The document is the commencement speech given by Miriam Defensor Santiago to UP Cebu graduates. In the speech, she makes three main points:
1. She warns the graduates about the dangers of corruption in Philippine politics, noting how politicians blatantly disregard the constitution and abuse their power by stealing public funds.
2. She discusses the importance of upholding moral values and fighting corruption in their careers, as they have an obligation to improve society.
3. She advises the graduates to find meaning and purpose in life beyond just career success, as material wealth and achievements may not fulfill them in the long run.
Original Description:
A transcript of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago's speech
The document is the commencement speech given by Miriam Defensor Santiago to UP Cebu graduates. In the speech, she makes three main points:
1. She warns the graduates about the dangers of corruption in Philippine politics, noting how politicians blatantly disregard the constitution and abuse their power by stealing public funds.
2. She discusses the importance of upholding moral values and fighting corruption in their careers, as they have an obligation to improve society.
3. She advises the graduates to find meaning and purpose in life beyond just career success, as material wealth and achievements may not fulfill them in the long run.
The document is the commencement speech given by Miriam Defensor Santiago to UP Cebu graduates. In the speech, she makes three main points:
1. She warns the graduates about the dangers of corruption in Philippine politics, noting how politicians blatantly disregard the constitution and abuse their power by stealing public funds.
2. She discusses the importance of upholding moral values and fighting corruption in their careers, as they have an obligation to improve society.
3. She advises the graduates to find meaning and purpose in life beyond just career success, as material wealth and achievements may not fulfill them in the long run.
Today, as a fresh graduate, you will find yourself in the prime of your life. Young, beautiful and a full- fledged member of the intellectual elite of Philippine society. You will never feel as young, as beautiful and as intellectually simulated as you are today. Therefore, grab life. Grab it with both hands! Change the world! But first, change yourself!
To help you in your lifes journey, although suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I drove nearly two hours to share with you, as my fellow UP alumni, the lesson I learned from life. Today, you feel immortal, para bang kaya mong lahat. Dahil masagana ang buhay sa edad ninyo. You cannot admit the possibility of any accident or calamity or tragedy that might mar your life. You cannot possibly contemplate an end to your life or the life of those whom you love. But I assure you, the devil never sleeps, that evil lurks all the way. And I promise you, middle age will come and then old age will beckon. By that time, I will no longer be with you so let me tell you the lessons Ive learned that life has taught me. For the sake of brevity, I will focus on two points: political life in a developing society and the moral life in an extremely limited lifetime. The political sphere No doubt, the Philippines suffer from an endemic culture of corruption. The problem is that the crooks have made a mockery of our constitution. May Saligang Batas nga, wala namang sumusunod. Tapos ang una pang lumabag sa batas ay mismo pang leaders natin. Sa Congress, sa Senado, sa House of Representatives at kahit minsan sa Cabinet. Yun ang problema ng ating bansa. At kayong mga UP graduation, you know very well that you have a moral obligation to this society that has been so good to you to make sure that you leave your footprints in the sands of our time. But the problem is that the crooks have made a mockery of our constitution. As a basic law, the constitution is supreme in the sense that every law or behavior that contradicts a constitutional provision should be declared not only void but also punishable as a crime. And yet, just an example, look at the constitutional provisions on accountability of public officers. Hanggang ngayon, walang napakulong na mga nagnakaw ng pork barrel. Daang milyon. Sige pa rin sila. Look at the constitutional provision prohibiting political dynasty. Maliwanag yan sa Constitution na political dynasties are prohibited, as may be provided by law. Andyan pa rin sila. Lahat sila. Mga kapatid, kamaganak, na magiging senador and congressmen. Anong demokrasya pinagusapan natin? We are ruled not just by an oligarchy but we are ruled by a kleptocracy. These two provisions are blatantly disobeyed and the perpetrators are no less than our elected leader. How did this come about? Lets start with our definition of terms. Corruption is the abuse of public roles and resources for a private benefit. Masyado bang komplikado yan? Siguro kung di taga-UP di makaintinde. Yan siguro problema ko sa senado. Corruption is the abuse of their roles as senator and their resources at their command. Kaya ganoon na lang pagnakaw ng pera sa gobyerno. Mga walang hiya. Corruption is the great evil of our time because it threatens the core democratic values of representation and of deliberation. I have taken an approach on corruption which can be summarized by principal, agent, and client. Thus, corruption is a result of wrong interaction among top official, functionaries and members of the public. As I speak, our countrys wrath on the pork barrel scam, punctuated by the ombudsmans announcement that just resulted to file in court criminal complaint of plunder of three senators and other players in the scandal. Biruin mo yun. Senador ka at tapos pinag- aralan na ng grupo ng mga abugado sa Ombudsam. Sabi nila na ikaw may kasalanan ka at dapat ka humarap sa Sandiganbayan. Pero ang tinutukoy nila ang kakapal nga mga mukha! Pinapagtanggol pa nila sarili nila, pinupuri pa nila kagwapohan nila! The respondents are neither surprised nor ashamed of themselves. Theyre fighting back this time with a propaganda effort to distract the attention of the public from their heinous crime and have instead developed a competing scandal involving other public officials and possibly involving even the President of the Philippines himself. Ganyan katapang ang mga apog ng mga ito. I have described that my enemies, the crooks of the government, possess the epidermis of pachyderms! You really need intestinal fortitude to work in this kind of atmosphere. Sana barilan na lang kami, suntukan na lang kami. Dahil kung hamonin ko ng debate, ayaw na man, eh. I trust that UP graduates after 4 years of the most rigorous education discipline in this country, you will be able to exercise the famous UP students power of analysis to see through the machinations of the crooks in government. Dahil talagang abnormal kayo, mas mataas kayo sa normal. Mga kalaban ko mga subnormal yun. Bear in mind that the main issue is the plunder of the public treasury by high officials using pork and cooperation of private citizens hiding under the cognomen of Non-Government Organizations. It all sounds very complicated. To a UP graduate, it can sound very simple. If there is a crime, there needs to be a punishment. If its a Non Government Organization, then it has no business asking for and spending government money. Yun ang pinakaproblema sa lahat, eh. NGO sila pero gumagasto sila ng mga pera ng gobyerno. Bakit pa sila tawagin na NGO? Dapat tawagin na lang silang official thieves. Do not close your eyes on corruption on the grounds that no country will ever be free of corruption. It is true that corruption is as old as the concept of government itself. But today we take a different focus. We demand that government has to be accountable and political processes should be honest. Ano kaya ang hinahangad ng mga taong ito? Nasa kanila na lang lahat, eh. Gusto nila nga more and more and more. Basically, this is a problem of greed and pride. Corruption is an analytical concept and a public concern. I went to Oxford to study corruption, when I went back to the country everyone is exercising corruption and they didnt even go to Oxford! As intellectual warriors of our time, while we are building our life, we are morally obliged to confront the following sources of corruption: 1) A weak civil society 2) Impaired participation, competition and institution in politics and economics 3) Ethnic fragmentation 4) Poor tax collection 5) Underpaid civil service 6) Dependence of outside investment and extractive industries 7) The influence of arms dealers, drug dealers and other organized crime Maniwala kayo, sa Senado merong mga criminal. Out and out. Dealing with drug dealers. Kaya sila kunwari hindi kumukuha ng pork, saan sila kumukuha? In the Senate, I was a sponsor of a treaty called International Convention against Corruption. The Philippines is now a party to the treaty. And among other measures, we can travel this treaty as a roadmap to a less corrupt government. Please put your youthful brains to work on how we can design a national integrity system in our country. Now let me go to the political sphere. After performing a moral obligation to take a direct hand in combating corruption, your next focus is to look for the meaning of life. Pag graduate ninyo, pasalamatin ninyo ang magulang at kamag-anak ninyo. Nag-sakripisyo sila eh. Tapos pasalamatin ninyo ang professors ninyo. Some of these professors you might even hate or dislike. Tapos concentrate ka, hanap ka ng trabaho, pakita ka ng galing, talino at sipag. Tapos, ma-promote ka ng ma-promote. Tapos makakabili ka ng bahay mo, tapos ng unang kotse mo. Tapos, magkakaroon ka na ng unang asawa mo. Uso na kasi maraming asawa ngayon eh. But after you reach my age, youll ask yourself, what is all this for? Since I came from UP, I have been granted the presumption that I have an analytical mind. I have to sit in my house surrounded by all the things money can buy and ask myself what is all this for? I read until midnight, I read until I was cross-eyed when I was in UP. Ito lang pala aabutin ko? I have children, I lost one. Remember, I told you, you can never predict what life has in store for you. I only have one husband. And as far as I can tell, hes pretty disciplined. At least when Im around. It is easy for a UP student especially a freshman to claim that life is meaningless. I remember when I was in Oxford, they played on me a trick. They would tell me to prove to me that God exists. Of course, there was no proof. They will tell me then: I will show to you that your God is powerless. Then they will stand in this square and lift their hands in the sky: God, if you exist, strike me down dead right now! Then, theyd count to ten and tell me: See? Your God is powerless. That is the temptation of scoffing at everything that you find. But I strongly oblige you against this arrogance. If life has no meaning, then every person should commit suicide which constitutes surrender to disillusionment. I am of course, talking to the superficial UP student. After graduation, you might find various world religions. All religions share that the final human purpose is to reach a stage of wisdom and bliss. In other words, heaven or whatever you might call it. Assuming for the sake of argument, still youre bound to dare to become what you are. Look into your heart and youll find who you are. Even if you believe no God and there are no other worlds outside Earth, I propose to you that we are the creators of our own values. You ask me, what is the meaning of life, Miriam? I tell you, you make the meaning of your own lie. There is no set formula, no set calculus to answer this question. I say that the supreme value is assertion of. Always assert life, not death. And the next supreme value is the will to triumph over evil. Look around. Ang daming masama at di tama, ayusin mo. Kesa reklamo ka ng reklamo. Kaya ka binigyan ng gabay na makagraduate ng UP ay para makatulog ka sa lipunan at hindi para makapagmalaki ka. Walang kwenta yon. Linagay ka dito kung ano man yon ang layunin na hanap mo. Ikaw gumawa ng layunin mo. There is no proof that God exist. That the existence of God cannot be proved, means that Gods existence cannot be rationally demonstrated. You cannot know god. Kasi akala ng mga senador God sila. You cannot know God but we need God hence God is the necessary unknown. We are led to believe that we dont have intended options for the meaning of life. One option is to believe that life is predestined. Another option is that life is random. Neither option sounds intelligent. If we look at it this way, the possibility of a designer of a universe is highly probable. As a graduate of not only law but also of theology, I think it is my best legacy to emphasize that God is neither up above or out there. Instead God is found in here. In the human mind, in the human conscience. That is why, you are not only graduating with a bachelors degree today, you are graduating to a place nearer where God is. Because God is in here. God is in you. We are all Gods children which means, everyone has a spark of the divine. Look into yourselves and you will find that spark. The best life project is a loving relationship to God that is based on forgiveness on others. So I forgive my enemies, huwag lang silan magapakita sa akin. If you are able to resist pride, we will realize that, unlike the crooks, we should treat persons not as means but ends in themselves. Conclusion Nothing that any persons do, no matter how rich or famous, matters. Sa edad kong ito, yun ang narealize ko. What matters is the faith to believe that something is better than nothing. If life contains evil, then the value of life is the constant and conscious revolt against evil, particularly when it wears the face of corruption and poverty. For evil to thrive, its sufficient that good men do nothing. Go out of the campus and no matter what career, go to activist politics and strike corruption! If this complex but orderly universe could emerge from the Big Bang then the universe could have been created from a mind of indescribable magnitude. The greater cannot come from the lesser. There is a super mind behind this universe. Good luck and may your super mind God bless you. Im going to recite you this familiar poem, its called Invictus which means Undefeated. I would love to read this with my usual gestures but the wind is against me. Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. Thank you!
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