Of school homecomings and class reunions

Tomorrow, the twenty-fourth of January, the Southwestern University High School Classes, including my class of 1966, are coming together inside a hotel in Metro Cebu in order to celebrate our GAHOM or Grand Alumni Homecoming. A number of our classmates are flying in from the US, from various parts of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Many of them were already here for the SINULOG.

Homcomings are always occasions for coming together and sharing poignant memories and nostalgic moments shared when we were young, innocent, reckless and filled with so much idealism and boundless hopes. The organizing committee has given me the honor and the privilege to give an inspirational speech. Perhaps they are all wondering what I did to my life from a mere high school library janitor in 1963 And so, I will indulge them with a brief story of my life.

In 2004, when I was appointed by the President as DOLE Undersecretary, SWU, led by its owners, the Aznars, gave me the honor of being the Commencement Speaker of the Joint Graduation Exercises by all the colleges and departments held in the iconic Aznar Coliseum. All the members of the Aznar clan were there and I told them that in the year 1963, there was a small boy in slippers and tattered clothes, who knocked at the Aznar Mansion in Villa Aznar. He was applying for the position of school janitor and working student. The Aznars opened the door for that boy.

That boy worked hard and studied hard. He came from a mountain village in a far-away southwestern town of Ronda, 82 kilometers down south, not from the poblacion but 16 kilometers into the inner mountain ranges in the boundaries of Argao. That boy became a lawyer after a long and hard struggle as a working student and later as a full academic scholar. By his hard work, perseverance, determination and integrity, he was invited to work in such big conglomerates as Petron, San Miguel Corporation and Pepsi Cola for a total of 28 years.

That boy in slippers was also trusted by the government to serve the people as a lawyer at age of 24 and as a Judge of Labor Cases at age of 27. He was appointed as DOLE undersecretary without any political endorsement. He opted to serve abroad for nine years to serve hundreds of thousands of our OFWs in Taiwan, Malaysia and the distant Muslim country of Kuwait. He saved Filipinos from dangerous and difficult work and fought for our migrant workers against oppression and exploitation.

While working in the government and in those prestigious companies during the daytime, he was also teaching at night time as Professor of Law in UST, FEU, UE, San Beda, San Sebastian and CEU. He wrote no less than 38 law textbooks and 12 HR books and two books on Legal Ethics. He has travelled extensively as travelling lecturers in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Penang, Johore, Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka, Akita, Beijing, Honolulu, San Francisco, New York, LA, Geneva and in many other places where he lectured on Comparative Labor Laws and HR topics from recruitment to termination of employment.

That boy in tattered clothes who was bullied and looked down by wealthier classmates six decades ago, has found his true purpose in life as a passionate teacher of future lawyers and whose students are now congressmen, governors, mayors, Cabinet members, justices, judges and prosecutors and fellow professors. He is writing a daily column in The Freeman entitled “What Matters Most” where he shares his insights on multiple issues about law, love, life and the art of living.

That boy is your speaker today, a septuagenarian who has lived life to the fullest, who has travelled to 132 countries and more than 200 cities. He has visited Israel, Rome. Paris, London and many places in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, Asia and the Americas.  But no matter where I go, no matter when, I always go back to the places where I began. This homecoming is an opportune time for me to realize that one of the deepest joys of life is to return to the place where I started to imbibe the true meaning of life.

The true meaning of life is to be able to hope even in the most difficult situations, to struggle hard and never lose faith, to fight with strong determination even in the midst of all "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", to fall and to fail and then to stand up again, and to win, to be wounded and scarred in the battlefield of life, and never to surrender until the goal is achieved. Life is difficult but there are joys and victories that are sweetest when earned through many pains and sacrifices.

Today, I come home to you to share a life well lived and a person who went all through all the mountains and valleys of the world/s many vicissitudes and burdens. I am happy to report to you that in all the pains and the glory, I never forgot where I started and that was with you.