Aidel Paul Belamide, one of UP’s top honor graduates in 2009, was my student in SPCM 1 (Speech Communication) in 2004. I remember foisting on their class the same question that I had been foisting on my COMM III/SPCM 1 classes at the start of every semester: “Who would like to graduate with honors?” No, I usually start with, “Those who would like to graduate summa cum laude please raise your right hands.” Nobody usually raises his or her right hand. Freshmen, who comprised the majority of students in my basic speech communication classes, would usually shy away from proclaiming that they actually had such ambition. “How about magna cum laude?” I would make a follow up. Still nobody raises his or her hand. “Cum laude?” Then I would glean sparkles from the eyes of some eager beavers especially those still basking in their secondary school glory, but false modesty would rule so nobody would end up raising a hand. Then I would cap my series of questions with, “So the highest possible grade for this class would be 2.25 or if you’re really good, 2.0. Both are respectable grades. Qualitatively, they are described as ‘good’ in the UP grading system.” Suddenly, I would hear a drone of peevish whining. And a brave soul would ask, “Sir, what if a student deserves better than 2.0?” I would then ask, “So let me repeat, who among you would like to graduate with honors?” A considerable number – sometimes more than half of the class – would raise their hands.
That was not the case in Aidel Paul’s class. The moment I foisted the question “Who wants to graduate summa cum laude?” I got an unexpected reply. Aidel, a small, lanky freshman whose eyes communicated so much involvement in the classroom dynamics, raised his rather frail hand. “Oh, so you want to be summa cum laude. And you happen to be a ComArts major,” I had to verify. “Yes, Sir,” he replied. “Not only do you want to be summa cum laude,” I retorted. “You also want to be ComArts’s first summa cum laude.” The sparkle in his eyes shone even brighter.
Later I would learn that he was also an active board member of Silang,
From what I know of him, Aidel was no ordinary student. While he was active in his extracurricular activities in
So what does it take to be an honor student? There is actually no formula. From experience, I say it takes more than brilliance to earn more than good grades. Hard work coupled with a capacity to adjust competently in shifting environments (contrasting teaching and learning styles, changing living conditions, varying personalities in and out of the classrooms, pressures from institutional constraints, etc.) contribute to success in studentship. “Natural intelligence” (which in my book pertains to mental/intellectual preparedness – or the capacity to do formal thinking) is certainly important to be able to succeed in college, although that is usually taken for granted in UP where the majority of the students are high school academic achievers or are presumably college/university-ready after surviving the formidable UP College Admission Test.
As implied earlier, I also graduated with honors. With honors (cum laude) lang. Not with greatest (summa) or with greater (magna) honors (laude) although I really didn’t mind graduating with those heavy weight titles. Like Aidel, I saw graduating with honors as a goal (and I am not going to display false modesty by saying I did not dream of aiming for the higher titles!). But my reasons were rather pragmatic.
Considering that I came from a family of modest means, I thought graduating with honors would at least land me a respectable job with a respectable salary (I did land a respectable job but that I earned a respectable salary from such a respectable job remains contentious to this day.).
During my first semester, while taking the required Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), I had set my mind into becoming a college or university scholar (or being in the Dean’s or Chancellor’s List) because such would mean being exempted from the exhausting drills under the sweltering heat of the tropical sun. At that time, college and university scholars were asked to join the ROTC Pool of Instructors. During the 5-hour Saturday morning training, cadet instructors were tasked to read notes in the barracks or in shaded areas in preparation for lectures before throngs of cadets. The lectures – I even remember mouthing the concept of military reconnaissance! – were easy to handle. We were allowed to read from the notes and with a little drama, I thought I actually made some cadets swoon! Well, I did that during my second, third and fourth semesters and that was how I survived ROTC. The first semester was “a debacle in the field” (I would see shades of aquamarine, tangerine, yellow, and other rainbow colors whenever I would faint!); the succeeding ones were a relative bliss.
Another reason for aiming for academic distinction had to do with my gender. Since I grew up being the “overt” kind – effeminate, campy, and perhaps, wimp-looking – I had to balance such physical conspicuousness with a perceived mental rigor or strength (with emphasis on the word “perceived”). Graduating with honors would at least give my prospective employer/s and future colleagues the impression that my wimp-like physicality can be counterbalanced by my intellectual gifts (or so I thought). Moreover, the academic distinction is always attached to the degree (which, for some time, gave me the delusion that I was actually brighter than ordinary minds.)
So how powerful is an academic distinction or graduating with honors? Does it really spell magic when one joins the labor force? It does spell magic but only for a brief period of time.
For somebody lacking experience and higher degrees, it was my passport for getting a teaching position in UPLB. My friend and colleague once told me that academic distinction is only good for two years. She was wrong. After less than a year, I already felt its magic wane. There were new graduates with the same or even higher academic distinctions joining the faculty. I wasn’t special anymore. Or I wasn’t special at all. I had to do more than bask in the glory of my academic distinction for my bachelor’s degree. In graduate school, I realized it is no big deal. Almost everybody graduated with honors so the distinction is taken for granted. What people are interested in in the postgraduate level is what kind of scholarship or research one is going to churn out – whether that is going to change the complexion of an academic field, make a significant impact in society or just end up as one of the many samples of thesis writing in the library shelves.
These days, it seems that academic distinction remains as the regular passport of the swarm of fresh graduates who join the university teaching force year in, year out. It is, however, a sad commentary of our times when certain units in the UP are still forced to hire fresh bachelor’s degree graduates as members of the regular faculty when they should be attracting those with higher degrees and with immediate potential contributions to research and development. This is not to say that fresh graduates are incapable of teaching (I had been one of the many beneficiaries of that policy when I joined the teaching force as a fresh graduate in 1998 and I had been witness to peers who can really hold their own in the classroom. In hindsight though, I realize that, given my very limited background in research and scholarship, I was inadequate as a teacher. I was at the very least merely rehashing textbooks and mouthing authors I had read ahead of my students.), but just when you thought the UP has transformed itself to meet the challenges of the evolving knowledge economy and to be on par with its counterparts in the region and the world, it still appears to be stuck with recruiting babies to teach fellow babies.
That the UPLB ComArts program has produced its first summa cum laude in 35 years is a cause for celebration. It may mean that despite having attracted very talented students through the years, the program through its faculty has really set exacting academic standards making it especially difficult for students to graduate with the greatest honors within the last three and a half decades. In fact, it took 25 years for the program to produce its first magna cum laude. That was in 1999. There were years before that when the program didn’t produce any honor graduates at all. It is, however, interesting to note that lately there has been an inflation of honor graduates in the program. This seems to be the trend as well in the System. While it may initially leave the impression that UP has been producing more and more intellectually competent students, it may be good to examine if that is really the case. Could this trend have been the consequence of recruiting fresh graduates who despite their academic distinctions aren’t really prepared to teach, evaluate, and provide students the level of difficulty they need to better develop intellectually? Could it be due to the fact that most teachers compensate their lack of intellectual preparedness by being generous in giving (very) high grades to their students? Could it be due to the fact that in making up for their inadequacy, some teachers would rather compromise quality for quantity (that is, giving high grades so they won’t feel so much indebted to their students)?
I wonder.
Based on my interview with President Aquino in May 1997 and what I could extract from the cobwebbed sections of the UPLB library then, the following was written eleven years ago today. It’s a biographical sketch which appears before my rhetorical analyses of her selected speeches. So this is how I wrote then. I somehow liked to make things a bit convoluted. I think nothing has changed significantly:
Who is Cory Aquino?
On January 25, 1933, the day Cory Aquino, christened Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco was born, her parents Jose Cojuangco and Demetria Sumulong might not have expected that fifty-three years and a month later, their sixth child would be sworn in as the eleventh president of
Some genealogists would contend that Cory’s apparent “noblesse oblige” and involvement in the mainstream Philippine politics were her birthmarks. Her father, Jose Cojuangco owned vast tracts of lands in
Though blessed with affluence generated from the vast properties of the Cojuangcos, Cory grew up to be frugal. She in fact used hand-me-down Scholastican uniforms from elder sisters Josephine and Teresita but is remembered to have complained only once about their faded look (Sunday Inquirer Magazine, January 21, 1990).
On the one hand, summers and weekends in Paniqui with her siblings would expose her early to politics; on the other hand, the schools she attended significantly took part in building her individual character.
Her marriage to Ninoy relegated her to the traditional woman roles which she accepted with open arms. Having been blessed with five children, Cory took the role of a full-time mother. She narrates, “Because I was married to a politician, I felt it more urgent to take care of my children. I think that it’s no secret in this country of ours even in other countries that children of politicians tend to be left in the care of others…so you hear of many problems connected with children of politicians.”
As a concerned parent, Cory tells: “I would enroll them, I’d take care of all the material needs and would also help them in doing their homework and I would also be very busy in attending PTA meetings.” Cory would also accompany them to movies and children’s parties. She would say emphatically, “Talagang, full time mother and also very supportive wife.” As a wife, Cory remained in the background of her husband Ninoy whose growing popularity during the Marcos presidency had made great expectations that he would succeed the first Philippine President to be elected for two terms.
Ninoy’s fiery oratory in the Senate made him so prominent that President Marcos himself felt threatened. When President Marcos declared martial rule in 1972, Ninoy’s burning ambition to become the country’s next president was quelled. The young Senator was incarcerated a day after President Marcos signed Proclamation 1081. For seven years and seven months, the passionate oratorical pieces emanating from the Benjamin of the Senate were deliberately kept by the Marcos forces from being heard by the Filipino people and the outside world. At the same time, however, the housewifely Cory was starting to experience a shift from her traditional roles. In those years, she was virtually exposed to political education. Her number one professor was her husband. She became Ninoy’s clear channel to the outside world despite experiencing the rigors and mental tortures accorded by tyranny to loved ones of political prisoners. Cory’s significant role during those critical times is best expressed in the concluding passages of Ninoy’s lengthy closing statement before the military tribunal:
“Hopefully, with the end of these proceedings, the woman who is the hope and light of my life’s dark night will be delivered from her anxiety and anguish. She had stood by me with unshakable faith, unruffled and undeterred by the endless humiliations, the abandonment of friends, and the heavy burdens of having to be a teacher, father, mother and provider for my children. She has been the healing oasis in the desert of my prison.”
In her book, Time magazine correspondent Sandra Burton comments that Ninoy’s belated public acknowledgment of the role of Cory “foreshadowed the emergence of a new politics of conscience from out of his experience under martial rule.” If we are to look at it in the politico-spiritual framework, the inclusion of this relatively short but significant detail in Ninoy’s closing statement would make us think of the Magnificat in the New Testament and compare Cory to Mary, mother of Christ. Interestingly, both women have earned the title “Woman of History.”
On March 19, 1980, Ninoy suffered a heart attack. To Cory, this was instrumental for his release. Almost two months later, the Aquino family was allowed to leave the country for Ninoy’s operation in the
Ninoy Aquino, however, relentlessly struggled to bring back democracy in the
For three years after Ninoy’s assassination, Cory committed herself to joining the opposition leaders in challenging the strongman. At one point, she was asked what conditions would prompt her to seek the presidency. Answering the question before members of a sorority based in the University of the
Unexpectedly for Cory, however, the conditions she gave at the gathering in UP were met, propelling her to vie for the presidency. On November 3, 1985, President Marcos called for snap elections in an interview on This Week with David Brinkley, an American Sunday morning news program. On the other hand, Chino Roces, owner-publisher of the Manila Times and an elderly activist, was able to gather one million signatures petitioning Cory to run for president. Invoking providential guidance, she sought for reflection and retreat in the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. Finally, she filed her candidacy for President. The election campaign, describes Time magazine, would turn out to be a “clash of symbols.” Cory stood out to become the anti-thesis of the dictator. Marcos, on the other hand, argued that his challenger had no experience in politics and had not acted as an ideal woman, whose place, he said, is in the bedroom.
The election was reported to have been marred by massive cheating, leading thirty computer tabulators to walk out. Unperturbed by the alleged tampering of the results, Ferdinand E. Marcos proclaimed himself winner. Defiant, Cory with the help of Cardinal Sin, called for civil disobedience. The rest that followed was history.
As president, Cory presided over the transition from dictatorship to democracy. She led the country in restoring basic rights and freedom. Some of her earliest achievements during her term were the ratification of the 1987 Constitution and the restoration or the reestablishment of the Philippine Congress and the Supreme Court. She also introduced economic and social reforms. She encouraged participatory democracy through non-governmental organizations and people’s organizations. Her term, however, was marred by many problems. Her government faced seven coup attempts two of which were most devastating – the August 1987 and December 1989 events. The instability experienced by the country during her term led some people to regard her as weak. She in fact turned out to be the best scapegoat of some journalists, Marcos loyalists and opposition leaders. Moreover, the country was faced by some of the worst calamities in modern history. These were the July 1990 earthquake and the
Since her assumption to power, Cory has received several citations and awards and has been continually invited to speak in international and national conferences and gatherings of professionals, academicians, the media and some sectoral groups. She had been conferred several honorary degrees in universities in the
As a private citizen, Cory Aquino has maintained her role as an articulator of the pulse of the people. On September 21, 1997, she had served to consolidate people’s movement against hideous attempts to change the Constitution. She was named “Filipino of the Year” by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on January 8, 1998.
In essence, Cory Aquino has continued to be what Theodore Roosevelt called “the man (or woman) in the arena…who strives, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and, at worst, if he fails, does it daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Cory has indeed metamorphosed – from a frugal heir to the Cojuangco fortune to being a “wife at the background” of a political star; from a suffering mother of five to a symbolic Mater Dolorosa of a nation almost divided; from a grieving widow to a defiant public woman; from a referent leader to a legitimate one; from a favorite subject to a favorite scapegoat; from President to private citizen; from a religious leader to a weaver of the nation’s moral fiber. This transformation – criticized and romanticized, insulted and exalted, pierced and loved – contributed to her indelibly unique place in Philippine history. With that, her life and political career deserve the light of scholarship.
From: Corazon C. Aquino: The Leader as a Rhetorician and Her Place in Philippine History. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. Department of Humanities,
Was Jesus sexual? The book’s section on Jesus and sexuality ably puts into context the furor generated by such products of imaginative literature as “The Last Temptation of Christ” or “Da Vinci Code” – works that tend to challenge the validity of what seems to be taken-for-granted in the public mind. The authors acknowledge that the New Testament is a product of its time and therefore, it is possible to think that it might have left out details about Jesus’ marital status or his most human experiences throughout his life. I shall not dwell too much into this but just to give prospective readers a peek into what the authors have to say about Jesus as a sexual being, here are some lines from Tender Fires: “If sexuality is a God-given energy that draws all of us into relationships of love and care, then Jesus is among the most sexual beings who ever lived. The story of his life is filled with intimate encounters with other people, and he made loving the primary mark of discipleship.” (p. 203)
The sacred erotic
Engaging is how I would describe Tender Fires’ take on the erotic. In discussing this, the authors subvert the artificial dichotomy created by such ideas that what is erotic is mundane while the “love of God” or what is called “agape” is divine. In fact, the authors’ use of the following epigraph from lesbian Caribbean-American poet and activist Audre Lorde as a spin off point for discussion says a lot about the authors’ illuminating reflections:
“The very word ‘erotic’ comes from the Greek word eros, the pe
To Ferder and Heagle, “Authentic eros… is not only hungry but also creative and generous. It wants to receive and give.”
‘The future of human loving’ (pp. 229-246)
Towards the end of the book, the authors call for a movement, a shift in perspective, in ways of viewing sexuality in the light of the evolving human consciousness. They articulate the following vision statements that, expressed in “contemporary terminology” not in “creedal statements or ethical mandates from the past,” they (the authors) hope to lend credibility to the truly timeless, enduring values of their faith tradition.
These statements, I believe, are important to our contemporary debates that include among others the passage of a reproductive health bill, the integration of “sex education” in the school curricula or even the marriage of persons of the same gender (e.g., Can we truly say that marriage is the only legitimate space or, to borrow a line from the authors, “holy ground” for genital expression or sharing?)
I leave future readers to engage in a dialogue with the articulations of these statements in the final pages of Tender Fires, but I would like to leave at least a line or two on one of the vision statements mentioned above – particularly the one on generativity.
I remember being told by a friend several years ago that most gay people particularly those who do not have or bear children of their flesh and blood are actually “genetically selfish” since they do not contribute to the genetic pool. This is of course a myopic view of life-giving. The concept of generativity expands what it means to “give life.” It acknowledges that life-giving happens even beyond the genital aspects of our sexuality. As my playwright friend would tell me, “There are many ways of giving birth; one could give birth to a book, an art work, or even an institution” (One could very well interpret that of course as a resort to Freudian sublimation!)
But generativity is actually much more than accomplishing feats that undeniably have impact on other people’s lives. Quite relevant to our changing times, this broader understanding of life-giving, the 
At the risk of sounding redundant, I say that this beautifully written book is a must read for those who want to reaffirm the Christian faith tradition but who at the same time would like to critically engage in a dialogue on issues on sexuality that continue to confront our human existence. I would like to end this two-part series with the epigraph from which the authors Fran Ferder and John Heagle drew their inspiration for Tender Fires. They are the prophetic words of mystic and Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:
“Some day after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.”
Photo of Audre Lorde from http://cache.eb.com
I am as sexual and as capable of loving as any person currently enjoying the pleasures of his/her intimate relationship with his/her partner. And that will remain so even if, due to circumstances or due to personal choice, I should end up celibate all my life. A thorough and incisive review of the text would perhaps generate several treatises on human sexuality and its interface with spirituality. I am honestly not ready to do that. So in this entry, I feature only some of the textual extracts which I find very interesting – words over which I have mulled during these past few days and which I intend to use as points of departure for future personal reflections. (The pictures of me and the statues at Haw Par Villa – courtesy of friend Angie Wong – should not be taken as visual interpretations of the book. They’re meant to provide those who dare read this blog a somewhat playful form of respite, especially if s/he gets exhausted by plowing through my usually torturous, convoluted and lengthy prose.)
Sexuality and the questions on love and life-giving
An important point raised by the authors is how sexuality should be understood. Sexuality c
Sexuality, the authors argue, is a relational energy. Genital expression, in all its forms, is just a component of sexuality. “Sexuality is love energy. It refers to the spiritual, emotional, physical, psychological, social, and cultural aspects of relating to one another as embodied male and female persons” (p. 29)
They add, “Sexuality, a still evolving term, has to do with all the ways we try to reach one another at the level of the heart. It involves our efforts to communicate, our acts of tenderness, and even our struggle to find each other again after an argument. It is the constantly burning fire within us that compels us to turn toward one another” (Ibid.).
Seen this way, sexuality is something that everyone has a capacity of exercising. Even the religious, who, by choice, are celibate, can be considered sexual beings when they exert effort to relate with other people. Sexuality is present in all aspects of human-to-human relations.
The authors further point out that “[t]he central question regarding our sexuality is not about our gender, ethnic background, age, vocation, sexua
The book does not offer quick answers to these questions. In the succeeding sections, the authors invite the readers to reflect on their own stories and the embodied experiences of people on ground.
Same-gender love
Perhaps, one of the more controversial issues brought up by the authors is that of sexual diversity, particularly of same-gender love.
In exploring this issue,
The statement from the Episcopalian minister may of course invite strong counter-arguments or counter-propositions. Moreover, his views may be dismissed for apparently being defensive of his gay son. But if sexuality is seen as a relational energy, then any human being should be capable of loving any of his fellow human beings – man or woman, gay or straight. The position is also warranted by the authors’ conviction that the Creation Story is a “work in progress, an unfinished symphony of God’s desire to be known and be heard.” They concur with contemporary cosmologists that the universe is ever-expanding and that one of the fundamental dynamics at work in this expansion is differentiation.
“Differentiation,” the authors explain, “describes God’s creative energy as it expands outwardly creating time and space. It encompasses the variety and uniqueness of every snowflake, seabird, flower, and agate, all of which reveal a diversity that is as colorful as it is incomprehensible. Each galaxy and person is unique. Apparently our God delights in such profligate variety and invites us also to rejoice in the heavens and the earth ‘with all their array’ (Gn 2:11)” (pp. 82-83).
Viewed from a rather secular perspective, differentiation recognizes the human capacity to undo certain social structures or categories like gender (in this case, heterosexuality) that restrict what Judith Butler calls “greater livability.” As
I believe greater livability is the point of embracing the diversity of the world around us and consequently, the uniqueness of every living thing.
