Kurt B.

Del Rosario NSTP101

N24

WAKE UP!

“If you want to be a leader, you should make a distinction between Traditional
leadership and Servant Leadership.” A quotation coming from “Woke Lolo” or Atty. Chel
Diokno, during the Alternative Class Program, happened last October 18, 2019. The ACP
event that I have attended was the forum with Woke Lolo, entitled: Woke, Youth as agents of
Social Justice. The event was fun and at the end of the event, everyone will really be able to
get a good insight and the words of speaker will make you feel enlighten and can also touch
hearts and our minds to start the change that we are longing for the long time. The speaker
mainly discusses what is social justice and the role of the Filipino Youth in changing the
Philippines to be a better place to live.

The quotation mentioned above made a great impact to me as I have realized that
this words of wisdom is not only for the leaders, bur applies also to everyone. As a Filipino
voter, we should choose the best and when we say “best”, we should be able to distinguish
between a traditional leadership and a Servant leadership. Traditional Leadership is a style
of a leader, wherein his actions are based on the actions of previous leaders. (Burley, 2017).
In other words, the style seems to be static, because the action of a leader is always with
preference to the previous ones. It is too sad to say that here in the Philippines, our leaders
is mostly a traditional one that is one of the reasons why Philippines is not changing. Many
years ago, the Philippine is one of the poorest and corrupt countries in the Philippines, until
now, we are still here in the same situation many years ago. This is the reason why I do not
think that Traditional Leadership is not available anymore to the Philippines. On the other
hands, Servant Leadership, is also a style of leadership wherein the leader serves his
constituents accordingly to the needs and demands of the his constituents (Greenleaf.org),
Meaning to say, to be a servant leader, you have first to hear and serve what does the
constituents needs before serving yourself. In the Philippines, it is to ironic that most of the
leaders are not serving the constituents first but rather they first satisfy their hungriness in
terms of Power and Money, that is why the Philippines is still a poor country right now. With
this, knowing these two concepts could lead as to the change we ever wanted to have.

In addition, I also realized my essence as a Filipino youth, the moment that I heard
Atty. Chel words about we are affected by social injustices in the Philippines. I felt that I was
sleeping and I was blinded by the fact that I was not part of these social injustices, but I
realize that we are all victims of these social injustices especially of corruption. We may not
really feel it directly but the grass roots sector of our country is the one devastated by the
effects of this corruption, I think without corruptions. The government could provide more
services and benefits to the Filipinos. Without corruption, our country will not be a poor one,
then, no Filipino will be forced to work illegally just to have money because the government
could provide assistances. However, It is a saddening fact that corruption cannot be
removed easily in this country. In my opinion, one way to solve this is to instill in our youth
the values of a good person and citizenry. We should teach them because they will be the
future of our nation’s growth and development. By collaborative effort of cleaning the
system the country will be a better place to live. Furthermore,

I believe that my learning and realizations could help improve the various issues in
our society by also sharing it to other, by uncovering blindfolds and opening their eyes to
see the real situation we are really facing. By sharing this, I would be able to teach and
inspire everyone especially the youth sector to use their voices and in to raise awareness
against the social injustices of the country. In that simple sharing of realizations, it could
lead to domino effect. The more the number of the Filipinos who are aware and eager to
change the system, the easier we can help the society in these issues. But how?, Let us start
the change at homes and let us vote wisely for a servant leader who can help us alleviate
this issues of the country,
Kurt B. Del Rosario NSTP101
N24

In conclusion, I believe this Alternative Class Program was an eye opener for me to
see the injustices of the country. A way for me to realized that for all the time, I was just
sleeping and blinded by the reality. With this, I think God’s Invitation for me is to help others
realize the reality as well. This frightening truth could be a way to solve the problem, by
voting wisely. Let us choose the servant leader over the Traditional Leader. Because a
servant leader is a follower of the people, He will be the voice of those voiceless. He will up
us rise from this nightmare. Moreover, another way is to teach the youth the essence of
“Love”, because lack of love is the roots of all these issues. If the people had feel how to be
love, then he will be able as well to give love. If everyone knows how to love, there will be no
poverty, corruption, and social killings. To finally end this, Let us all wake up from this
nightmare and let us spread the news and fight for this social injustices.

References:

Burley, K. (2019, February 11). Emergence of Traditional Leadership Styles. Retrieved

from https://bizfluent.com/info-8469011-emergence-traditional-leadership-styles.html.

What is Servant Leadership? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-

servant-leadership/.