Keynote: Brother Rufino S. Ignacio 

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” These were the words of Albert Einstein, the world-renowned genius who, while contemplating how the universe functioned, must have stumbled upon this epiphany.

 

We, members of Alpha Phi Omega, know that our lives as APO members are lived in service of others. We don’t have to be geniuses to know what we have known ever since we joined APO.

 

In the 33 years of its existence ACNA had grown from three AAs (East Coast, Northern California and Southern California), to what is now about 10 times that number. To me, this signifies a positive forward movement, much like the proliferation of chapters in the Philippines 25 years after the founding of APO in Lafayette College. Having more AAs means we have more opportunities to be of service with greater impact.

 

I know for a fact that establishing numerous AAs may have been achieved with mixed intentions and consequences. To be brutally frank, I know that some associations were organized because of disagreements and hurt feelings within an existing AA and, like any ordinary Filipino organization, this gave birth to several organizations because, instead of resolving their differences, members simply organize new groups, much like ordinary Pinoy organizations all over. 

 

In Seattle, for example, there are more than 300 Pinoy organizations that came into being because of hurt feelings, each claiming representation of their particular ethnic group or barangay. This is the elephant in the room that we sometimes fail to see because of misplaced pride and sense of victimization. Is APO like any other Filipino organization or is it of a higher, more professional level? This is a question I’d like to leave unanswered for us to think about as we return to our respective areas to contemplate the future.

 

Aside from SERVICE, our main guiding principle is LEADERSHIP. I have seen in almost all Pinoy organizations including APO, that the concept of leadership is sometimes equated to being elected as officers of the organization, oftentimes forgetting that what matters is what you do after being elected to the position.  The title is the objective and the goal is power or whatever perk that comes along with the position.

 

Oftentimes disagreements arise because of the mentality of some leaders that “it’s my way or the highway”, losing sight of the truism that a good leader is first of all a good follower who feels the pulse of the members. This requires humility because being a leader does not preclude the contributions of even those who they might consider as lesser mortals. The poem Desiderata by Max Ehrman comes to mind, and a passage therein is very relevant, and I quote “Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.”

 

Perhaps one of the pitfalls of unenlightened leadership is the establishment of new organizations simply because they can, perhaps to assuage their hurt feelings instead of envisioning the bigger picture. And to add to the cliché, it is like missing the forest for the trees.

 

Let me get back to the issue of leadership and its role in the larger number of AAs that we now have in North America. I’d rather we look at this as a glass half-full and make the best of what we have. Remember that we cannot recruit new members because that is the function of the collegiate chapters. Our numbers can only increase when members initiated in the Philippines immigrate to North America. 

 

The world is fast changing around us. Climate change is creating calamities like we have never seen before, especially among the poor nations like the Philippines that take the brunt of the weather abnormalities that are becoming the norm.  In the socio-political realm, we see populations so profoundly divided by cultural upheavals and political distrust that neighbors are exceedingly distrustful of neighbors. APO should be above it all because we have been privileged to have college educations and that we should be above it all as enlightened citizens.  It is because of these global developments that we must seize the opportunity to make the world a better place in which to live and to make a life, where service is eminently needed by the less endowed.

 

We will all grow old and gray and we can only pray that our numbers will increase even if our instincts say that we cannot sustain the indefinite increase in the number of AAs. The strategy, therefore, is to strengthen the collegiate chapter so that they can recruit more members. Strengthening the chapter means recruitment of not only many but qualitative students who are well-indoctrinated into our guiding principles.

 

This brings me to the next point in that perhaps we should look as well into strengthening our AAs, rather than proliferating them. It is in our internal strength that we can hope to be more effective servant-leaders with the ability to transcend our personal feelings for the larger, more glorious objectives attainable only through effective practice of leadership, friendship and service.

 

Please don’t take these words of mine as a rebuke but rather as a challenge to transcend our often narrow view about leadership. There is a larger world out there. What good is leadership if we don’t share it with the world, with those who do not belong to our fraternal organization?  What good is our training as leaders if we limit ourselves to within APO alone? 

 

Many Pinoy organizations out there will benefit greatly from our leadership. Let’s go out there and lead by example, by showing them that true enlightened leadership is what counts in building a strong nation, whether it be in our adopted countries or in our Inang Bayan. After all, isn’t service to the nation as a participating citizen indoctrinated into us when we joined APO?  We can achieve this if we get out of our self-imposed cocoons in APO in order to truly make a difference in the communities we live in.

 

With about 30 AAs in North America, there is much potential out there for effective leadership and service.  Imagine that while we are engaged in leadership and service activities, we gain friends in the process outside of APO. And that is the bonus, the icing on the cake. In the meantime let us enjoy each other’s company in true APO fellowship.

 

May we always be true to ourselves and to each other.