Where there is hate I can confront, where there are yokes I can release,

Where there are captives I can free, and anger I can appease...

Fiesta at the City Jail – that was what we called the affair when we went to visit the prisoners, and shared a little time of our lives with them as we gave food, clothing and sanitary products to them. I didn’t know how to react at such appalling conditions – twenty or so inmates cramped up in detention cells smaller than our bathroom, stories of how people share in a bowl of rice, and the horrible stench in such a dark and dismal place.

And what can be more saddening than this? Having children in such places. Though the detention centre we visited did not have children, certain jails in the Philippines have minors in such inhumane conditions. These children who are charged with small crimes such as petty theft, sniffing solvents, and vagrancy are mixed in adult prisons where criminals of murder, rape, and other heinous crimes are put (Sabine Dolan).

In other countries, jail cells are at least hygienic & sanitary, well-kept, suitably ventilated, and properly lighted. The Philippine prison is a whole other story as people are restricted to such small spaces with little or no ventilation and source of light. They also sleep on cardboard beds, eat on meals that just pass the day, share communal bathrooms which have an unbearable reek to it, and have to bear with water dripping from the roof when it rains. Such is the picture of detention centres in the Philippines and this, as well, is the environment of young convicts.

Lord grant me courage, Lord grant me strength,

Grant me compassion that I may be Your Heart Today...

Reverend Father Joel Tabora of the Society of Jesus, Dr. Rodolfo Ursua, our guest speaker, Mr. Gregorio Re Abonal, our principal, distinguished members of the Jesuit community, the administration, faculty, and staff, respected guests, beloved parents, dear batchmates, good afternoon!

I clearly recall the first day when we started to become Ateneans. Although we were welcomed warmly by the whole assembly, we felt we did not belong.  It was hard to find familiar faces. We clung to friends in the grades. Any smile that was open and warm was like sunshine to us. Everything else seemed o huge and strange and cold. That was June 5, 2006, our Schola Brevis. Our first day of school.

On that day, we all started out as children. We came in all shapes and sizes and from different walks of life. But no matter how different we were, there was one thing we had in common. We all felt excited and anxious of what was to come. That was the first day of the four years of our life in this school.

I remember Ninoy Aquino as he struggled and fought without reservation to untie the bondage of this country from the tyranny of dictatorship. In one of his interviews he said, “Very few people in the world are given the opportunity to die for their country. Don’t you forget that. So don’t feel sorry for me. Because this is the greatest opportunity ever given to me by God.”  Our history tells us that Ninoy’s death enkindled the previously dying spirit of our country which was ruled by a dictator for more than twenty years. And after a long period of suffering under the tyranny of dictatorship, there was one brave spirit from a political clan in Tarlac who tried to transform the fate of our country from bondage to freedom.

I consider Ninoy as a ruler in his own right who was never forgotten even after he passed away. He once said: “I have decided to challenge death. I do not believe I’m sinning against my creator because in the end, I am not really my own executioner. By my example, I hope I can inspire two others. Like the dominoes, one has to fall to create the chain reaction.”  As a ruler, Ninoy has inspired and continues to inspire young and old alike in their effort to serve and save the country from the clutches of the newly clothed character of dictatorship. The quest of Ninoy for a better and freer country continues to live on. This quest is now in the hands of every Filipino who is brave enough to do what is best for the country even if it requires facing death in many ways.