To the University President of the Lyceum of the Philippines-Batangas, Dr. Peter P. Laurel; Senior Vice President Frederick Badillo; VP for Academics and Research, Dr. Cecilia Pring; Chairman of the Founder’s Lecture 2021, Dr. Arnie Christian D. Villena; teachers, parents and our very dear Lyceans — magandang umaga sa ating lahat.
Speaking before you today feels surreal for a number of reasons. In recent years, we seem to live in the greatest irony of our time: There is a surplus of online channels that connects us — yet, we have never felt so distant from each other; we have paved our roads and built bridges, but our mobility has been constantly restricted; the world has been on a moment of standstill but oddly, we all seem to be running against time.
To say much has changed in just a year’s time may be an understatement. From where we stand, you and I would agree that the world we live in has changed literally everything around us.