To the Notre Dame University faculty members and school administrators, the proud parents, relatives, and friends, to our beloved graduates and bar candidates and to everyone present in this momentous event: Assalamualaykum Warrahamtullahi Wabarakatuhu! Let me also take this opportunity to say my condolences to the NDU community in the passage of Father Elisio Jun Mercado, our beloved peace-builder in Mindanao.
Congratulations to all of you! You are competent, brave, and courageous enough to endure and survive the painstaking years of hardship – studying solemnly, bringing your A-Game during recitations, experiencing series of anxiety, panic attacks, sleepless nights, and the horrors of law school that each of you will remember for the rest of your life.
I know that Notre Dame University is an institution that inspires respect and admiration. Consequently, you have been polished and prepared to face the tests of lawyering. Most importantly, you now understand the role of lawyers in the preservation of society. You have reinvented yourself enough to understand that you have the legal and moral obligation to maintain the highest standard of ethical conduct.
As you continue this journey, always remember that each of you is a champion. You have sacrificed and surpassed all the tests that a law school could give. You have given your best and exhausted yourself to the extent that you now have the opportunity and privilege to become a member of the most prestigious profession and finally place before your respective names those four letters with a dot – ATTY.
Of course, they say that – with great power comes great responsibility. A lawyer have many responsibilities, among which, is providing solutions to problems.
However, let me share to you my learning lessons. There were so many but have chosen only three.
First is, Connecting With People
The journey towards achieving success cannot be attained in isolation. We are living in a fast-paced world where building good relations with others is the ingredients to success.
After I became a lawyer, I continued my advocacy for women and children.
I founded IQRA, an affordable English and Arabic elementary school in Manila. I was with a religious organization that time called Muslim Students Union. My friends and I share common vision for the next generation of enlightened and well-balanced Muslim children, our school managed to produce more than 4,500 graduates since the time we started it in 2003.
Together with another set of friends of mine who are professionals, researchers and scholars, we also founded another institution called Khadija Center for Muslim Women Research dedicated for women’s rights and welfare.
It was difficult to build an institution from scratch. We encountered many challenges and hurdles. But the glue that kept us together was the singular vision that we can make it provided we stick together and carry each other as none of us can do it alone.
Again as a Senior State Solicitor at the OSG for 15 years, I value team work which made my working environment at the OSG comfortable. Connecting with people in the office even to the janitorial service and the guards to make them feel that they belong to a larger family.
In this modern world, we must build relations that last long and learn to connect with other human beings. We have to realize that there are people who have the same aspirations as you have and thus, can help you move forward in life.
We are in an age where we have to collaborate with one another. We are in the age of sharing knowledge, no hording it, so we could speed up and we can learn from one another. By doing so things will get easier, and we will be more productive and successful in our endeavors.
Second is Follow Your Passion
I define passion as one’s interest and something that gives you meaning and purpose. Although my dream was to become a lawyer, my passion is education.
Between my dream as lawyer and my passion as educator, I pursued my passion in education since it gave meaning to my life and it makes me happy.
Incidentally, I only discovered my passion just three years after I became a lawyer.
I discovered it by necessity. When my daughter was 3 years old, I was worried that there are no Muslim schools in Manila where she can learn Islamic faith and values.
I was also worried that there are many of children in Quiapo who are exposed to DVDs and violence on the streets. Thus, through my friends we established, Iqra Kiddie Learning Center in Quiapo, Manila in the neighborhood where I grew up.
There I realized how I derived so much happiness in working and managing the school and with children. This is not the same in my law profession. This is newly discovered passion gave me so much meaning and happiness.
I did not stop there by being a school manager. I need tools to be far more effective in passion for education so I applied for scholarship, and was admitted at the University of Manchester in United Kingdom taking Master in Educational Leadership. When I got back in country in 2007, I continue my education and hopefully I will obtain my PhD in Education next year at UP-Diliman, College of Education.
In March 2011, I became the Head of Ovesight Reform Team for Quality Education of DepEd in ARMM and introduced so many reforms in my two years there. Now, I served at the BTA and one of my focus is education.
My question to you know is what is your passion? Some have no difficulty in knowing their passion, some, like me, discovered it out of necessity.
Third is Touch the Lives of Others.
These experiences affected me in a positive way as it prompted me to learn about who I am and my identity at a very young age. It made me firm on my beliefs and on my identity.
I became more aware on issues on Bangsamoro when joined Muslim Youth and Student Alliance. There, I learned the value of empathy and compassion. It was the moment when got deeply involved with helping others and the good feeling of being of help.
The Iqra Kiddie Learning Center catered for the children while Khadija Center for Research on Muslim dedicated for women’s rights and welfare.
Now, as you prepare yourself for the bar, I can only imagine the pressure – the stakes are high – and spirits are shaking Nevertheless, allow to remind you that it’s okay to feel that way. It’s normal and there’s nothing wrong about it.
Look inward and trust yourself. Trust your training and ability as it will build confidence.
Finally, pray as though everything depended on God and work as though everything depended on you – and be consistent about it.
I congratulate you again in advance and I hope and pray to see your names written in the sacred Rolls of Attorneys.
Thank you very much!
As a young child, growing up in a non-Moro environment, I experienced being a victim of discrimination in many instances on account of my faith as Muslim with my prominent visible hijab and my identity as Moro.
Assalamualaykum Warrahamtullahi Wabaraktuhu!
