[Here is the full text of the closing remarks of Xavier University President Fr Roberto C Yap SJ during the 77th Academic Convocation on March 17 at the XU Gymnasium. Photo by Kris Buntag]
Last May 24th 2015, the Solemnity of Pentecost, Pope Francis issued the first ever encyclical on the Environment, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. This school year, the community at Xavier University has reflected on and prayed over the beautiful and powerful exhortation of Papa Francisco. Here in Ateneo de Cagayan, we have been inspired by the words of the Jesuit Pope to recommit ourselves to become better stewards of the environment.
As we end this academic year which has been much inspired by Laudato Si’, Xavier University is profoundly privileged to honor three courageous and compassionate leaders who, by their words and witness, have been exemplary stewards who have shown compassionate care for creation. Thank you so much, Mayor Romeo Tiongco, Mr Frank Rivera, Fr Edwin Gariguez for your concern to bring communities together to seek a sustainable and integral development and to protect our common home. We appreciate very much your tireless efforts to resolve the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the poorest. Daghan kaayong salamat! Good friends, let us give a round of applause to our awardees.
Mayor Romy, when 40 Filipino Jesuits met Pope Francis in Manila last January 2015, he had two key messages to the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. One of them was “go to the poor … go to the peripheries.” For Pope Francis, las periferias are places of marginalization, exclusion and alienation. In a Kenyan slum last November, Papa Francisco said, “The path of Jesus began on the peripheries. It goes from the poor and with the poor, toward others.”
Mayor Romy, you have been serving in the peripheries. You embarked on Panaw sa Kalinaw to work for the reconciliation of Christians, Maguindanaos, Manobos and the MILF in sitios of conflict in Damulog. You have labored with their communities to build classrooms, to bring education, health, agriculture and other basic services to the far-flung areas of Damulog and beyond. Through your leadership, the military, the MNLF, the MILF, and the NPA have all agreed to proclaim Damulog as a war-free zone, as a zone of peace. Laudato Si’ exhorts us that “peace, justice and the preservation of creation are absolutely interconnected (LS 92).” Daghan kaayong salamat, Mayor Romy for showing us how to be a servant-leader for justice and peace in the peripheries. Mga igsoon, pakpakan nato pag-usab si Mayor Romy Tiongco!
In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis teaches that “culture cannot be excluded as we rethink the relationship between human beings and the environment (LS 143).” Papa Francisco highlights the importance of a “culture of care” and the need for developing an “ecological culture … a distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, an educational program, a lifestyle and a spirituality (LS 111).”
Mr Frank, you are a playwright, director, actor, poet, lyricist, songwriter, makata sa text. You are a complete artist who is making crucial contributions to developing this much needed culture of care for creation, our common home. Your prophetic Ambon, Ulan, Baha is one of the most often staged Rivera plays, almost foretelling the tsunami tragedy which struck Ormoc in the early 1990s. Written at a time when being an environmentalist was not yet fashionable, the contemporary sarswela told of a love story in a community that was threatened by floods following the rape of the forest. Your current stream of text poems (“textula”) is a fine example of new media art at the service of social, political and environmental causes. Allow us to listen to an excerpt from one of your most recent textula para sa Buwan ng Marso, Buwan ng Babae: “…El Niño pa mandin ang nananalanta/ Kaya bitak-bitak ang tigang na lupa/ La Niñang kasunod naming nagbabanta/ Uhaw lulunurin ng matinding baha."
Saludo kami sa iyo, Ginoong Frank Rivera, tunay kang alagad ng sining Pilipino! Mga kaibigan, bigyan natin muli si Ginoong Frank ng mainit at malakas na palakpakan!
Pope Francis emphasizes in Laudato Si’ that “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental (LS 139).” He stresses that there is an “intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet (LS 16).”
Fr Edu, even before Laudato Si’, you already heard in your heart “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor (LS 49).” You have been an indefatigable champion of the causes of the indigenous peoples and the environment. Your pastoral work in Mindoro aimed at empowering Mangyan communities in their struggle for ancestral domain and their right for self-determination. Concerned that large-scale mining projects were encroaching on the ancestral lands of the Alangan and Tadyawan tribes, threatening the survival of these indigenous communities, their culture and the ecosystems in their areas, you co-founded ALAMIN, Alliance Against Mining. The murder of your ALAMIN colleague and threats of violence from mining officials did not suppress, rather these strengthened your resolve for doing the faith that does justice for the poor. As NASSA-Caritas Executive Secretary, you continue to labor generously for farmers, for the rural and urban poor, for climate protection and the environment. Mabuhay ka, Fr Edu! Mabuhay ang inyong mahusay at matapat na paglilingkod sa Simbahan at sa mga dukhang sinisinta ni Kristo! Mga kaibigan, isang masigabong palakpakan para kay Fr Edu Gariguez!
Fr Edu, Mr Frank, Mayor Romy: daghan kaayong salamat for gracing us with your presence and for accepting University Awards from Ateneo de Cagayan. By your acceptance, you have given honor to Xavier and it is really XU’s pride and joy to consider you as models of leaders, compassionate and courageous. Xavier is so happy to claim you from now on as full-fledged members of our Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan community.
Xavier Class of 2016, may the inspiration you have received from our awardees this morning, always be a source of strength as you go forth in your mission to become leaders, the Ateneo way. Panalanginan kamo sa Ginoo kanunay. God bless you always.