DOODS' SPEECH: 1989 CIT PARANGAL RITES

SPEECH DELIVERED BY ENGR. DOODS A. AMORA ON THE OCCASION OF CIT PARANGAL RITES ’89, HELD AT THE CIT QUADRANGLE, 4:00 PM, MARCH 8, 1989.

(Backgrounder: The Parangal Rites of Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) is the most solemn & most prestigious commencement ceremonies of the institution. It aims to honor the King or Queen of Engineers for the year - by way of a Julius Caesar-like coronation. The King or Queen of Engineers is one who achieved the highest average grades from first year to fifth year in his/her engineering course, in other words, the best among the best. The Parangal also honors the ‘laude’s’ of the batch and all other honor students graduating for the year. For the record, as a sidebar, Ernie Abunda, the first president of IIEE North Cebu Chapter & PEE of SMC Glass Plant was the King of Engineers for the year 1995.)

“Our beloved President of the Cebu Institute of Technology, Don Rodulfo T. Lizares Sr., Executive Vice President of CIT, Mr. Gregorio L. Escario, Mr. Rodulfo A. Lizares Jr., First Vice President, Dean Achilles Alfafara of the College of Engineering & Architecture, Dean Ariel Jumalon, of the College of Liberal Arts, Atty. Corazon Evangelista Valencia, Dean, College of Commerce, Department Heads, Faculty Members, The Queen of Engineers of CIT batch ’89 and the members of her court, Outstanding Honorees from the College of Commerce and Liberal Arts, parents, graduating students, guests, ladies & gentlemen, good afternoon …..”

“To be a “King or Queen of Engineers” of a leading school of engineering in this country is NOT THE CUP OF TEA of your speaker, and because of that, I have to honestly say, that with contradicting feelings of pride and humility, I accepted your invitation with mental reservation but without purpose of evasion.”

“I take pride to be part & parcel of the CIT PARANGAL ’89 as your guest speaker; in fact, I consider it one of the greatest challenges in my career. To my mind, it is almost an impossible dream to address to a body as august as this – in an occasion highlighting the beautiful tradition of this prestigious academe – the act of recognizing the cream of the crop – the way of extolling the best among the best in terms of today’s PARANGAL rites.”

“This beautiful tradition had started many years back since the early days in the history of technical education in this part of the country and has continued up to the present days. Since then, the impact of being a King or Queen of Engineers had become a by-word -– it has formed into a monumental legacy that lives up the reputation of CIT as producer of quality engineers. This legacy had been attemptedly imitated by many others schools, but the living imprints of what is CIT, cannot just be obliterated, and that, no engineer in his right mind could ever dare not to recognize. IBA ANG MAY TATAK CIT, MAY PANGALAN ITO, PARE KO…!”

“In the midst of that pride and enthusiasm that I feel this afternoon, I am at the same time, humbled in the wake of the presence of the Queen of Engineers, the immediate members of her court and the outstanding honorees from other colleges whom I am to give honor today. As I pointed out earlier, to be one of them is not my cup of tea, and that only reminds me of a story I gathered in one of our recent management trainings which runs like this:

"Not every long ago, there was an open market of brains somewhere in this part of the globe. What was being sold in that markets are solely human brains (utak). In one of the display booths, the brain of the famous Albert Einstein sported a price tag of $1,000. The brains of Thomas Edison & other scientists were tagged at $2,000 a piece. Then, in the Filipino section of the market, the brain of the genius, Dr. Jose Rizal commanded a price of $5,000. Together with Rizal’s brain were a bunch of brains labeled “CIT Queen of Engineers & Her Court-Batch 89”, which were priced at $5,000 each (same as Rizal’s). Every prospective buyer seemed satisfied with the pricing scheme except for one unlabelled brain which carried a price tag of $1,000,000. The curious buyers asked the attendant why the brain was incredibly so expensive when it was not even 'labelled'. The attendant replied that the brain was a special one because it was owned by an engineer of San Miguel Corporation, specifically Mandaue Brewery. The owner of the brain even became a guest speaker in one of CIT’s Parangal, the attendant added. So what then if the brain was an SMC engineer? What made it so special?... the buyers insisted. Then the attendant concluded, this brain is very expensive, because it’s slightly used!"

"There you are… Ladies & Gentlemen… my job this afternoon is therefore not easy. I come here to honor the super stars in this academe when I am not even a moon… But just the same, let me praise the Queen, the members of her court and the honor graduates from the college of Commerce & the College of Liberal Arts, by saying that, you are all polished diamonds outshining over a heap of other gems – the very jewels that our Alma Mater is so proud of. It is indeed my honor too, to be with you in this momentous occasion."

"May I therefore request the audience to give them a big applause of congratulations!"

"But let me ask you this question, who do you think are the happiest and proudest creatures at this peak moment? Is it the school? Is it the honorees themselves? Or is it your boyfriends or girlfriends hiding somewhere amidst the crowd? Let me venture to say, that there can never be any prouder and happier creature today, than the parents of these diamonds we are honoring today. The parents, yes, the unsung heroes, yet the most important ingredient of this testimonial honor. To you, proud parents, we salute to your undying devotion, to your inexhaustible dedication, to your unwaning support and love towards your children. Words can never be sufficient in appropriately describing your sacrifices and heroism."

"To the parents, let us give them our sincerest congratulations!"

"At this point, let me pass on this message to the honorees as well as the graduating students of this institute. Now that you have succeeded in the academe with your mission, goals and objectives, you are now in the position to aspire for greater heights of achievements such as working on your own career paths to mold your own life as professionals as you develop the necessary competence and capability necessary for your journey ahead. You should be ready and willing to demand the best from yourselves as the road to this new dimension of success is narrow and steep upward as you can observe within any corporate working environment. The road is literally littered with people tumbling down, having failed or fallen on their way up. Up the organization ladder, the triangle accommodates only a few at the apex for the best qualified."

"Let us all remember that there is no victory without a struggle and victories should never be subject to contentment, because if they are, your progress stops. You have just passed your first acid test…you’ll have more baptisms of fire later on."

"Everyone must find his route to success. You must possess a certain degree of imagination and vision. You must be able to think ahead – to visualize a plan beyond the immediate present. In other words, look beyond where you are to where you want to be. But you have to work hard to reach it. Again let me say, that you have just made the first mile… and you have much more miles to tackle ahead."

"Let us all remember that as professionals; it is our responsibility to make this world better than what we found it."

"I wish to say that the Parangal is a venue to honor the cream of the crop. But this honor is not only for them, but to all of you, graduating students of this institute, because you are the best among all others. You are a class by itself."

"I would like to close this speech by giving some food for thought. For the engineering graduates, in case you do not know, a few days from now, you will be starting to practice the oldest profession. I know that not all of you would agree with me when I say that the engineering profession is the oldest profession. Proof…? In the book of Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 3, it says…” When God created the world, He commanded, Let there be light… and there was light.” Does it mean Electrical Engineering? Yes."

"But who runs the boilers & the turbines? Mechanical Engineers? Yes. But who treated & prepared the water? Chemical Engineers? Yes. But who constructed & maintained the buildings? Civil Engineers? Yes. But who provided the statistical efficiency & productivity control charts? Industrial Engineers? Yes. But who maintained the electronics controls & instrumentations? Electronics Engineers? Yes…and the list goes on from computer software to hardware engineers."

"But the list doesn’t end up there, because one would surely ask, who handles the finance? CPA’s & the bankers? Yes. But who handles the education of all of the above? Is it the product of Dean Jumalon’s college? Of course, Yes."

"You see…, everyone has a mission. Even in the academe, from the school itself, to the faculty, down to the last student, we all have roles to play. In CIT, these roles had been played and achieved all these years, from generation to generation without interruption. Do you care to ask why? Because, in CIT, “IBA ANG MAY PINAGSAMAHAN!”

"As I close my piece, may I request everybody to please rise…

At this point, let us congratulate ourselves by giving out our loudest applause….

Thank you very much for your standing ovation…!"


Engr. Dominico A. Amora, PEE
March 8, 1989