Aquino Scholar: ‘Constant struggle for freedom is the great calling of our time’

President Aquino speaks to the Boston College community, waxing nostalgic about his first bitterly cold Christmas 31 years ago. The Aquino family lived in the Boston area for several years during the 1980s. In the panel are (from left) Matthew Alonsozana, Boston College President Fr. William Leahy, Professor Min Song, and Associate Vice Provost J.J. Burns. Photo by Caitlin Cunningham, Boston College

The author is a recipient of the 2013 Aquino Scholarship, the highest distinction for academics and leadership given to an Asian-American student at Boston College. He graduated in 2014 with degrees in economics and philosophy. He currently works in Washington D.C. as a policy and communications analyst.
He delivered this speech before President Benigno Aquino and members of his Cabinet and diplomatic staff during a convocation at Boston College on September 21.

President Aquino, Fr. Leahy, Distinguished Guests, and Members of the Filipino American and Boston College Communities:

It is both an honor and a privilege to speak before you this afternoon.

But, Mr. President, before I continue, it has been 31 long years since your last time in Boston, and though there are no words adequate enough to capture how we feel about the tragedies and ultimate triumphs of these decades gone by and how so many of us are roused by this confluence of the past and present, I believe I speak for everyone in the audience when I say, “Welcome back, and welcome home.”

To be named a Benigno and Corazon Aquino Scholar is one of the highest distinctions for a member of the Boston College Asian-American community. And yet, by being named in honor of heroes who gave their lives to better realize the “restless dream of Philippine freedom” and who, in the spirit of democracy, demonstrated to the world that the Filipino is worth fighting and dying for, to be named a Benigno and Corazon Aquino scholar is also one of the most humbling honors that can be bestowed.

Mr. President, this scholarship named in honor of your parents is not so much an occasion through which we celebrate past deeds. Instead, the bestowal of this award is an acknowledgement by our community that the principles and ideals of your parents illustrate that which we are called to do here at Boston College: to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and to seek reward—to be men and women for others now and forever more.

‘To be named a Benigno and Corazon Aquino scholar is one of the most humbling honors’

As we learn from the examples set forth by Benigno and Corazon Aquino, to dedicate ourselves to this end is no light task. To fight for others in the arena is to be marred by indignities, pressures, trials, and tribulations. Along this path, there are moments of sobering tragedy and elated triumphs and of warm fellowship and of cold loneliness. Like the Aquinos, we have no assurance of success despite the high possibility of failure.

Nevertheless, we are called to try and to strive because at the end of the day while few of us will have as large effect on the world as they did, all of us can influence our shared narrative by living our lives in the spirit of those who have come before.

Mr. President, by invoking the legacy of your parents, each scholar is a living testament to the shared ideals and history between Boston College and the Aquinos, the U.S. and the Philippines, and the past and the present. It should strike us all that around the world, the constant struggle for freedom, that unites our country and the Philippines, is perhaps more important than it has ever been. No matter where any scholar is eventually called, to rally against those forces which would seek to sustain oppression, both material and spiritual, is the great calling of our times.

And as Filipino-Americans and all those who are Asian-Americans, we are called to lead in more places than one. As a Filipino-American, it has been ingrained in my heart that I will not know where I am going, unless I know where my family has come from, but also as an Aquino Scholar I am reminded that the mantle of leadership is extended to all those who are able to see their fellow man, even those half a world away, not as mere abstractions but as part of one’s own family. The challenges are mighty, and they can only be solved by adhering to a unity established by the Aquinos.

In the face of such challenges, it is more important for us now to draw attention to the narratives that unite us, and can there be any stronger bond between colleagues, countrymen, and nations to ensure freedom and opportunity are preserved and strengthened? Are we not united, to paraphrase the words of the late Sen. Jose Diokno, when we assist all in singing their own song?

There is no harder fight than the times ahead of us, but Mr. President, I have the utmost confidence that like the scholars here and all those to come, we will find, in the words of the Jesuit priest Pacifico Ortiz, the wisdom of courage and the courage of wisdom to persevere like Benigno and Corazon Aquino for all the years and any challenges to come.