Panaad Festival 2009: The Philippines' Best Destination

Art Works of John Becaro, The Pride of Cadiz

Excerpts from the Speech I delivered as Graduation Guest Speaker

"Dear graduates, kindly open up your both hands and think what are holding at the moment. What do you see? Certainly, your hands hold nothing. There is nothing in your hands. But your life depends on how you will handle your hands. There is in your hands that you can not see but helps you succeed".

"My hands are obviously empty. But the whole world becomes fragile without these. The world is deserted without these key parts of our body. The world is nothing without my hands. The world is nothing without your hands".

" Dear graduates, think what your hands can do. Or, think what you can do to your hands. Can you text in your cellphone without your hands? Can you build houses and buildings without the help of the hands? Can we cook without the use of our hands?

" It’s our hands that tailored our clothes. It’s our hands that made our tricycles, our jeepneys and our bancas. It’s through our hands that catch the fish. And, it’s our hands that we use to swim".

"Everybody loves Spiderman. Do you think Spiderman could crawl on the web and climb up the trees and buildings without the aid of his hands? Without his powerful and magical hands, This Spiderman would no doubt be futile and eventually fall down to ground. Thus, we will lose a hero that will save the world from all dangers and evils".

"Again, dear graduates, may I request you all to rise up and close your eyes. Imagine the world without the hands. Now, tell me, what do you see or feel about? Do you still feel and benefit from the things we all enjoy now? The answers are your own. Please open your eyes and be seated".

" Have you seen the movie “Forest Gump”? The movie was Oscar’s Best Picture. It starred Tom Hanks. I understand that he is very much popular to all of us. In the movie, he keeps saying that “Life is a box of chocolate, you never know what you gonna get”. That in order to know what life awaits us ahead, we must know ourselves and work hard to achieve what we want".

" The world is becoming highly complicated. Our life has become an array of uncertain things. It has developed the options that give us a difficult time to choose from what we really want for ourselves. But if we know what we are and who we are, we can precisely decide on the right path for us".

" If we are gifted by God to have both hands, let’s use them wisely and intelligently. Our hands are physically empty but they carry our lives. Our lives rely on how we utilize our hands. Explore and discover. If we fail to marvel the good magic that lies in there, we deprive our selves to enjoy the wonders of life".

" I have my own hands. I have used them in accordance with what I have learned from schools, from people and from works. I am not a good writer but I could write. I am not a good editor but I could edit. If my hands could write and edit articles, maybe your hands can write and edit articles better than I could".

" If an engineer or an architect could design and build houses and buildings, maybe you can design and build better than they could. If your “nanay” or “tatay” could cook well, maybe you can cook better than they could. If your teachers could write on the blackboard, when you will grow up and become like them, you can pretty good write on the blackboard".

" This is not a question of what we are or who we are. This is a matter of believing in one self. Nothing sets us apart from the others. If we only believe in ourselves, we can surely climb up to the ladder of success. Do you believe that what you think or believe will come into reality? What mind thinks comes out. It’s like a dream come true".

This year’s theme “My Education: My Contribution to the Future” simply means “my hands, my educated hands that work, are my contributions to the future”.

" To the graduates: Believe in your dreams. believe in your minds. Believe in your hands".

---

Erwin R Mabugat
Guest Speaker

59th Commencement Exercises
Tiglawigan Elementary School
Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, Philippines


April 1, 2009
2:00 PM