An oration in 1969

I don’t believe we have ever met in person.

But through the marvels of technology Jerry A. Quilban and I exchange emails every now and then. I enjoy his views and insights on different issues. In the latest email he sent me, he attached a material he delivered some time ago entitled: “Our modern World.”

With Jerry’s permission allow me to share his material with you.

Jerry says:

Our world today resembles a store where some pranksters had entered during the night and shifted the price tags. As a result the cheap things are marked high and the really precious things are priced low. Indeed, even in our little corner of the world today, vanity, frivolity, merrymaking, ease, and comfort are the premium while the values of honesty, integrity, service and love of humanity are at a discount.

Just walk down the avenue and see the beautiful mansions with their imposing facades and watch the shining limousines driven by the spoiled darlings of the rich. Visit drinking saloons and notice teenagers giddy with intoxicating drinks seated with painted dolls busy entertaining them. Attend dances and see for yourselves rich and prominent matrons bedecked with jewels wearing expensive brocades and crystaletes. Go to gambling joints and see for yourselves thousands of pesos being passed from one hand to another in the game of mahjong, poker, bingo and dice. You will not be surprised to find in these joints high government officials, rich and prominent citizens of the community and canto boys frequenting these places. They call these democratic way of life because the rich and the powerful rub elbows with the poor and the weak. Ah! Democracy, how many mischief have been committed in thy name? Attend parties and banquets and see for yourselves the sumptuous meals, the ubiquitous lechons, the rich pastries, the steaming hot birds-nest soup. What an extravagance when the majority of the Filipinos just submit on boiled rice and tuyo.

Visit the rural as well as the city schools. Go to the classrooms and find out what the majority of students are doing. Well, really as one competent observer said, “It is high time we close our carnivals and do away with soft pedagogy if we are to turn out students who are far from frivolous, vain and pretentious.”

Our needs these days are more serious students dedicated to study and the advancement of knowledge, and an enlightened leadership that will bring about a peaceful and united world. How can we accomplish this?

Let us re-study, re-evaluate and straighten our tangled values. Let us overcome this distorted confusion where issues are dimmed, minds confused and beliefs muddled. Let us all work for the realization of a beautiful but not an empty dream – a unified world where love and service of mankind make up the guiding policy of all government. Let us lay aside prejudices, subordinate our selfish ambitions as individuals and as nations to the welfare of mankind. Let us learn to settle dispassionately differences which inevitably arise now and then. Above all, let us treat our fellow human beings with understanding and tolerance for we are all equals. What if one is brown and another white? What if one is mediocre and another one super intelligent? What if one is poor and another rich? Are they not all human beings free to breathe the same air, read the same books and enjoy the same opportunity to improve themselves? Of what value is intellectual superiority if it does not inspire others to follow and enlightened leadership? Of what is prosperity if it is not shared by those who are in dire need? Of what use is the greatness of a man or a country if such greatness is not used to uplift the less fortunate and the weak?

The answers to my queries lie in your hands.

Class Oration

Jerry A. Quibilan

April 28, 1961

Looks like things have worsened since then. As students go back to school we need to remind them that their main objective in studying is NOT TO PASS but to Excel. To develop the capacity to learn, re-learn and unlearn. But more important than academics is the home schooling of biblical values that can shape them and mold them into becoming a people of dignity and honor. And perhaps reshape the destiny of our nation.

(Send me your feedback and write me: franciskong@ businessmatters.org. You can also listen to my radio program “Business Matters” aired 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)