Faculty and staff who have reached a milestone in their years of service at the University were recognized at the annual University Service Awards held on Feb 1 at the Covered Courts.

University personnel who have rendered 5 or more years of service (in multiples of five years) were awarded Service Certificates and varying tokens to show the University’s appreciation for their loyal and committed service.

One of the awardees was Ms Maria Flerida Nery of the School of Education who has been serving XU for 45 years.

The ceremony also honored employees who are about to retire this year. Speaking on behalf of the retirees was Eliodoro Ferenal of the Athletics Office.

Ferenal started his career in the University in 1976. He shared about his experience working in the High School, where he spent 32 years of his 36 years of service in the University. Ferenal also revealed that he had the pleasure to have taught Fr Antonio Moreno SJ, now president of Ateneo de Zamboanga, as the latter’s high school class adviser.

Ferenal cited the Jesuits, retreats and recollections, and some of the perks of being an XU employee such as membership in XU’s cooperatives and cash gifts as some of the things he will remember most about XU.

Fr Roberto Yap, XU President, also gave a message of thanks to the faculty and staff for their committed and dedicated service, especially during the months he was away from office recuperating from a knee surgery. Below is Fr Yap’s address to the XU community.

My beloved service awardees and honorees
Faculty and staff
University administrators
Distinguished guests
My XU family
Ladies and Gentlemen

Maayong hapon kaninyong tanan.

Mahimo ko mo-hatag ug testimony?  Gusto ko unta mo-ambit sa akong feelings.  Please allow me to speak from the heart.

After a 12 week absence, it really feels good to be back.  After missing what would have been my first ever Xavier Festival Days, my first ever XU Christmas, nalipay kaayo ko nga nauli na dinhi sa XU.  It really feels good to be home with my XU family!  Did you miss me?

I was very touched by that very nice tarpaulin put out by the Atenista Ako Movement: “Welcome Back, Fr Bobby from your Xavier University Family.”  The tarp had a nice picture, guapo ko didto. And more important, it feels really good to be welcomed back by the good and kind people of XU, who are really my new family.  So much so that I am using that tarp as my Facebook profile picture.  I will also ask PPO that once they take down the tarpaulin; to give it to me, so I can hang in my room at Loyola House.

My homecoming last January 15 after my accident, surgery and recuperation was a real experience of the truth that cura personalis is alive and well at Xavier.  The warmth and kindness of people who welcomed me back touched me very much.  XU is really a friendly place and the people here are truly caring and concerned about one another.

Cura personalis, personal care for each other.  Personal care for each individual in his or her uniqueness.  Naay gayod ang pag-amuma, pag-atiman, paghunahuna-ay para sa usag-usa.  Cura personalis is an Ignatian ideal that XU really strives for.  And I now know from personal experience that the sentiments and actions of the XU family are guided by this ideal.

Kadtong gabi-i sa Oktubre 13, nanaog ko sa hagdanan sa Loyola House.  I missed the last step of the stairs ug nahisikamod ko ug na-asdang sa salog.  Morag ang akong tibuok kabug-at (ug bug-at ra ba gyud ko) nakarga sa akong to-o nga tuhod. Fractured right knee ug kinahanglan ug surgery.

Ingon ang akong mga igsoong Heswita nga na hisama na kuno ko ni San Ignacio nga nabasag usab ang tuhod.  Apan ako silang tubag, “dili uy, si San Ignacio nabasag ang tuhod kay na-igo man sa cannon ball.  Ako, nagdanghag ug nadagma ra man sa hagdanan.  Kay nanaog man sa ngit-ngit nga hagdanan nga nagdaginot lagi sa kuryente.”

On October 14, I had to be flown to Manila because my doctors and the special equipment needed for my surgery were there.  Before I left Cagayan de Oro, I thought that I would only be away for 2-3 weeks.  But after the surgery, I was told that I needed 12 weeks of rehab and recuperation: 6 weeks when I could not put any weight whatsoever on my right leg; and another 6 weeks after when I would have to re-learn gradually how to use my right leg.

When I realized that I would be away from XU for 12 weeks and only be able to return by mid-January, I started to make arrangements for how the university will be governed and how I would still be able to continue my XU work even from far away Manila.

People were asking me how the University would run with an absentee and handicapped President.  My answer to them right from the start was clear: “XU is a splendid ship sailing smoothly and with its talented and dedicated crew, its captain through creative use of communications technology should be able to steer the ship even from afar.”

Because the faculty and staff are truly excellent and committed, classes, activities, Xavier Days all proceeded smoothly.  Operations went on normally.  Even the usual problems and issues were dealt with professionally without crippling the University.  Wala man sad hinoo’y gapabadlong!

Through the wonders of modern communication and Information Technology, I was able to maintain close contact with XU.  I had regular consultations and meetings through email, talk and text, and Skype video conferencing.  I also had a very capable University OIC, Dr Hilly and Executive Assistant, Maam Bern and I thank them both very much for their excellent holding the fort in my physical absence.
But most of all, in spite an absentee and disabled President, our service to our students continued, because of the dedication and commitment of the Faculty and Staff.  For truly, the most important resource of XU is not its land nor its buildings nor its facilities; XU’s most precious resource is its people.  The most important resource that makes this university run and run well is its competent faculty and staff.

The hardest period of my absence from XU was the 30 days beginning December 17 when Sendong struck.  I woke up that morning to text messages saying that a fierce storm had hit Cagayan de Oro.  During those early days, there was really no sense of the tragic extent of the devastation.  Almost immediately, I asked Dr Hilly, Fr Eric and some key administrators to try to mobilize the university to respond.  And you know better them me the generosity of the response.  It was difficult for me to be away far from the action.  But the difficulty was made easier to bear with the quality of the response of the XU community.

Tabang Sendong which started as a small relief center receiving small grocery bags of used clothes and can goods grew to become a major operation receiving container vans of relief goods and water and distributing truckloads of assistance to evacuation centers and affected areas.  Many faculty, staff and students came to volunteer at Tabang Sendong, receiving, sorting out and distributing goods.  The faculty and staff of our Schools of Medicine and Nursing went on several much needed medical missions.  Our XU psychologists and counselors provided trauma de-briefing to Sendong survivors.  Our different RSO units such as Sustainable Sanitation, Engineering Resource Center reached out to do what they could to help in the evacuation centers. We provide safe places to stay for evacuees here in these very covered courts and in our Commerce building.  Our communications team quickly put up and maintained a beautiful website which was an important source of information not only locally but world-wide.

KKP-SIO provided secretariat support to the Multi-Sectoral Disaster Response Center led by DSWD and Archbishop Ledesma.  This Multi-Sectoral Response Center was housed at our University Gym. I am able to list only a few of the very many XU groups who reached out to help.  Ug mangayo na ko ug pasaylo-a daan for any omissions.

People continue to be impressed by the speed, the quality, the efficiency and the credibility of the XU response to the Sendong calamity.  While we have done a lot already, the work for Sendong has only just begun.

The University is committed not only to provide and prepare land in Lumbia for an ecologically sound relocation and resettlement site; we are not only committed to build 500 houses for Sendong survivors whose houses have been washed out and were in what are now no-build-areas; but XU is also committed to developing a thriving and healthy community at Xavier Ecoville.  We will systematically engage the different units of the University like Education, Medicine, Nursing, CIT, Computer Studies, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Business and Management, Agriculture, the Grade School, the High School, the Graduate School to help in this community building.  We will not only be building houses but we will also be building a community of survivors with new hope for their lives.

For our own XU family, many people have worked and continue to work hard to provide Sendong assistance to the survivors: students, faculty and staff in our midst.  We will continue to listen and do our best in providing the best assistance possible.

Crisis can bring out the best in people.  Sendong in all its tragedy has truly brought out the best in the women and men of XU.  After Sendong, no one, nobody can ever say that magis is an empty slogan at Ateneo de Cagayan.  You not only gave up your Christmas party.  You not only gave up your Christmas vacation.  Some of you even gave up your time for love life!  We made real the prayer of Ignatius: Lord, teach me to be generous.  Teach me to serve you as you deserve.  To give and not to count the cost.  To fight and not to heed the wounds.  To toil and not to seek for rest.

It was not simply a matter of giving up, it was also giving the best of yourselves to others: your time and talents.  Your Sendong efforts were certainly systematic and efficient.  But more important, your assistance was marked with the quality of compassion.  In whatever help you were extending, you courageously entered into places of pain, you shared in the brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish.  Paglilingkod na may pagmamalasakit.  Serbisyo nga ana’ay puang-od.

I have never felt so privileged than to be associated with the women and men of XU who have shown so much generosity and service and compassion during these days of Sendong.  As University President, I have been praised for what Xavier has been doing and continues to do for Sendong survivors.  But I always tell those who commend me that the honor truly belongs to the compassionate faculty, staff and students of Xavier.

I make this testimony this afternoon because I want to say for the record that I have personally witnessed these exemplary traits of the XU faculty and staff: cura personalis, dedication and competence, magis and compassion.  We believe in these ideals.  We teach the ideals that we believe.  We practice the ideals that we teach.

Cura personalis, dedication and competence, magis and compassion.  These are the ideals we celebrate this afternoon. These are the ideals that have guided the life and service of our honorees today.

Dear service awardees, you have been our mentors, role models and friends.  If the XU community has splendidly shown these qualities, it has been because you, our honorees, have manifested these qualities by your words and example, by your striving to live lives of service guided by these ideals.

My dear awardees, this afternoon, the XU family is most grateful for the many years of service you given to Ateneo de Cagayan.  We thank you most sincerely for the magis and compassion you have shown, the dedication and competence you have shared, the cura personalis you have brought into our lives.  We thank you and we honor you.  Daghan kaayong salamat!  Let us all rise and give our awardees a round of applause.

Daghan kaayong salamat ug maayong hapon kaninyong tanan.