RIVERMAN’S VISTA | 50 years in the life of a Mindanawon

(This was the commencement speech I delivered for the graduates of St Mary’s Senior High School in Cagayan de Oro last 29 March 2026. The original title of the speech is: TODAY, YESTERDAY, TOMORROW; FLY, WALK, SWIM.)

This is a special moment for me. 50 years ago this week, I graduated from high school. No senior high school then. No Saint Mary’s School then. We had few options, so my parents sent me to the only exclusive boys’ school in town.

Today, my dear graduates, I would like to share three moments from the last 50 years: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow.

These are my moments and soon your moments too. And I accompany these moments with three words: Fly, walk, and swim.

Today, you are asked to fly. We call this exercise commencement, because today, you begin a new era of your life.

You are invited to fly – for some of you literally, if you are going to Manila or Cebu or even abroad for college.

For those who will stay here in Cagayan de Oro or in Mindanao, you will also fly – through your books, in your universities, in the new friends you will meet.

I know that St. Mary SHS has prepared you to fly. I know that personally because I had a nephew Knox that studied here and know you were taught by the best and brightest.

You are the best and the brightest. In Cagayan de Oro, in Mindanao, in the Philippines in the world.

You can fly. You know your math and science. You know how to write and speak. You can think.

And of course, I know many of you can act, sing, and dance. I know that theatre is a very important part of your life here in St Mary’s.

I heard you did West Side Story this year!

And indeed, when I researched about your school, I found these words of wisdom from one of your founders, Dr. Michael Costello. He believed that theatre was the perfect vehicle to teach students positive core values in an environment less formal than rigid academic training.

So let me challenge you in this speech and invite you to sing and dance with me.

Since, we are talking about flying, what’s a good song for us to sing together? What should your soundtrack be as you fly to your next destination after St. Mary’s?

I propose Ben and Ben’s Saranggola:

Kung aking uulitin itong mahabang byahe
Sa kada yugto ng ating paglalakbay
Wala akong babaguhin ni isang detalye
Sa dami ba naman ng sinuong magkasabay
Sa’n man hipan ng hanging amihan
‘Di ipagpapalit ang pagkakaibigan
Salamat sa’ting pinagsamahan
‘Di ipagpapalit ang pagkakaibigan

Sige, lets sing the refrain together. Look at the slide if you don’t know the lyrics-

Saranggola’y lilipad sa kahel ng kalangitan
Paalam na nga ba sa ating nakaraan
Ngunit sa’n man tayo hipan ng amihan
‘Di ipagpapalit ang pagkakaibigan

Repeat with feelings.

Yay!

But seriously now, as you do that, fly to the world outside, what will you see?

You will see war in Iran and Ukraine. You will also see war between Thailand and Cambodia, in Myanmar, and yes in Mindanao and other places where the oldest insurgency in the world continues.

You want to fly, but we might end up having no gasoline for our cars by June and no aviation or shipping fuel to bring us anywhere.

As you fly over our islands, you will be disgusted by corruption in our country. Grabe baya. Luod kayo ang inyong makita.

You will want to shout: Ikulong na iyan, mga kurakot.

You will see a country dominated by political dynasties. You will see oligarchs controlling our economy. You will see poverty everywhere.

And In Mindanao, including our city, you will see an environment in crisis.

Do you know that in 1976 when I graduated from high school there was no Uptown? Do you know that 100 years ago, Uptown was a forest?

Do you know that fifty years ago we only had two bridges in Cagayan de Oro? Now we Have 10.

You might say that this is a sign of progress. But for us, that is a sign of breaching the carrying capacity of our environment.

Those of you who experienced the Sendong floods know how bad it can get.

Yes, it’s scary out there.

But should you be afraid to fly because of all these? Mahadlok na lang mo and just stay, shelter in place? Play it safe?

No. Ayaw. Lupad gihapon, even with all these challenges.

And to encourage you, let me now go to a second moment and its accompanying word.

Yesterday. Walk.

When I graduated from high school in 1976, the Philippines was under a dictatorship. There was a war in Mindanao between Moro rebels and the central government in Manila. We had no freedom of speech and the press then and we had no right to protest.

By the way, in the 1970s, there was also a war in the Middle East, an oil crisis, and in fact an Iranian revolution in 1978-79.

Kuyaw baya mo lupad at that time. But I did, as today you should.

I flew first physically to Manila to study at Ateneo de Manila and later all over the Philippines and the world to study and work.

After college, I worked in Italy as a caregiver and a printing press worker. After a year as an OFW, I returned to Mindanao, to Cagayan de Oro, where I joined the Jesuit Volunteers and taught philosophy.

This was in 1981 and in Xavier I met the founders of your school Michael and Marilou Costello. I didn’t really know them – they already had PhDs and children while I was a 21-year-old teacher, teaching for the first time, but then we became classmates in a special class on how to teach conducted by a visiting Fulbright professor.

They would actually bring one or two of their babies/toddlers in the AV Room. I wonder if that were Michael and Margaret or other siblings. That would have been in 1981 or 1982.

I do not remember what I learned in that class, except that Michael asked a lot of questions while, us, typical Filipinos, were too shy to ask questions and challenge the visiting professor.

Whenever I am in Claveria, usually passing there to go to Agusan and Surigao, I always stop by the Cebu Pacific memorial. I would pray for Michael and for two other friends, Bobby Gana and Rene Agbayani who were in Flight 387. Michael, Bobby, and Rene – they were the best of all of us.

After Cagayan de Oro, my journey took me to many destinations. From teaching philosophy in XU and Ateneo de Manila, I moved to UP Law because I wanted to become a human rights lawyer.

My first clients were indigenous peoples – the Mangyans of Mindoro, Aetas of Central Luzon, Igorots of the Cordillera, and of course the Lumad of our beloved Mindanao.

I ended up also an environmental justice lawyer because logging and mining and other forms of development aggression were and are the problems of indigenous peoples.

And because climate change became our biggest sustainable development challenge, I decided to specialize in climate justice when I did my doctorate in Yale Law School.

I also would work for the government as environment undersecretary and later as an international environmental lawyer, based in Washington DC, working in Africa, Latin America, and of course Asia.

But I would never stop teaching. That has always been my vocation, the mission the Lord called me to.

And when I came home to the Philippines, I would resume teaching full time.

I still teach today in 12 universities and learning institutions.

At this point, let us sing another song.

There is a song I like from Olivia Rodrigo – 1 step forward, 3 steps back!

Keri? Let’s try! Slide please

‘Cause it’s always one step forward and three steps back
I’m the love of your life until I make you mad
It’s always one step forward and three steps back

That is a good summary of my life, and maybe yours too, and I would say of history.

We move forward yes, but we also fall back. Our lives and world history do not follow a linear pattern. Our journeys are in long and winding and rocky roads, never a straight line and not in concrete or asphalt many times.

From my own traveling, these are the lessons I would like to share with you:

First, always do what you love. What you are passionate about. What you are good at and do best. What makes you excited, happy. What makes your life meaningful.

Do not do anything because of money or ambition. You will not be happy if you do that. My own experience is that the success and money will come when you do what you love.

Second, find a cause greater than yourself or even your family. Protect the planet. Serve the poor. Defend our country.

Learn, grow, and serve as your school has taught you.

Saint Pedro Poveda has good advice: ‘”You don’t have to be rich in order to give. It is enough to be good. He who is good will always find something to give.”

Third, never lose sight of your roots, your family, your friends, your home town, your school.

I have many big causes but no one is more important to me than my wife Titay and my sons Eman, Rafa, and Rico and my daughter-in-law Kara,

One of the best things I have ever done in my life after all the success I have experienced in the world, is to come home to Cagayan de Oro every week for a decade in the 2010s to teach law in Xavier and more importantly to have a weekly lunch or dinner with my mother who was then in her 80s.

She died during the pandemic at 90 years old but when she got sick, she told me not to come home any more. I had paid my dues; and more importantly I have been able to thank her with my presence.

Flying is exciting. Running can be exhilarating.

But there will come a time when walking is better than flying and running. Sometimes it’s good to stop even if for a while.

Didn’t Bini sing:

Walang masyadong mabagal walang mabilis
Sa pagtakbo ng buhay hindi ka mimintis
Dahan dahan lang
buhay ay ‘di karera

Dili ko siya kaya kantahin haha. Way beyond my powers to sing a Bini song.

But BTS Keri.

And so now, let’s go to the last moment and its word.

Tomorrow. Swim.

What will tomorrow bring? How can I prepare for what’s next? Will things work out fine?

At this intersection of your lives, with all the uncertainty around us, you might be asking these questions.

I think Swim the new BTS song might help:

Water, water so deep, water so deep
Take it off the ground, I ain’t never gettin’ cold feet
Yeah, you know me, yeah, you know me

Sittin’ on the shore, now I’m ready for the whole sea

I can feel the high waves comin’ (Yeah) Why you run away? You can run in (Yeah)

Lets sing the chorus together and dance with me, your teachers and parents who are Army, BTS fans, sali kayo. Slide please-

Swim, swim
Water falling off your skin
Swim, swim
I could spend a lifetime watching you
Swim, swim
This is how it all begins
Swim, swim
I just wanna dive, I just wanna dive

Dive, just dive.

Fr. Roque Ferriols, my favorite philosophy Teacher in Ateneo and the wisest Filipino I have ever met, used to tell us when we had to make big decisions – like choosing a major or university to go to, or even falling in love –

Lundagin mo baby!

Swim with the tide. Swim against the current. Swim with your friends.

Lundagin niyo, graduates! Have faith! God will be with you! Mary will perpetually help you.

Today Palm Sunday, we remember the passion. But that is not the last word: Resurrection on Easter Sunday is.

Ayaw ka hadlok. Makibaka Huwag matakot. Go fly. Do walk when needed. Its ok to stop and rest once in a while. And yes, swim until you reach the shore.(Dean Antonio Gabriel La Viña is from Cagayan de Oro and is a professor of law, philosophy, politics and governance in several universities, including in Mindanao. He has been a human rights lawyer for 36 years. He is currently the managing partner of La Viña Zarate and Associates, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and Chair of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy. He is founding president of the Movement Against Disinformation and the founding chair of the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility and the Mindanao Center for Scholarships, Sports, and Spirituality.)