difference maker the country needs in its long arduous passage to progress, Ochoa is determined to ensure that the new MLQU proves ready and worthy to be the molder of the new generations of digital natives to come.
One wishes him all the best because the country in its sorry state right now is ripe for massive rebuilding. It will need all the young idealistic graduates that the new MLQU can produce to rebuild it.