There is only one MVP

Introduction of the Commencement Speaker
delivered by Dr. Napoleon K. Juanillo, Jr.
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
at the 109th Commencement Exercises of San Beda College,
April 1, 2011

 

The Abbot Chancellor, Rt. Reverend Father Tarcisio Ma. Narciso, OSB, the Rector-President, Reverend Father Aloysius Ma. A. Maranan, OSB, The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of San Beda College, Dr. Manuel V. Pangilinan, Vice-President for Academics, Professor Ricardo Palo, Vice-President for Finance, Father Rafaelito Alaras, OSB, President of the San Beda College Alumni Association, Atty. Jonas Cabochan, Members of the Benedictine community, Administrators and Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, parents and guests of the graduating class, students, and members of the graduating class of 2011.

Good afternoon. I face a daunting task this afternoon. Words and time will not be enough to introduce the man who is conceivably the country’s most prominent businessman ... next perhaps to the President of the Philippines, credibly the country’s most popular Filipino ... and undoubtedly, the world’s most recognized living Atenean and the world’s most celebrated living Bedan.

The only slimmest hint of a six-degree degree of separation I may have with him is that we are both products of that other school that has produced a nationally famous college basketball team called the Blue Eagles, and that this year we rejoiced separately as the Red Lions won the 18-0 sweep NCAA basketball championship and the Blue Eagles became a three-peat UAAP basketball champion. 

Yet even in the area of sports, God has willed it so that for both the Blue Eagles and the Red Lions, there is only one M V P.  And what a gift he has been, indeed, to our student athletes.

But back to the daunting task—the information I will share with you tonight about Dr. Manuel V. Pangilinan is mainly through the eyes of the national media, from what I may have read about him, heard from his friends and Benedictine priests in San Beda, and from what I have learned from him in one short conference with Bedan students.  Continue...