Youth Speak - Patricia Evangelista

What’s next for 18-year-old Patricia Evangelista, who now enjoys a measure of fame after winning an international public speaking competition conducted by the English Speaking Union (esu) in London?

But for now, what Patricia finds most appealing is to simply "get back to school. Get back to normal. Start taking classes. Go out with my friends–that’s something I’ve been missing for the past couple of months."

Patricia, who is on her third year of speech communications studies at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, is comfortable in a tube top and loose beige cotton pants at the patio of her family’s house in Quezon City as she prepares for the interview with STARweek.

Last June 12, Patricia was among several Filipinos who were given recognition during the rain-soaked Independence Day parade.

"I almost fell off the float. It was really literally pouring," she recalls. "It was crazy. My sense of balance isn’t particularly good anyway, so I nearly slipped off. One of the other guys caught me."

Patricia, her eyes sparkling with glee, says it was quite an experience waving to the crowd and shaking hands with President Arroyo.

"I get to tell my grandkids I met the president! It was fun," she says, laughing.

She has been going to school since early June, and insists she has not been treated differently by her friends, classmates or teachers, "although it’s a little easier to get classes now."

"People I don’t know, that’s where the difference comes in," Patricia points out, telling of times she was stopped in the hallway by strangers who come up to her and shake her hand. "It’s really fun."

Her seatmate, during the first day of class, totally ignored her until roll call. Only then did he look her way, wide-eyed, and blurted out, "Ikaw pala yun. Hi... congratulations!"

Her victory at ESU-sponsored competition, where she bested 60 contestants from 37 other countries, did not come easy. She had to undergo an extemporaneous speaking contest at Ateneo de Manila University earlier this year, which served to winnow down the ranks of those who may be picked to represent the country.

When the judges, who are members of the ESU’s Philippine branch, selected Patricia to represent the country, she was given a month to prepare and memorize her speech, which had to comply with the theme "A Borderless World."

Patricia’s mentors for the competition–STAR columnist Alfred Yuson, Jose Dalisay, Gemino Abad, and Ed Maranan–are internationally known wordsmiths.

"They’re all brilliant writers. The first time I talked in front of them, I felt like I was talking to God. They were very careful about letting me write about what I wanted. They let me go my way, put some input, and I was very grateful," she says.

Patricia describes Yuson as a "wonderful guy, very funny," an uncle who would act "like my manager slash publicist slash everything else." She said that when she was in London, he would apprise her parents of her progress.

Informed that she was going to be featured in Chalk magazine, Yuson joking told Patricia, "Okay, let’s wait for FHM."

Abad is "very nice," according to Patricia. "He gave me that one quote about ‘the blessed spot that is England.’" While the quote didn’t sell to Filipino listeners, the British audience nodded in approval that "ah, she knows Shakespeare."

Dalisay, on the other hand, "has the voice of God. If you’ve heard him talk, it’s like you’re talking to God, so deep and full," she says.

One thing Patricia says she likes about all her mentors is that "they treat me like a normal person. They don’t treat me like a little kid."

There are those who wonder if Patricia actually wrote the piece, "Blonde and Blue Eyes," that helped her win the competition. "I did. In my original speech, I damned the Filipinos who left," she says. She called these migrant Filipinos "traitors" who "deserted" their family.

However, she noticed that "always, I felt there was something wrong with what I was saying. My mentors crystallized it. (They said) if you extend that logic, your little Pedro from Pampanga shouldn’t go to the big city because he should be loyal to where he is."

"I reversed the piece," Patricia says, because what was important to her is not leaving the country, but "basically coming home."

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) "relate to that speech. I think that’s the best part of winning," she adds.

Patricia believes that Filipinos have an advantage when working abroad because they are resilient and proficient in English.

"They are able to deal with integrating themselves into another country. We’ve been going all over the world and been successful in everything we do," she said.

For family members left behind by OFWs, Patricia says they have to "accept that it has to be done. It’s not abandoning, it’s a necessity."

Those who choose to stay, she says, should "admire the people who leave. They’re going to another country, a life that is different from theirs, and live on their own without their family. For people who are left behind, take advantage of what they send us and make sure that their sacrifice is well worth it."

Patricia says she "felt so good" after a Filipino, who has four children and has worked for many years in Saudi Arabia, emailed her that he was "glad that somebody painted the right picture."

Filipinos in other countries tend to band together and be united as a group, according to Patricia. As for the naysayers who say that Filipinos would actually turn in their countrymen hiding from immigration officials because they are undocumented aliens, she said this is "not essentially Filipino."

"There are always aberrations to the norm. Someone from another country will do the same thing," she says.

For Filipinos who encounter racial prejudice in the country where they work, Patricia says that prejudice is present everywhere, and the best recourse is for them to "excel at everything you do." As for herself, she says, "I’m a Filipino and I don’t care what you say."

Patricia has her own take on the state of education in the country.

"I’m from UP and UP doesn’t have much money. But we still get a good education," she says, pointing out that the highest-paid professor in her university earns as much as the lowest-ranking teacher in De La Salle University-College of St. Benilde.

She likes the idea of making UP, a state university, partly self-sustaining.

While she cannot recommend a formula to improve the state of education, particularly in elementary and high school levels, she believes that it is "the government’s responsibility to find a way."

Being a student of speech communications, Patricia says that while many complain that media is "so sensational," this "vibrancy of the media acts as a check and balance against whatever is happening wrong in the government. They air out the bad things. They have to."

While Patricia "celebrates" the media’s vibrancy, she believes that top television networks and radio stations should allot a few hours a day to public service.

"What’s on television, what’s in newspapers, changes public opinion, how the country’s going to be run in the future," she insists.

Unlike many who are disgusted and ready to give up on the snail-paced congressional canvass currently plodding along, Patricia says that despite this pace, "you have to let the law work. Even a bad democracy is better than no democracy at all."

Looking into her own future–one that is yet uncertain, she being only 18–Patricia is biding her time in choosing a definite career path. "This tournament opened a lot of options," she says. "I may go into broadcasting. I may go into jurnalism, take a scholarshp somewhere, a master’s degree in another country. I’m not sure yet," adding confidently, "I don’t think that any problem right now in the status quo can prevent me from doing what I want to do."

Gender limitations do not figure in Patricia’s plans. She believes that anyone, male or female, who wants a position should "fight for it if you really want it badly enough. If they don’t hire a woman who is otherwise qualified, it’s discrimination. The fact that it’s labeled discrimination is a wonderful step for womankind."

Aside from school, Patricia is catching up on her reading, which she does voraciously, "anything and everything." She is partial to books by John Grisham, but admits to having a "thing" for romance novels, particularly those by Nora Roberts.

"I go through a book really, really fast. My parents find it hard to keep me supplied so we go to booksales, libraries," she says.

Midway through the interview, a half-grown bitch bounds up to Patricia, trying to clamber on to her lap. "Frankie, no!" she admonishes, as Frankie gnaws at her hand.

"This one is half spitz, half something or the other," she introduces the spirited canine. "She’s too friendly sometimes. There was one time she thought her name was No." The family has another dog, Johnny, also a female.

Her parents, Roberto and Felicia, are garments exporters. Patricia is the youngest of three children: the eldest, Samara, 27, is a singer while Billy, 26, is an interior decorator.

Early indications of an aptitude for public speaking were nothing out of the ordinary. "If you consider talking too much, I had it in abundance," she laughs. "I used to memorize commercials and recite them."

Her first taste of formal training was during high school in St. Theresa’s College, where they picked the best coaches in the country to train the most promising students.

Patricia likes literature, and her favorite topic of discussion is Shakespeare. She also likes her class in oral interpretation, wherein students get literary works and interpret them orally.

At UP-Diliman, freshmen and sophomores taking up general education are required to take 15 units each of math and science, 15 units of social science and philosophy, and another 15 units of arts and letters.

"I’m trying to delay taking up math and science. I’m really bad at them," Patricia says with a sheepish grin.