Closing remarks of Retired Chief Justice ARTEMIO V. PANGANIBAN after the Lecture of UP Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan, a holder of the CJ Panganiban Professorial Chairs on Liberty and Prosperity, held on March 28, 2019 at the First Floor Lecture Room, Bocobo Hall, UP Law Center, UP Diliman, Quezon City on “Parents and Children: When Law and Technology Unbundle Traditional Identities.”
Congratulations to Prof. Beth Pangalangan for her impressive, awesome and absorbing lecture. Scholarly prepared and eloquently delivered, it was indeed one of the best lectures I have ever heard in a long time. It makes me want to be a student again to listen again and again to Professor Beth. Ah, to be young again!
Well-research, Indeed!
Of course, her frequent citation of my decisions and separate opinions reminded me of my over 11 years in the Supreme Court. And what especially amazed me is her research into and many quotes from my books, columns and even my speeches. Wow, really heart-warming.
Let me, at this point, hand to her FLP’s check for P100,000 representing her honorarium, less 5 percent withholding tax imposed by the NIRC as amended by the TRAIN Law, and the Certificate attesting to her enrollment as a distinguished Holder of one of the 15 CJ Panganiban Professorial Chairs on Liberty and Prosperity.
May I also thank Dean Fides Cordero Tan for welcoming us to the UP College of Law. I do not remember having encountered her in the past, but her reputation for academic excellence and administrative expertise preceded her. In testimony thereof, the FLP Board of Trustees has unanimously resolved to invite her to join our corps of professorial chair holder. May I therefore have the honor of personally handing to our esteemed Dean Deng our official letter of invitation?
Ambition to Enroll at UP
My appearance here at the UP Lecture Hall reminds me of my life-long ambition to enroll at the UP. My classmates at Mapa High School in the early 1950s (when most of you in the audience were not yet born) and I used to visit the UP Campus in Diliman. Before the UP Oblation, we promised each other that we would study diligently to be able to obtain UP scholarships. And obtain the scholarships we were able to, except that in my case, my impoverished father – who was a simple government employee – could not afford the then 15-centavo bus ride from our small, rented apartment in Sampaloc, Manila to Diliman, Quezon City.
Even though I was not able to enter this school, I continued my association with the UP community, especially with activist student leaders like then UP Student Council President Fernando Lagua and then Philippine Collegian Editor Homobono Adaza with whom I cofounded the National Union of Students, the largest student organization in the country then and now. Because of their activism, Lagua was suspended for one year and Adaza expelled from the University. Looking back, I told myself, “Buti na lang hindi ako nakapasok sa UP, baka expelled din ako.”
My ambition to enjoy UP education was achieved by our only son and one of our four daughters. Our son, Archie, was only the 4th student to graduate Summa Cum Laude from the UP Conservatory of Music. While he proceeded to further piano studies in Munich, he eventually finished a PhD in engineering economic system at Stanford and is now a banker in New York City as an Executive Director of JP Morgan. But while banking is his profession, music remains his passion. Once in a while, he would come back home to give piano concerts in UP as well as in the Cultural Center and other familiar concert venues.
But my frustrated love for UP was requited by then UP President Edgardo Angara who gave me a small replica of the UP Oblation in the early 1980s to thank me for getting a donation of a fire truck from Japan. And my undying thirst for UP’s academic excellence was somehow quenched by my enrollment as an honorary member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
A Word About FLP
Before I close, let me say a few words about the Foundation for Liberty and Prosperity, which as already explained by the previous speakers, was organized after I retired from the Supreme Court to promote and perpetuate my philosophy of “Liberty and Prosperity Under the Rule of Law.” FLP has three education programs:
First, the Professorial Chairs for Liberty and Prosperity in partnership with the Metrobank Foundation, with 15 holders now, three of them by UP academics, namely, Professor Pangalangan, Dean Tan and President Danilo Concepcion.
Second, the Law Scholarship Program, in partnership with the Tan Yan Kee Foundation, for junior and senior law students at P200,000 each, covering tuition, books and monthly stipend. We award 20 of them yearly since 2017. We also give additional cash rewards to our shcolars who graduate as valedictorians and/or with Latin honors, as well as to bar topnotchers. Among them is UP’s Frederick Ervin Dy who obtained an FLP scholarship starting in the Academic Year 2017-2018. He took the bar examinations last November. If he or any other FLP scholar cops the first place, FLP will reward him with P200,000 cash. If any of them lands in the second to the tenth places, he or she will receive P100,000 cash.
Third, the Dissertation Writing Contest, in partnership with the Ayala Group. The first place winner last year was former UP student Raphael Pangalangan, the illustrious son of the illustrious couple from UP and Harvard, who got the P300,000 prize and a gold plaque. By the way, the contest is still open for this year. The deadline for entries was postponed to April 30, 2019 at the request of Dean Tan.
May I end these Closing Remarks with my fervent hope for FLP’s closer link and cooperation with the academics and students of the UP College of Law, the best law school in the world…according to the UP Law Alumni Association. Maraming salamat po.
The Personal Website of Retired Chief Justice Panganiban 