Palawan’s choices, and yours

Commencement speech at Palawan State University

April 7, 2016

Thank you for inviting me, thank you for giving me a reason to get out of Mega Manila! And finally, thank you for asking me to come to Palawan.

I always feel better and more relaxed when I come to your province, not least because it is less earthquake-prone than anywhere else in the country. 

To be honest, I have been like many others living in Mega Manila and other overcrowded, polluted places in the Philippines – we have fantasized about moving to Palawan. Being less prone to disasters is just the start of what makes Palawan appealing.

In some ways, Palawan is the opposite of my own hometown of Manila – your wide open spaces, your clean seas, abundant forests, and even your crocodiles are a time capsule for what the rest of the country must have been like once upon a time.

You are still far enough from the mainstream to imagine a different way of living. After all, you’re the sword on the Philippine map pointing the way to what could be a better path, or maybe the sword is aimed at foreign invaders to the west… or your province is the sturdy cane holding up an old man which is the rest of the Philippines, if that’s what you choose to see.

In reality, this has always been a land of opportunity, and not just in the sense of having land and work available here. You have an opportunity in Palawan to be a model for the rest of us.

You know the saying, to whom much is given, much is expected in return. You’ve been blessed with a multitude of islands, rich biodiversity, ancient and strong cultural traditions.

Most of the documentaries I have shot here have to do with what threatens Palawan’s natural beauty. Much is at stake here, and much can still be saved and protected.

Like many frontiers, your province is at a crossroads where you can choose the road less traveled. Will you opt for the quick and dirty industrial choices for development, or the wiser, more sustainable path of clean technologies and gentle growth? Will you show the rest of us that not everything of value can be exchanged for money?

The ones making the most crucial choices for your province in the future will not be those currently in power… but you, those who are still wide-eyed about the world, filled with idealism and dreams, you who are at your own crossroads, wondering what to do with the rest of your lives.

As you think about your professional futures, allow me to propose this: Before anything else, decide what kind of person you will be. That will determine your happiness and success much more than whatever you choose to be your career. And the kind of people you will be will shape your communities much more than the jobs you will eventually have.

Some of your choices are clear:

Will you also be concerned with what is public or will you be aware mainly of what is private – your private property and home, your family, the people you know?

The differences in our attitude towards what is private and what is public explain to a great degree the problems we face in this country. Most of us are compulsive about keeping our bodies and homes clean, yet many do not think twice about leaving trash in public, and desecrating our most valuable public resources like rivers, beaches and parks.

This lack of respect explains why anything attached to the word “public,” like public schools, public hospitals, and public transportation, is often associated with poor quality. Most of our own elected leaders do not use the same public services that they make decisions about.

As an aside, I’d like to say that I send my only child to a public high school, not as a statement of belief but because it is a good school.

Our attitude towards the public extends to how we treat people. We are usually respectful of the people we know, but have no respect for the rights of strangers who are part of the public. Just try crossing a busy street in Manila at a pedestrian crossing, and mark the time before any driver will stop to let you cross. I hope Puerto Princesa is growing without its people losing this basic respect for strangers.

Do you notice that whenever anyone in Manila like a taxi driver returns luggage or a wallet, it often makes the news? That is because it is so unusual. Virtuous civic behavior like that is alien in places where apathy or even cruelty towards strangers is the norm. If we all decide that we will respect what is public, including people we do not know, perhaps one day returning property that is not ours will become so normal it will no longer be considered newsworthy.

I believe your basic choice in life is whether it will be all about you, your career, your family and those directly around you, or whether you will also be concerned with something larger than yourselves – your community, the public interest, your country. Will you be of service to people you might not even know? Will you be respectful to strangers? Will you let them cross the street when you’re the one driving a car?

Only when we really understand that the public is an extension of our private selves will we become a true nation with common interests. And maybe we will also have better leaders, because we will vote for whomever will be best for our country and our communities, and not for whoever bought our votes.

That transformation may require you to be different from your peers. You will need all of your willpower and strength of character to stay the course.

You’ve probably already been told that life is a journey, and when you get to be my age, the more you will realize how short that journey really is.

But on this journey, you have several choices: you can choose to be a tourist on a packaged tour, following a beaten path, focused only on buying souvenirs and taking selfies, indifferent to the strangeness of a new place or culture.

Or instead of a tourist, you can be a traveler off the beaten track, welcoming the unexpected,  respectful of those who are different from you, and learning from people who were once strangers. You can be a person who will think that getting lost is not a waste of time because you know it can lead to discovery.

Or you can be the traveler who is also a pilgrim, a person with a mission, a cause, or a greater goal than simply personal comfort and enjoyment. 

The consequences of this choice are even greater for your generation. All of you have democratic rights for which many before you struggled and even made the ultimate sacrifice.

Combining your political freedoms with the technology in your pockets makes you by far the most empowered generation in history.

But we all recall what Spiderman’s uncle once said, with great power comes great responsibility. Will you be known merely as the selfie generation… or the greatest generation?

Will you use your power to build civic virtue, encourage kindness to strangers, and respect for everything that is called public?

Previous generations await your choices with bated breath.

Reposted with permission from the author's Facebook post