Estrada tells graduates to help rehabilitate RP
Ousted President Joseph Estrada asked thousands of graduates of the
Speaking at the UMAK’s 35th commencement exercise at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Estrada said the country needs the best and the brightest professionals for its recovery.
“Today, I ask the graduating class of 2008 to stay and accept the challenge of reforming and rehabilitating this nation,” he said.
Estrada said the country can still recover and redeem its glorious past, “if only the youth like you will assume the activist role of restoring decency and sanity in this nation.”
He said the graduates of 2008 marked an important milestone in their lives.
“You all have a bright future ahead of you, if you collect and gather today to begin building that future,” he said.
“But you must build it with your country in mind. Our national hero, Jose Rizal, gave us that much quoted belief, that the youth is the hope of the motherland. We must begin believing again in that conviction because you stand to inherit this nation.”
Estrada said students have been taught to love God, country and family, but “somewhere along the way, we begin to neglect the love of country, as many of us seek opportunities in foreign lands.”
“I am sure this is dictated by the need to provide for our family, but it need not be so because together, we can rebuild this country so that we need no longer leave our loved ones behind to seek employment in foreign lands,” he said.
Estrada said the youth must begin helping the country recover today because “if we do not, this nation shall be forever trapped in that cycle of debt and poverty, of hopelessness and alienation and of seeking jobs in foreign lands.” – Jose Rodel Clapano
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