NOMINATION SPEECH

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, it is a great privilege and honor to inform the public why I chose to support Senator Shimea Joy Lanticse as a nominee for the position of Senate president.

I believe that being one of her closest friends or being associates of the MUBA peace and order movement is not the main reason why I stand here to raise her name. It’s not just because of the companionship we have that I owe him a price of doing favors like this. Yes…indeed she is my dear great friend, but what made me stand here in front of you are the good traits I’ve seen in her for the past years.

As a daughter, she fulfilled his duties and obligations. As a mother and wife, she fulfilled her role very well despite of the fact that she also serves her country. She knows exactly that you can’t serve your country well if you could not even serve your family. As a former judge, she fully acknowledges justice as the greatest value not just inside a court room but everywhere. Her commitment, patience, perseverance and kindness will allow the senate to work well. She knows justice as much as she knows how to cook cheesy caldereta.

All of us in this room are aware of the wide spread corruptions in our government, not to mention those considered as “little thing” corruptions to the biggest one like the NBN-ZTE deal last year. And I believe Senator Shimea, as the chief of the senate would be a great help in this problem. Her leadership among each of the senators is highly effective and worth a trust. Her reputation is strongly moralized by her principles, notwithstanding the basis of her ethics.

In her expertise as MUBA associate, she exemplifies the need of peace and orderliness in the senate. She believes that everyone will conspire for the same good things as long as they both find peace in their way. That is how she approaches the human nature of every man. The result of that particular peace will eventually lead to harmony and cooperation. Thus leading the senate into a much better and useful institution of the country.

Some Filipinos presume that the senate is a sheer waste of taxpayer’s money. With Senator Shimea Joy Lanticse as the chief of the senate, we can absolutely show them that this institution is worthy of the tax they paid. We will gain back trust and confidence of the people. We will maintain our independence from Malacañang. We will not allow them to control us. We are the umbrella of this government and together let us provide a senate president worthy of our trust and obedience.

We’ll fight for this institution.

We’ll fight for the characters of free people.

We’ll fight for justice.

May God bless us all.

SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE

What you sow is what you reap. Many years ago, I went through excruciating trainings and difficulties before mastering my techniques in wrestling. Wrestling requires strength and endurance. And being a woman is not a hindrance to receive this kind of award. I envisioned presenting a strong woman of today. It’s a pleasure to accept this award. This signifies to me that perhaps I have achieved some of these goals I set so long also, and I sincerely thank you for this great recognition.

To the spectators, yes…It was a close fight. But I made it all the way to the throne of great heroes. To Terrie Wilson, my trainor, I would like to thank you for all the pieces of advice and the techniques you share to me. To Joanie Laurer, also known as Chyna, who inspire me a lot, you’re still my idol. To Stephany McNight, my manager, it is an honor to present you this award. To my sponsors, thank you so much for the confidence you gave me. It is through you and through your great efforts that I was able to transform myself into an outstanding wrestler. To my family, my inspiration, I share with you today my glory. To my fans, thank you so much for believing that I can make it. To my co-wrestlers, no success has come without a good fight. I would like to share you this award for it is of your great honor too. We have prove to the world that we women are worthy of fame and honor in the world of wrestling.

Part of my reward will be given to the Bantay Bata Foundation and the Tackighan Foundation. These are my favorite institutions who are truly dedicated with their service. And I believe sharing some of what you have is fair enough.

Once again, I thank you for recognizing my significance.

SPEECH OF FAREWELL

Good day to all of you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to bid my goodbyes to the company and to my co-workers. Richard Bach says, "Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends." It’s been 25 years since I entered Globe Telecom as a creative director. I’ve been here during the struggles of the company. I’ve been in the company through its process of settling its compensations with the shareholders 2 years ago. I’ve witness the 25 years of ups and downs of this company. Yet, we were able to sustain the company.

My husband will be assigned in Frankfurt, Germany. Knowing he’ll be far from our family, we both decided to move there with our kids. My family matters a lot to me. Though it’s hard for me to leave this company, I couldn’t afford to be left by my husband here again. I need him and I know he needs me. TD1 in Germany Telecom had also offered me a position in Creative Department. I would admit that the position they offer is quite lower than my position here but the good thing is I can speak Deutsch at least. But I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to work there too. My kids will surely need my assistance at home. Maybe it’s time for me to become a house wife then.

To Maam Sophia, I owe you my expertise. You are my inspiration in pursuing my career for the last 20 years. To my team, remember we’re the best so please continue our mission. You can email me anytime whenever you have problems, except financial matters of course. To Andrea, I’ll never forget you kindness to me. You make me realize how important my family is. To Mr. cruz, don’t forget to smile so you won’t frightened you’re employees. To my secretary, don’t worry. You still have a job. I already ask the one who’ll replace my position to get you as her secretary. My early retirement will not be the end of our companionship guys. You’re all cherished and our experiences together will always be remembered.

I know this company will stand still. We’ll see each other soon. Wish me and my family the best of luck with the life we’ll have in Germany.

SPEECH OF INTRODUCTION

Today, as we celebrate the Youth for Christ’s 1st anniversary in UP Mindanao, we, as officers of YFC, would like to inspire each of the members to strengthen and work with their faith in Jesus Christ. With the help of the testimony of a liable guest speaker today, let us together face the trials in our life’s journey.

A lot of students in UP Mindanao today are lost and bewildered with God. Some of us assume that most of our faculty members, especially those in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences don’t have faith in God. I myself is surprised after seeing one of my teachers attending an Ash Wednesday mass last year. But believe it or not, today, our guest speaker is from the Social Sciences Department.

Fortunately, he is a graduate of UP Mindanao. He finished Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences Major in Behavioural Studies on 2003. He took up his masterals in University of Sussex in UK. He is currently an assistant-professor in Social Sciences Department of UP Mindanao. He is also a co-director of summer fieldwork of the BA Anhtropology programme. Students who already took up his SSPs are surely fascinated with his British accent. But mind you, he can also speak Spanish as well. Aside from teaching in UP Mindanao, he is also a member of a non-government organization. His projects involves Poverty Reduction, Agrarian Reform, Peace and Rural Development, and Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights Advocacy.

This may surprise or eventually fascinate us. Mr. Guest Speaker can surely share to us some of his experiences and opinions about having faith in God because he is a former seminarian too. He entered the Congregation of Marist in 1989. He stayed in the seminary for one year, and left because of financial matters. But he admits that until now, he still has a very strong faith in God. He likes the last paragraph in Desiderata that says “…be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.” Being a former seminarian and a graduate of UP Mindanao makes him a very potential guest speaker for today’s activity.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Valeriano Clamonte. A round of applause please!

SPEECH OF WELCOME

Welcome to the 10th annual gathering of Tackighan Foundation. It is great to see many visitors here celebrating with us the success of this institution. Drug addictions and alcoholism is a perennial problem of some teenagers. For ten years, the Tackighan Foundation has been saving lives of many youth in Davao City. We have been taking care of this young people’s welfare until they are ready to face a better world outside. We give them chance to renew their selves by guiding them to a right path. Inside the tall gates of this haven, we offer them tutorials. In that way they can restore the knowledge they set aside before. We allow them to play outdoor games every afternoon so they can develop their expertise in their favorite sports. Each of them is given an assigned area in the garden to cultivate and maintain. I believe these activities will interest and convince them that there is still a better life out there. Every now and then, these young people are monitored by our friendly counselors.

We could have not attained this success in helping these young people if not with the help of the donations and support from our sponsors. Their support is really a big help to sustain this institution. I would like to give our warm welcome to our guest speaker Mr. Crisostomo Balaca, and to the representatives of Kamill Group of Companies especially Chief Executive Officer Isabella Mamayapa who cancelled her meeting to join us here. The Kamill Group of Companies supports us with this mission for almost eight years already. Their financial assistance had save many downfalls of Tackighan. I add my warm welcome to the Alpha-Sikma-Kugmo-Uga Sorority for voluntarily assisting us in preparing the program, and to the parents who continue to be strong and hopeful despite of their struggles. Your effort and kindness are greatly appreciated. Indeed, you are all a blessing to these youth. Thank you so much for spending us some of your time.

May all of us enjoy the presentations and performances we prepared for this celebration. Once again, a warm welcome to all of you.

Pygmalion

Professor Higgins transformed Eliza into a lady by switching Eliza’s terrible accent into a sophisticated one. He offered her clothes, food, house and comfortable living. He taught her the proper articulation of words. He even taught her how a lady should bring herself. He also used harsh words and punishments to mold Eliza into a real lady. As a result, Eliza did her best to perfect each exercise. Until finally, in the much-anticipated royal ball, Eliza had perfectly deceived everybody. They really thought she was a princess. Maybe not just because of how she talks, but also her lovely appearance convinced them.

Those harsh comments thrown by Prof. Higgins to Eliza are one of the formulas that shaped her. Of course, it would not be as effective as that if not because of Prof. Higgins’s expertise.

If I could fix three things about the way I speak English, it would be my articulation, choice of words and accent.

I need more improvement in articulating words because there are times that my tongue slips off the moment I talk and pronounce the p instead of f and vice versa, stuffs like that. It is very embarrassing. However, as I have said I must learn to forgive myself. I know I have a problem with how I utter words, but at least it is not that worst.

As an effective speaker, I have to choose the right words to use when speaking to different people, e.g. to a child, to a friend or to a teacher. At times, I forgot to be careful when talking to others. I must learn to speak up the right words because it would affect on how I communicate with them. I admit I cannot express myself well in English. Maybe because I have a hard time shifting Bisaya-Filipino-English language most of the time.

It is necessary to speak intelligibly as a communication arts major. It is nice to hear applaud and compliments from the learned community. It is flattering to see when people get fascinated with the way you speak your English. Somehow, it is as if you belong to the higher class of people.

I am aiming for other individual’s positive impressions to me when they could hear me speaking English more competently after improving my skills. However, the more valid reason for this is to communicate effectively. It is through language that good communication establishes positive impacts in our relationship with the people around us.

MY PAPA’S WALTZ

The poem My Papa’s Waltz has a typical structure. It has four stanzas, and every stanza has four lines. By observing the last word in each line, I noticed first that it has rhymes. Its rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH, and it has an iambic trimeter rhythm. It is in the form of a narration. It uses a first person speaker, the son.

Waltz, a word pertaining to a dance when heard. Yet in the poem of Theodore Roethke My Papa’s Waltz, it connotes another meaning and significance. Waltz is an extended simile for beating or a graceful term for torture rather. Like dance, beating is an art – it has intricate movements portrayed by a vigorous character.

In the first stanza, the speaker started to describe the smell of the whiskey on his father’s mouth. Looking back on our childhood days, we can easily distinguish the smelly breath of our fathers when they are drunk. As a child, we actually think of running away from that whiffy odor. Normally as kid, we don’t want to smell that odorous liquors our fathers drink. The sentence “But I hung on like death” is an exaggeration that indicates the awkwardness the speaker felt at that time. Waltzing here conveys a meaning of beating.

In the second stanza, the speaker exaggeratedly describes how he was beat by his drunken father. Notice that the speaker uses “…could not unfrown itself” in describing his mother’s reaction. I bet the last two lines in this paragraph suggest that the speaker’s mother wants to keep his son away from his drunken husband, but she could not do anything.

Looking at the third stanza, we can see that the words used denote brutality and violence. The speaker is somewhat saying there is a rumble inside their house. But it was actually him that was beaten by his father. His mother tried to help him, but she was also beat up too.

On the last stanza, the father hit his son on the head, smacked him hard. The speaker’s way of describing the father’s hand appears to be heavy. This could be his way of explicitly saying he was tortured that much. …Then waltzed me off to bed. Still clinging to your shirt. This implies that even though his father had caused him violence, still, his father will always be his father.

Theodore Roethke’s poem entitled My Papa’s Waltz depicts a story of a little boy who experienced being beaten by his drunken father. The speaker in this poem could be 7 to 10 years of age. Probably, at these age range, a typical kid knows how to recognize the smell of whiskey on his father’s mouth. And the words used in describing the beating part of the father sounds like the speaker is not an infant anymore, or he should not be the one speaking in this poem if he’s still an infant when this incident happened.

I find analyzing this poem a bit tricky. I really thought it was a blissful memories of his childhood days because waltz is somewhat concerning with joy. At first, it’s difficult to figure out what is that waltz on My Papa’s Waltz. But after reading and analyzing the poem stanza by stanza, after counting on the words that the speaker used, I slowly got the point.

The speaker in that poem is trying to present us how his drunken father mistreated him. It’s obviously a clear picture of violence. But it doesn’t seem to have a strong impact on the reader if one’s analysis will just count on its title.

The poem is a nostalgic narration of his childhood days. But Theodore used tricky terms to avoid issues like child abuse and violence, not to make it cliché. Brutality in this poem is not evidently seen on the first two stanzas, but the transition can be observed on the third paragraph. The speaker chose to use the word “waltz” instead of beating so that the poem wouldn’t appear horrifying to the reader.