Aquino to Ateneo class of 2016: Exercise critical discernment
President Benigno Aquino III on Saturday urged the Ateneo de Manila University class of 2016 to exercise critical discernment as they head off to pursue their dreams, and not allow themselves to simply be influenced by public opinion.
The speech was likely to be the last by Mr. Aquino as head of state.
The military will give a send off for President Aquino as Commander in chief on Monday. He is set to attend the retirement ceremonies for Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ricardo Marquez on Tuesday.
Drawing inspiration from their alma mater song, the outgoing President said the Ateneo teaches its students “to be critical of their surroundings and honed them to not just go with the tide of public opinion.”
President Aquino also told the graduates, who were born after 1986, that they must have been aware that his father, the opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., has yet to step on the tarmac of the airport when he was assassinated, triggering the protests that led to the Edsa People Power Revolution 30 years ago.
“The philosopher Edmund Burke said: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ The dictatorship has ended but the need to take part in social issues remains. This is part of being ‘men and women for others,’” Mr. Aquino said, referring to their school’s Ignatian spirit.
Mr. Aquino will step down from office at noon of June 30, to be replaced by tough-talking former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
At the baccalaureate Mass, Fr. Karel San Juan said in his homily that the recent elections showed how “divided” the Filipinos are in “our ideals in how this change is to happen, what type of leader is needed, how power is to be exercised.”
“Our society, complex, confused, divided as it is in need of deep healing. It is in need of deep unity. It is crying for help. Are we ready to be engaged yet with our people? To listen to them yet again to understand them (beyond) our bias and prejudices, to give way to understanding new connections, new relationships, all of which are rooted in our capacity to extend mercy and compassion, touching yet again the hearts and souls of people?” San Juan said.
Some 3,000 graduates, parents, guests, and faculty members filled the Ateneo covered court to listen to Mr. Aquino’s speech, which he delivered in Filipino.
The President also delivered the commencement speech for Ateneo’s class of 2011.
Mr. Aquino was a first year high school student at the Ateneo when martial law was declared, making him spend his afternoons visiting his father, the opposition Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., in jail.
Now 56, Mr. Aquino earned an economics degree also from the Ateneo but was unable to attend his own graduation because five days before the event, he had to fly to the United States to join his parents and sisters lest the dictator Ferdinand Marcos cancels his exit visa.
The President said that he has drawn inspiration from fellow Ateneans, as much as he had been told that he had been inspiring to them.
Mr. Aquino thanked the Ateneo community for being among the first to stand up to the attempts at martial law revisionism by issuing a collective statement against those “who tried to make us forget the nightmare that was martial law.”
