I welcome the guests, parents and graduates of this year’s 43rd Commencement Exercises.
At the end of each school year, this significant event is always reserved for those who deserve their diplomas and certificates from the Institute.
With hearty felicitations in these contemporary times, I would like to remind you that our world is getting smaller by the day. In the year 2015 when the borders of the ASEAN region become seamless, when its member countries begin to share products, services, and academic pursuits, you should prepare yourselves for this eventuality by being able to maintain high standards in all your undertakings, whether in the academe, in domestic pursuits and in the pursuit of peace even as it is a fact that the best way to be global is to cultivate the particular.
For instance, if we have brought our local cultural icons — the folkdances singkil and the sagayan; our woven malongs; if our metal crafts have become part of the country’s cultural icons; or, if our publications have been noted by international experts, I know too, that soon, if we continue to produce these and remain proud of them, we will join worldwide recognition in the same way that the singing of ourepic, Darangen is already on the UNESCO representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Other significant ways are to have the imagination as well as to have the fortitude in taking on life’s uncertainties. With an overall understanding of the scientific way of doing things, I am certain that these should equip you to survive the challenges within and outside our ASEAN region.
Congratulations!
(sgd) DR. SUKARNO D. TANGGOL
Photo by Mark Jezreel T. Orbe
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