Sustainable development

I’d like to acknowledge the e-mails I received urging me to write more on Internet privacy. Among them was a letter by Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal, and author of the book Ben Franklin’s Web Site, who informed me that the issue of privacy dates back to colonial times. For those readers who want more on Internet privacy, I shall be writing another column very soon on more troublesome issues.

In the meantime, this article is about the inspiration provided by a group of 10 young American students, all from Yale College. It was fortunate that two weeks ago, I managed to attend a cocktail party in their honor given by Atty. Andres G. Gatmaitan, president of the Yale Club of the Philippines. Andy should be an inspiration himself, since his private law practice is an outstanding one, lived with great integrity and honor – outstanding enough, in fact, to merit the University of the Philippines’ "Outstanding Professional Awardee in the Field of Law" for 2006. He will receive this award at the UP Diliman campus on June 24.

Andy Gatmaitan should count June 2006 as an exceedingly lucky month, for he is also celebrating a birthday on the 30th. He is married to a UP Law alumnus, Asuncion T. Yatco, who graduated the year after he did. That must have been one of those great campus romances that have stood the test of time. One wonders, however, how those love affairs could have flourished because of the rigid workload attendant to the entire UP Law course, or perhaps love bloomed, not in spite of, but because of the workload.

It must have been nice and easy for Andy, though, because he was the UP College of Law valedictorian Class of 1961 with a Bachelor of Laws degree and a bachelor’s degree in Jurisprudence – cum laude for both. And, of course, he was a member of all the honor societies possible. In 2004, he was included in the list of the 100 most influential legal practitioners across the Asia Pacific – the only Filipino on the list – under the aegis of the Asian Legal Business magazine. Capping an outstanding career in the practice of law, three weeks from today, his alma mater, UP, will bestow on him another award.

Since 2001, the law firm now known as Sycip, Salazar, Hernandez and Gatmaitan (SSHG), which Gatmaitan led for 18 years as managing partner and chairman of the executive committee, has won the prestigious International Financial Law Review award – the National Law Firm of the Year – for four consecutive years. He led the law firm to join international law firm networks: the Pacific Rim Advisory Council, the World Law Group and Multilaw. For any law student, this mark of excellence (and I have not even exhausted all the honors), is not only an inspiration but a challenge.

He went to the Yale Law School after UP for his Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees, after which he was immediately hired by the Wall Street law firm of Cahill, Gordon, Reindel and Ohl in New York. Thereafter, former SC Justice Florentino P. Feliciano invited him back to the Philippines to join SSHG. At age 30, Andy became a partner, a record unmatched until today.

Tennessee Williams said, "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent meets talent all the time." This seems to be the case, for Andy Gatmaitan must have known right away what a goldmine of talent lay within ROP (Reach Out Philippines), a 10-member group of Yale college students with superlative social consciousness that warms the heart.

At Yale during spring vacations, volunteer students interested in joining learning missions go on trips to countries in Asia and Central America to take a first-hand look at various perspectives of social concern. Beyond the confines of an affluent homeland, America, what truly are the grave social concerns prevailing in countries known for the negative indices of poverty, environmental degradation, government corruption and gender equality?

After interviewing a number of them, I found out that the common denominator of the group was the sustainability of developmental projects. There was a remarkable maturity within a group so young and so privileged. They possessed a deep and extensive knowledge of Philippine conditions which amazed me.

They had, in fact, just visited a slum area in Malate, were going to visit other poverty-stricken areas, and seemed aware that there were worse conditions in the others. On their schedule were appointments with key officials of ADB and relevant NGOs. Visiting the Gawad Kalinga and Habitat projects, they felt good. They were aware of the other critical social concerns in the Philippines like government corruption, and gender equality as well as environmental issues were on their agenda. I was impressed by them.

The leader of ROP 2006 is Allison Guy, a double major in Environmental Studies and Visual Arts. She was the one who informed me about ROP’s thrusts. Allison is an extremely attractive girl, vibrant and efficient. Since she had lived in the Philippines with her parents, she is familiar with our continuing social issues and thus an excellent leader of the group.

Co-leader is Emily Biesecker, whose major field of study is the environment, focusing on sustainable development in the global south. She said that "In class at Yale, I had been intrigued by many social and environmental issues facing the Philippines, and I was eager to acquire a better understanding of them, and will therefore be working with the environmental NGOs in Palawan." She intends to stay until August, beyond the ROP’s stay here.

The only male student was a tall, sharp young man, Eric Lockhart, in the field of Developmental Economics. I found him talking intensely with UP Economics professor Dodong Kintanar who, with his wife, were great "foster parents"of the Filipino students at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, decades ago, when I was there as a student. Eric seemed to hold himself pretty well amidst nine good-looking females. Explaining that he wants to be part of the "NGO landscape"for sustainable development after his studies at Yale, he intends to work for an NGO to pursue his studies on sustainability in the field of Developmental Economics.

Meg Shea started as a Physics major at Yale College, and for a long time was interested in a Physics professorship after graduation. She became interested, however, in civil and structural engineering and sustainable urban development. According to her, "Strides in sustainable urban development have become very important in Asia, which has been growing at an enormously fast rate." This trip therefore seemed a "fantastic way to learn about sustainable development in an Asian country and explore my new interest."

The actual learning experience was likewise keynoted by Alissa Palladino who felt that, aside from actually seeing and hearing with their own eyes and ears, their minds have indeed been opened to the social realities beyond America.

Very pretty and articulate, Rebecca Lee, whose field of study is the history of art, is very interested in sustainable development as well, and that provided her first reason for joining the group. The other reason had to do with the fact that her father, a lawyer, was part of the investigation and prosecution team against the Marcos wealth in the US. She told me that her father remains interested in change and reform for the Philippines, something I told her that 85 percent of our country, through a reliable professional survey, desire. Time constraints made it impossible for me to interview all 10 of them. I know, however, that they are still in town and are looking forward to this article.

These days I have also been interacting with our Filipino college students, and have found them inspiring as well. I am fully convinced that, from a global perspective, the youth sector is an amazing sector!

Youth, I can affirm, is not, as George Bernard Shaw suggested, "wasted on the young but only undervalued by those who don’t recognize its worth." So many of them, I attest, do live lives with a purpose beyond themselves and they’ll find that the world is as good, as bold, and as broad as the values that brought them there.

Andy Gatmaitan, outstanding legal talent, already with a potential legacy of a brilliant legal career, and 10 outstanding young talents just starting to forge their careers already with such amazing social consciousness. Talent meeting talent, and inspiring each other.

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Thanks for your e-mails sent to jtl@pldtdsl.net