Good afternoon, magandang hapon sa inyong lahat, maupay na hapon sa inyong tanan!
First of all, I would like to acknowledge Mrs. Bienvenida A. Cabangon, the loving spouse of the Ambassador and the beloved mother of Arnold who I’m sure, as a teacher, is responsible for supporting her husband and her children in the various activities in their lives. Second, I would like to acknowledge Arnold who has continued the good work of his father; Evelyn, the executive vice president of Fortune Life; and Linda Legaspi who has the most stunning terno I’ve ever seen in 76 years.
Also, I’d like to pay tribute to the artists who presented, in just a matter of minutes, the entire life of Ambassador Cabangon Chua. Congratulations to all of you, very great libretto, wonderful singing, great acting and much creativity. Perhaps, this presentation can be transformed into a video by Fortune Life, which can be distributed, and perhaps you might even think of a Filipino version using Filipino songs that will inspire us as a nation of succeeding in spite of suffering, of going on in spite of it all. I’ve always believed that theater is perhaps one of the most effective ways of teaching not only children and learners but also adults, as it is a source of life. Of course, the name of Luna Inocian rings a wonderful bell because of Junix Inocian who graduated from Siliman University of which I used to be the Chair. Thank you very much.
Of course, we are grateful to Fortune Life for this initiative. I, myself, am a child of a couple teacher. I come from dynasties of teachers. Have you not noticed that you don’t only have one teacher in the family, you have clans of teachers? And have you not noticed that the most successful, the most admired, the greatest leaders that we have are products of teachers? Like Arnold has a teacher of his mother, the President has a teacher of his mother, and if you try to recall, many of you, somewhere in your family, have a teacher who has thought you many lessons in life. So, thank you very much to Fortune Life Insurance as well as to Linda who has partnered with Fortune Life Insurance in augmenting this project.
Since I assumed my duties as Secretary of Education, the standard answer whenever we receive an invitation is “no.” It’s because we are, right now, very involved in our project and programs. Also, we are nearing already the end of the year wherein we have to make some reforms and changes. But when my assistant said that the invitation is from the family of Ambassador Cabangon Chua, I immediately said “Yes! I’m going”. My assistant said, “But you have three appointments today located in different places.” One at University of the Philippines, the other at Congress, where you have the most exciting conversations, and then this one—all sorts of meetings. But I already said yes, I will not refuse the family of Ambassador Cabangon Chua because in one of my many lives at the age of 76, I was a humble columnist for BusinessMirror. It was a very happy experience, which I had to discontinue while I engaged in other activities. Hindi pwedeng magsabing “no” because I know Business Mirror very well. The issues it has brought up and how it has always presented both sides, if not, all sides, of burning national issues, which we debate about.
We are very, very happy and grateful. We are supposed to be the third party of this partnership but we are actually the recipients, the beneficiaries of this partnership, and we are grateful that our teachers are recognized.
One reason why I also need to be with you this afternoon is because of the theme, the value of discipline and hard work. These days, young people get the idea that, to be successful, you go on the easiest and fastest way. Wherever, whatever that method is. To give importance to discipline and hard work is to bring up the very values that had made us as a nation and as a people. So thank you for that.
As for the Department of Education, it has never been done before since the days of the dictatorship. The department has been receiving very generous donations from a gambling corporation every year for the building of school houses. School houses marked with the name of the corporation and announced in television and media. I am the only secretary of education who has returned the money. The decision of DepEd was supported by the President himself when I explained that gambling and all its related implications to young people is not consistent with the values of hard work and discipline. We teach our children to save; we teach our children to work hard. They cannot do it in the atmosphere which also a product of get rich schemes. In so far as online gambling is concerned, because it is recognized by the policy and that it is perhaps helpful to local governments, I’ve also suggested that the outlets selling these tickets should not be located near schools. You can see those long lines of learners and teachers hoping to get rich overnight, spending hard earned money and many years of waiting and hoping and dreaming of the lucky number which will change their fortune forever. Values of discipline and hard work are very old fashioned values. Sabi ng iba, “Sa mga shonda lang ’yun, sa mga matatanda, sa mga dinosaurs.” Young people are all in a hurry to be successful and sometimes get the notion that any way, any method, any strategy, any sacrifice, is worth whatever material success you are reaching for.
Teaching the values of discipline and hard work is very challenging at present because of so many competitors. You see it on TV, how to do things, how to be successful, how to get rich quick. The other day, we had a session with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which does something also very similar to what you are doing. They encourage our children to save; to save in advance. I said, “You have a lot of work to do because consumerism is already deeply engraved in the Philippines. You see those ads, and those places where you are encouraged not only to buy and to spend your money, but to also go into debt.” Children and young people have their own credit cards and means of spending. I said, “You have a lot of competition and therefore you have a lot of work to do. You have to mobilize as many institutions as you can. It’s not enough to be having seminars, distributing all the little math books to the children, with little coins.” How much worth will children realize if perhaps they win overnight? It’s very important to the mind of learners. Again and again and again, if you want to survive as a nation, you have to sustain all these values of hard work and discipline.
The story of Ambassador Cabangon Chua was beautifully related to us by a theater group. Let me also share with you parts of my own story. Many are already aware that I learned how to read and write through banana leaves, which have lines, and sharpened bamboo sticks as pencils at the age of 3, during the war years, because my mother was a teacher. And she had to think of ways of distracting the children around the mountain areas from where we were from the sound of airplanes fighting each other, from the stories of arrests, women eviscerated, children bayoneted. We have to be distracted and in the mean time, we learned how to read and to write. I am the child of teachers, we have never been rich. And as a teacher now, I am not rich. So when I went to school, I was immediately accelerated after the war because the district supervisor was surprised that a 4-year old could already read and write from banana leaves. This time, you have all the gadgets. You have computers, papers, pencils, televisions etc. and if all learners still don’t know how to read and write. If all learners still do not know values of citizenship then perhaps we have to go back to banana leaves.
I finish high school at the age of 13 years old. In my home town, my father who was a teacher, made me sell newspapers at the bus station. I was very small then. I clamber up and try to sell newspaper at the age of 8. I went to Siliman University on a scholarship. Of course, scholarships are never enough. This is something scholarship donors should bear in mind, it’s not enough. You should also pay for the child’s fare, for the child’s food, for the child’s uniform, for the child’s books. If you only give scholarships, you can’t have as many takers as you want.
So at the age of 15, since I was enrolled in Business Administration in Accounting, I worked as a book keeper in one of the bookstores which is of course a very happy institution. To work in the bookstore is perhaps the best place to be in for a 15-year old. We have worked our way up and I don’t know if teachers tell the children that they have privilege. Or if the teachers tell their children that by the age of 21 they have to be congressmen and later on be a President. But as far as I know, teachers teach their own children and their own learners to be honest, to be just, to be fair to their fellowmen and to love their country and we should continue that.
Now what are we trying to do in the Department of Education? You already know that we have added 2 more years to high school. This is because we have a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the world. We were, at the time, one of three countries which only had 10 years of basic education. And even if our graduates who go abroad may not admit it, whenever they go abroad, whether it is our neighboring country, or Europe, or even in Africa or to the United States, the number of years of their basic education will always be counted and they will not get the kind of job that they expect to get. So you will have supervising nurses starting as nursing aides. You will have doctors who will start as medical aides and so on. You have engineers, you have marine graduates, this is because you lack, we lack, at that time, 2 more years. It is, truly, a worthwhile investment.
But what is important, and perhaps quite challenging, which Fortune Life, the Cabangon Chua family, and all those who are interested in education, is the pace with which knowledge is changing. I just came from Peru, from a meeting of education administers in preparation for APEC. One thing that the President of Peru said was, “We should not just teach our learners facts”. Right now you will teach them days, facts, stories, formula, etc. By the time a learner or student graduates, whatever they learn is already irrelevant. Because technology, knowledge, creativity has already over taken them. What we have to teach our students and our learners is how to accept and to live with change. We have to teach them to be creative. To be innovative, but at the same time, we should not forget the values which they call by another name. We say values, discipline, hard work; they call them soft skills, which are very, very important. They are equally, if not more important, than the hard skills because the hard skills are changing right now at this very minute. I think you have realized, when you yourselves graduated that what you were taught in the university could not necessarily be applied in work. And the change is even much faster now.
And this is where you might consider, scholarship programs that will contribute to the positive building of our teachers. We, teachers, cannot teach new things or ways of being creative, of confronting solutions, of living with change because it is so difficult to accept change. As a 76 year old, I have that kind of difficulty. I look at the skirts of girls and I have difficulty. All the explicit scenes in the movie, I have difficulty. But this is very very important, we are living in a world which is fast changing. We are living in a world which will be competing with us right in our own country. You have known this already because of the freedom, and the agreements we have with many other countries. Graduates of other countries are competing with us here and if we don’t catch up, and we don’t live with that, we don’t accept that, competition is here and if you don’t teach our students that, even if we add many more years in basic education, we will still be left behind. This is a task, this is a challenge, which is not only that of the Department of Education. I have said publicly, repeatedly, that the business of education, the responsibility for education is not only that of the department. It’s the most important value that we have in our culture. A peasant will sell his last carabao, a jeepney driver will mortgage his jeep to send his child to school. That’s how important our education is to us as a people and as part of our cultural tradition. It is our joint responsibility. We cannot do it alone.
Fortune Life Insurance Company, the Cabangon Chuas, and Linda have shown that it is possible for us to work together. To capacitate our teachers, to inspire them, to encourage them; because we don’t learn everything in a university or in a teacher’s college. You have to study on your own and you have to keep up. Wherever you are, whether in Tacloban or Negros or right here in Manila.
I am very glad that Arnold said that we are thinking of upgrading and expanding the program. I like it because it is focused on the theme of hardwork and on discipline. If others in the private sector, in civil society, in faith based institutions, which are very important players in education. Perhaps, if more and more of you are infected with the idea that we have a responsibility to our learners, then the burden will not be so heavy for Fortune Life Insurance Company. Again thank you very much. I am glad to finally meet Ambassador’s family. I am glad to meet Mrs. Bienvenida Chua whose name means “a good arrival.” Welcome to the Philippines, again. Welcome to all of us.
Thank you very much.