A DATE WITH DESTINY 

By 
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago 
(Commencement speech before the U.P. College of Medicine graduates 
on 20 May 2012 at the U.P. Theater in Diliman campus.)

Allow me to introduce myself. I am the UP graduate who has, in a modest

way, focused national attention on the political malady known as
logopaedics, the branch of medicine that deals with speech disabilities and
their treatment. Kasi ang ibang tao sa impeachment trial, hindi marunong
magsabi ng totoo, kaya binibigyan ko sila ng speech therapy.

For politicians like me, commencement speeches are a regular feature of

the calendar year. But when the invitation comes from U.P. graduates, I
consider the invitation to be more powerful than a subpoena, above any
"Objection!" It is not only a professional honor; it is an invitation to return to
the sublime cradle of the most intellectual and the most idealistic leaders of
the professions in our country. I love this school which has the highest
standard of academic excellence and the most unforgiving standard of
moral excellence - the great University of the Philippines.

Today, you stand at the cusp of your medical career. You bid goodbye to
the distant past - when your parents struggled, emotionally and perhaps
financially, to send you to the best medical school in the country. You also
bid goodbye to the recent past - when your professors audaciously took the
clay of your undergraduate studies and molded you into the 159 youth I see
before me now - each one of you a young, godlike person, trembling on the
edge of an entirely new and dazzling universe, or perhaps of many
universes. Whatever astrophysics may conclude, each one of you stands
as a master of the universe.

At this point, let me share with you what the wise man said:

The adventure of life is to learn.

The nature of life is to change.

The purpose of life is to grow.

The challenge of life is to overcome.

The Adventure of Life is to Learn.

Your graduation is not an end point in your education. Now that your proud
professors have done their best, you must start the adventure of learning
from life itself. Michelangelo said that genius is eternal patience. And
Gandhi put it in another way, by saying that there is more to life than
increasing its speed. I will simply say that life is what you make it. Dare
beyond your strength, hazard beyond your judgment, and in extremities,
proceed in excellent hope. Bear the accidents of life with dignity and grace,
making the best of circumstances.

To paraphrase the advice of a wise man, you should live in the presence of
great truths and eternal laws. You should be led by permanent ideals. If
you do that, you will be patient when the world ignores you, and you will be
calm and unspoiled when the world praises you.

You are trained doctors - heal yourselves. The wise man said that we
should seek elegance rather than luxury, refinement rather than fashion,
worth rather than respectability, and wealth rather than riches. You have
studied hard. Now think quietly, talk gently with your patients, and act
frankly. In addition, listen to stars and birds, leaders and sages, with open
heart. Await occasions and never hurry. Your most important lesson is that
in the common, mundane things in life, the spiritual, the hidden, and even
the unconscious will slowly enlighten you.

The Nature of Life is to Change.

You will live and work in circumstances far different from today. The
changes in the medical profession will be dictated by at least ten medical
breakthroughs:

1. Scientists now use cloning to create stem cells. One day, stem cells may
treat diseases such as spinal cord injury and Parkinson's.

2. There has never been a vaccine against a human parasite before, or

against malaria, which infects millions of children each year. But a first-ever
malaria vaccine - which cut the risk of infection by half - has been tested in
children in sub-Saharan Africa.

3. HIV treatment can also serve as prevention, by protecting HIV-free

people from becoming infected.
4. The food pyramid is now presented as a food plate. It has four sections:
fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein.

5. In a new world of regenerative medicine, healthy body tissues can be

created to replace diseased ones. Scientists have already created in the
laboratory a real functioning urethra, but right now it costs US$5,000.

6. Colon cancer could likely be caused by bacteria. Two research groups

have reported that a bacteria called Fusobacteria seem to flourish in colon
cancer cells.

7. In the world of weight loss, researchers reported that obese patients

taking an experimental drug called Qnexa lost 10 percent of their body
weight in a year. The pill combines two existing drugs: the weight-loss drug
phentermine, and the anti-epilepsy medication topiramate.

8. German researchers have found that if trained, dogs can detect the
presence of cancer on a person's breath.

9. Researchers from UCLA have reported that it may now be possible for
scientists to glean the age of a dead body from genetic material. They work
with saliva samples.

10. At Uppsala University in Sweden, researchers reported that a simple

blood test may be able to predict who is most likely to die of heart disease
or cancer. They found that people with higher levels of an enzyme called
cathepsin S were more likely to die.

The Purpose of Life is to Grow.

What is the meaning of life? This meaning is not for you to find, but for you
to define. The meaning of life is found in the purposes that we pursue as
we grow older. Each one must interpret individually the meaning of life. You
must read meaning into the situations you find yourselves in, case by case.

From my book, Philosophy of Religion, let me read for you:

Even if life is meaningless, we have to go on living, as a form of rebellion

against cosmic meaninglessness. Your slogan should be: "Dare to become
what you are." If there is no God, and no other world than this one, then we
are the creators of our own values. The supreme value is life-assertion.
And the next highest value is the will to power over evil. We must confront
the most difficult truth about ourselves. In a godless world, we have no
alternative but to choose - and in that sense to create - our own values. In
other words, we create the meaning of our life.

Perhaps life has no meaning, but perhaps those who are religious can find
meaning in the four categories of human experience: suffering, hope, effort,
and grace. The various religions are responses to the realization of the
agony of life. Religion seeks to transform the underlying agony and anxiety
of life into the joy and gratitude we can feel for the gift of love.

The Challenge of Life is to Overcome.

Now, allow me to read the conclusion of my book, Philosophy of Religion:

If we want to build earth pyramids pointing to the stars, the best procedure
is not the infliction of selfish cruelty on those we wish to make our subjects,
but to enlist their free commitment to the human enterprise. You should
struggle for freedom from selfishness, from hatred, and from slavery to
pleasure and instant gratification. We should find inspiration in our Third
World circumstances, and thus empower ourselves in the pursuit of
excellence in creativity, compassion in poverty, and happiness in serving
others.

Life is not a race among the vain. Vanity merely yields the prize of material
riches, which endanger the spiritual outlook. Life is a journey to the
absolute truth, in the course of which we develop the ability to
communicate with God.

Nothing that any person does, no matter how rich or famous, really matters.
All that matters is the faith to believe that something is better than nothing.
If this something contains evil, it is conscious and constant revolt against
evil that gives life its value.

In the final analysis, life is a kaleidoscopic process of education sourced

from the infinite intelligence, the dazzling supermind.

Class of 2012: You have received more than others in health, in talents,
and in education. Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury - all
these will come to you. But you have to pay the price. Like all UP alumni,
be prepared to render an unusually great sacrifice of your life for other life.
During this, your date with destiny, I quote the famous poem "Ode to Duty,"
by William Wordsworth:

Oh, let my weakness have an end!

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live!

Class of 2012: Like all true UP alumni, embrace the spirit of self-sacrifice,
of reason, and of truth! Never forget that I - together with millions of our
fellow alumni - are marching in lockstep, on your transport into the
beckoning future. On that journey, you have our highest respect and all of
our love.