"Pray to discern what your true duty is - what road you must take for the greater glory of God." (ASHS Class of 2024 Commencement Speech)

 Read the message of guest speaker Victor E Agbayani MBA to the graduates of the ABM and GA strands of ASHS Batch 2024 during the Ateneo de Manila Senior High School Commencement Ceremony on Friday, 31 May 2024.

 (Greetings to dignitaries, faculty, staff and parents.)

Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to greet our dignitaries:

Of course, Fr President Bobby Yap. Fr Sumpaico, Vice President for Basic Education. Of course, we have Principal Noel Miranda. And we have two Assistant Principals, Javy and Czel. Administrative staff, members of the faculty, beloved parents, and our dear graduates – a pleasant good morning to one and all.

As Principal Miranda has told you – informed you, actually- almost 50 years ago, I and my high school batch of 1975 were seated where you are now, and we also had our commencement exercises at the time. I distinctly recall the Ateneo invited a brilliant member of the Supreme Court to be our commencement speaker and in his speech, he proceeded to give a lecture on his treatise on the proclamation of Martial Law. And the commencement speech lasted for at least an hour. But don’t worry, I will not use up one hour.

Beloved graduates, our administrative staff and teachers are here, and after today, it may be a long time before you see them again. Let us salute their dedication in mentoring you through the years, and indeed their care and love for you. Graduates, palakpakan natin ang ating mga guro at ang ating administrative staff.

Your beloved parents are here. Huwag nating kalimutan na dahil sa kanilang pagod, pawis at luha, naririto kayo ngayon na magtatapos sa Ateneo. Palakpakan natin ang ating minamahal na mga magulang.

Let me tell you a little more about my journey. I am the third child among nine siblings. There is some irony in our belonging to a big family since, my father who was Governor in the 1970s, pioneered a strong family planning program in the province. My siblings and I grew up in an environment that a father in public life inevitably exposes his family to. We saw politics up close and being very private persons, we developed quite a strong dislike for it.

And so all nine of us, early in our lives decided that we did not plan to follow our father’s footsteps.

My father was a lawyer. Applying our young and simple logic, we figured out and said to ourselves that, “The one among us who will study to be a lawyer, will be the next politician in the family.” And so, none of us took up law. We then reassured ourselves, “Problem solved. Nakaiwas na tayo sa politika.”

I took up civil engineering. But it seems, there were factors I neglected to include in my formula to avoid a political career. First, I was born prematurely, one month early; and the day I was born landed on, of all dates, my father’s birthday. And secondly, I was born in the year my father won his first election. (Thus, the name Victor.)

It seems from the moment of my birth, I was a marked man. I still have a memory of one of our birthdays when I was probably eight years old. I was called to the microphone without warning to speak before about two hundred of my father’s ward leaders.

Terrified on stage, I managed to say, “Good evening.” And after that, I think I could only conjure, “Thank you for being here.”

Fate had conspired with my parents.

I was elected governor in 1998. During my three terms from 1998 to 2007, I and my very competent team of department heads and staff, implemented an integrated development plan with the deliberate goal of improving the quality of life of our constituents.

Over three terms, we built an extensive infrastructure of classrooms, roads and bridges. We increased the productivity and income of farmers by introducing hybrid rice that doubled their harvests. We built irrigation facilities that provided water for a second harvest during the dry months, and designed livelihood programs for cooperatives. We improved the delivery of public health services in our hospitals and brought health care to remote barangays through monthly, sustained, dedicated and well-equipped medical missions. These medical missions included mass vaccinations and provided for sending complicated cases to the charity wards of public and private hospitals.

My wife Jamie, who is a pediatrician, led each and every one of these missions. Jamie was the heart and soul of the medical missions.

Thus, on the road I did not choose at first, in this job that I sought to avoid, I was given the opportunity to help so many. So many of whom, in their own diverse situations in life, were the last, the least or the lost.

Indeed, as in Act 5 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet tells Horatio, “There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”

But you need not enter politics and public life to be of service to your fellowmen. Whatever field you choose to serve in, you can be a person for others. It begins with an awareness of your environment and being mindful of the presence and the plight of your fellowmen.

We are familiar with Matthew 25 verses 34 to 40, where on the day of judgement, the Lord says to the righteous:

"Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to Me."

"Then the righteous will answer Him saying, ‘Lord when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and gave You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in or naked and clothed You. Or when did we see You sick or in prison and come to You?’"

"And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

These verses from Matthew are a humble reminder to us that the Lord’s brethren are all around us. Do not just see the persons you work directly with such as your classmates and teachers and later on, your colleagues at work. Your brethren may be at the peripheries of your vision - nasa bandang gilid ng ating paningin. Kung di tayo lilingon ng kaunti, baka di natin sila mapapansin. They may be the fruit vendor you pass daily on the street, our maintenance personnel who clean our surroundings and prepare our venues for school events, the office messenger who comes and goes, or even much closer to home - our kasambahays.

We are not expected to suddenly be social workers, or be the inquisitive "marites" and ask about the lives of our brethren. It really begins simply with being aware of our brethren’s presence and appreciating them as persons, and perhaps later becoming their friend.

Each one of us has been blessed by God with talents. This gift of abilities given us, we must first sharpen with a good education and then put to good use not only for ourselves but to make life better for others as well. Let us not be like the servant in the parable who buried in the ground, the gift given him by his master. Instead, let us multiply and expand our abilities to be able to serve more – to have empathy for our fellowmen, to give relief to the needy, consolation to the disconsolate, peace to the troubled, inspiration to the timid, encouragement to the weary. Let us be mirrors reflecting the Lord’s light, so that others may better see their brighter possibilities and happier expectations in life.

Dear graduates, you are now turning a page into a new and significant chapter in your lives. You will face a different level of challenges in college and later on when you start working. The physical and mental workload will be greater. The decisions you will need to make will have greater consequences for a greater number of people. You may be tempted to make shortcuts or take the easier way. You may be pressured by peers to compromise your principles, move the line you said you would never cross, or to use the seemingly innocuous Pilipino term that may not always be good, “na makisama kanaman.”

Life will not always unfold according to your plans. Your path may not always be certain, and you may face hard choices. When you fall short of your expectations, you may have doubts and question if you are in the right direction. As you travel through life, these challenges may come as a fork in the road. And you will ask yourselves, “Which road shall I choose? In which direction should I go?”

Allow me to recall to you a poem that has given many a traveler, consolation and confidence in the journey of life. This is Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

(To where it bent in the undergrowth)

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

(Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,)

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Friends, often the road taken is the easier road, the one that gives us an advantage over others. And often the road not taken is the harder one, the one that asks us to give more of ourselves to those who have less. As Frost tells us, the many, big and small choices we make in our lifetime, will make all the difference. As persons for others, we are reminded to consider the impact of our choices on our fellowmen, especially the less fortunate. Pray to discern what your true duty is - what road you must take for the greater glory of God.

Dear graduates, be joyful on this day for you have the brightest of futures. Be strong of heart for when challenges come, we as Ateneans are blessed to wear the armor of our Ignatian formation. Let prayer and discernment guide you. May your Jesuit formation be your compass and your anchor.

Be a light in the Lord for others.

And, in all things love and serve the Lord.

To our faculty and parents, again our joyful and most profound congratulations!

To the Ateneo Senior High School batch of 2024, Congratulations for a good job, and to one and all, Godspeed!

Maraming Salamat po!