ADDU Leaders Sui Generis

Posted on June 1, 2012by Joel Tabora, S.J.

[Address: Joint ADDU Faculty Convocation, Finster Auditorium, 6.1.12]

The Corona affair is finally behind us. Chief Justice Renato Corona has been
impeached. Whether you agree with the judgment or not may depend on whether
you favor a constitutional command over a particular law, or whether you believe
the judgment of impeachment needs to be based more on strict evidence properly
acquired, than on politics.

Finally, with the Impeachment Court off the Senate Floor, urgent pending
legislation may be addressed. The K-12 law needs to be enacted; as well as a law
to address the uneven playing field between SUCs, LCUs and private universities.
A law on mining needs to be passed to replace the treasonous Mining Act of 1995.
Debate will certainly soon resume on the Reproductive Health Bill. I am also
informed that they have filed a new Divorce Bill.

Meanwhile, as we continue to yearn for structures of lasting peace in Mindanao,

China is rattling its swords over the Spratlys, and the dark influence of the
SMI/XStrata Mines in Tampakan appears to be forcing a relocation of Blaans
from Bong Mal into Atmurok that is doomed to end in tribal war. We have had
our International Conference on Mining, which has generated our running
consensus at ADDU of No to Mining until the national governance policy on
mining shall have become more pro-Filipino and more pro-environment. As can
be seen in Tampakan, even today, the mining forces defy the laws in order to
attain their aims for them, copper and gold, worth at least ten times more than
the projected 6B-dollar expense. For this booty, fomenting a local war is no big
deal. Neither is building a 500-hectare open-pit, 800 meters deep atop a criss-
crossing earthquake fault, 12 kilometers away from an active volcano, a project
that would cut away the old growth forests of the area and kill its biodiversity.

In this atmosphere, our erstwhile Chair of the ADDU Board for 13 years distanced
himself from the Board. That gave us opportunity at a special joint meeting of the
Corporation and Board to put a second woman and an environmental
conservationist, Dr. Nina Ingle, on the Board, even as Vice Chair Bobby Orig has
automatically succeeded Mr. Dominguez as Chair. The same meeting, meanwhile,
decided to amend the Articles of Incorporation to include the Vision-Mission as
its Preamble. That was a fitting way of honoring the process of internal renewal
ongoing in the University based on the soul of the University, its Vision-
Mission, through which shared passions have led to a deeper sense of shared
mission. It also approved a Protocol on University Positions and Advocacy
based on academic freedom and responsibility and the active participation of the
Board in formally approving University Positions.
Our university renewal has brought about major structural changes in the
University in the past year: the creation of the Office of the Academic Vice
President, parallel to the Academic Council, the creation of the University
Research Council (URC) and the Community Engagement and Advocacy Council
(UCEAC), and the vibrant activity in research, service to the community, and
advocacy that has resulted from these two councils working in tandem. Last April
17-20, 2012, a Strategic Planning Workshop in Eden, began deliberations on how
the Vision-Mission might be reduced to key result areas, general goals, goals,
specific objectives so that every unit and sub-unit of the university plans how the
V-M is to be implemented in their various levels. Among the concrete results of
this Workshop were the recent approval by the Board of the School of Education,
the restructuring of the School of Arts and Sciences, the approval of the
Department of Environmental Science and of the Department of
Entrepreneurship. With this shall be a center for educational reform and center
for leadership. Soon, an Office of Planning will be created to oversee and catalyze
the implementation of our plans.

All of this renewal is being underpinned by an effort to promote Ignatian

Spirituality among our ranks. I made my last eight-day retreat in the old Jesuit
Residence. I was alone during that retreat, but not alone in our university
community in making silent, directed, personal retreats. In the first year of
implementation, already some 140 from our community have made these retreats
and have begun re-discovering their work day in the light of a personal
experience of Gods love and Jesus saving mission.

This has been the introduction to my talk: a first stab at accounting for where we
now are as a university.

ADDU LEADERS

With you permission, I would now like to take this rare opportunity of a joint
meeting of the faculties of our various units to focus on a crucial challenge of our
mission the formation of leaders. It is a challenge that applies to all our units.
Our mission statement says: The Ateneo de Davao excels in the formation of
leaders for the Philippine Church and society, esp. in Mindanao. Excels. As
we know, the present tense in a mission statement is our acceptance of a
challenge to make this true within the foreseeable future. Today, we are invited to
focus on this challenge from the perspective of our various units and sub-units,
conscious of the fact that if we have taken on this challenge, we must increasingly
qualify ourselves to form leaders and deliver in output.

Recently Fr. Provincial asked the Jesuit educators in the Philippines to contribute
to the preparation of leaders among Indigenous Peoples to empower them to
represent their communities well on local government. But this suggests that we
pay attention to the manner in which we form Ateneo leaders.
Considering the leaders the various Ateneos have formed easily found in
Malacaan, Congress and the highest levels of the Judiciary, but also into the
major private corporate offices of Makati, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and
Zamboanga, in small and medium enterprises, in NGOs, educational circles and
the like, both in the Philippines and abroad, there is much cause for elation, but
also much warrant for consternation. Our graduates are not free from
materialism, hedonism, corruption, a disconnect between faith and the manner
in which they live or dont live their relationship to God, to their fellow
human beings, to creation. Some of our graduates are among the worst offenders
against the environment. The question looms: have we done well enough in
forming leaders for the Philippine church and society? Even considering that we
cannot produce leaders like you can produce durian or steel, and that the
students we have are fundamentally free, and so make their choices in life often
despite their formation, can we do better at excelling in the formation of leaders
for Church and society in the Philippines.?

The words, sui generis, meaning, of its own class, or unique have been used
a lot recently in the course of the impeachment trial. Let us use it: Can we take
shared responsibility for producing leaders for Church and society in the
Philippines, but especially in Mindanao, who are sui generis, in their own
class? Therefore, not leaders of UP nor of UM nor even of Ateneo de Zamboanga
nor Ateneo de Naga nor Ateneo de Manila, but substantially and recognizably of
Ateneo de Davao.

If this were possible, let me attempt a definition: ADDU leaders are educated and
formed according to the Vision and Mission of the ADDU. They have optimally
benefitted from the life of the University Jesuit, Catholic and Filipino and
have personally appropriated its values and mission. In this context, they are
prepared for a life of leadership dedicated to the common good through careful
cultivation of appropriate ideals, virtues and leadership skills. They may be
leaders of the Catholic Church or of another Faith. They may be leaders for
Philippine society, especially in Mindanao.

Let me now explain what I mean by a leader formed and educated according to
the Vision and Mission of the ADDU. Unto this end, let us take the elements of
our Vision and Mission and reflect on their implications for our brand of leader.
The reflection, first from the Vision statement, may result in something like the
following:

Our ADDU leaders are university educated. We are not interested in a type of
Ateneo yabang. Our leaders dont show off. But they show that they have a
university education in what they have learned from ADDU: their enduring
passion for truth and their joy in the truth which they have imbibed from the
university. This shows in their taste for learning and their taste for living.
Taste: they have learned to be discriminating in learning. They have reflected
on and have worked out for themselves a concept of the good life based on
purpose and meaning shaped by the demands of leadership. They know
therefore that they must cultivate, take care of, life. They do so in their
dedication to personal purpose, their enduring commitment to integrity, their
simplicity, their commitment to depth in life. They know this depth to be
mediated by prayer, reflection, a taste for quiet, and an openness to abstinence.
Ateneo leaders sift out and plan a way of living as a leader in a sea of other
possibilities. They are committed to support and be supported by like-committed
leaders. They are willing to network with others according to similar goals.

ADDU leaders have habits of research habits of searching for the truth and of
finding joy in truth gaudium de veritate. They have learned how to search for
truth, to sift out truth or probable truth from propaganda, gossip, or mere
opinions. They cultivate their reading and their exposure to the media taking
care that both are appropriate to leadership. They respect data, as they respect
authority, and so have the ability to make considered judgments. Having arrived
at the truth, they are able to communicate it through writing, media, the Internet,
and ones personal word and reputation.

ADDU leaders serve the community. They know their education is not for
themselves alone, so they share their education with the community.

CATHOLIC. PERSONS OF FAITH

Our ADDU leaders come from a Catholic University. They are educated Catholic
Christians. Or they are educated persons of Faith. They live their faith with
conscientious conviction, not fanaticism. They are hearers of the word, and doers
of the word.

Educated in a university that proceeds ex corde ecclesiae from the heart of

the Church they are personally committed to the cause of the whole truth about
nature, the human being, and God. They have wrestled with the challenges of
faith and reason, and continue to do so, allowing their faith to be challenged by
reason, and their reason to be informed by faith; their faith seeks understanding,
their understanding seeks faith. They dialogue with people of different cultures,
they are open to different ways of life. Awed by a plurality of cultures, they
continually search for the ultimate meaning of the human person in human
society. Humbled by the plurality of religions, they seek to live the truth of their
own.

JESUIT SPIRIT

Coming from a University that has appropriated the mission of the Society of
Jesus, ADDU leaders have personally appropriated the mission of the Society of
Jesus as their own mission coming from God. They have made the interrelated
mission of the service of the faith, the promotion of Justice, sensitivity to cultures
and interreligious dialogue their own. This is a result of honest personal
reflection, prayer and discernment, which ADDU has afforded them.

In this context, the service of the Catholic Faith means the ongoing proclamation
of Jesus Christ as manifestation of the Fathers saving love whose Spirit is present
among his community of disciples in our world, transforming our world. It means
giving witness to redemption in Jesus Christ, and participating in this
transformation of the world through the Spirit. Or, it may mean living the Faith
of ones calling conscientiously.

Promotion of the Justice that Faith demands. Faith brings graced justification
through Jesus Christ. It brings ultimate reconciliation with God in the saving acts
of Jesus Christ.

But faith also demands justice in human relationships and in human society.
ADDU leaders seek to understand, live and promote the social teaching of the
Church. They are sensitive to the intimate nexus between lived faith and
promotion of justice commutative justice, distributive justice, but especially
social justice. Social justice is pursued in the name of the common good. Part of
the common good is the need to protect the environment from the ravishment of
the few.

Pertinent to the intimate nexus between faith and justice, a Synod of Catholic
Bishops in 1971 declared, Action on behalf of justice and participation in the
transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the
preaching of the Gospel, or in other words, of the Churchs mission of redemption
for the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation (Synod of
Bishops, 1971, #6).

ADDU leaders are sensitive to culture and cultures, the richness of their own
Filipino culture in the diversity of cultures throughout the globe. They are
sensitive to the continuing erosion of cultures in a homogenized global culture,
and participate in the transformation of culture as demanded by faith, justice,
and dialogue with religions.

ADDU leaders are open to interreligious dialogue through personal relationships

and friendships with persons of different faiths, through shared work for the
common good, and, for those specially qualified, through inter-faith dialogue
based on divergent theologies. This applies especially to Muslims and the diverse
Lumad communities of Mindanao.

FILIPINO
ADDU leaders come from a Filipino University. They love their country, speak
one or several of its languages, appreciate and contribute to its culture and
development.

They have developed their affection for the country through interaction with its
peoples in various parts of the country and on various levels of society. They have
travelled the Philippines and appreciate it as their home.

ADDU leaders engage the global world.

From the Mission statement:

COMMITTED/CONSECRATED TO LEADERSHIP

ADDU leaders have responded positively to the mission of the ADDU to form
leaders. They are its products. They are committed to leadership, willing to step
forward and take on its responsibilities of leadership. Should they discern this as
a matter of their personal vocation from God, they are consecrated to leadership.

They serve the Church sacred and sinful, in season or out of season, in an
increasingly secularized society as circumstance and opportunity allow, or as
discerned vocation demands. They are witnesses to the love and power of God.
They are not haughty, not overbearing. They are leaders in service, and serve in
leadership.

They lead towards the improvement of Philippine society, especially in

Mindanao. As leaders, they are effective: they achieve their goals, do things well.
It is ethical: it does things morally; it does good things. It is leadership that is
available: it is willing and ready to lead; it does things with commitment.

They are committed especially to social justice with eyes wide open in service
of and as demanded by the common good.

They promote communities touched and transformed by the faith, culturally

resilient yet able to adopt to the modern world. Communities are different
groups of people who share the same culture. They come into contact with the
faith, and so are touched by it; some are transformed by the faith. They have a
resiliency in culture, which the ADDU leaders support, even as they help these
communities to open up to the world.

Resonant with the ADDU mission, they promote social justice, gender equality,
good governance, wealth creation and its equitable distribution. They are
defenders of the environment and preservers of bioi-diversity.
THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP

The various units will promote theories and programs of leadership development
which develop ADDU leaders.

TARGETED LEADERSHIP SKILLS

All this, of course, may seem very ideal, as indeed it is. But the challenge that I
propose we take together is to use this Profile of an ADDU leader as a benchmark,
and work towards its realization. Towards this end, some of the verifiable
outcomes that we will aim at, adapted to our various units and sub-units, are the
following:

Skills in leadership vs management vs. followership. ADDU leaders need to know

how to follow, just as they need certain skills in management. But they shall be
honed especially to lead.

They need the ability to think out of the box, critically and creatively.

They need imagination: the ability to imagine creative solutions problems.

They need to be able to communicate a vision. To inspire.

They need to have people skills both in the Philippines and in other cultures.

Skills in searching for truth or wisdom. They need skills in searching for truth
or wisdom in ongoing personal growth. They need to know how to exploit
sources of knowledge: reading skills, library research skills, internet research
skills. They need to know where to get help when they need it. They needs skills
of reflection, meditation and prayer.

Skills in eloquence. They can handle sustained, meaningful conversations on

ones life and on ones views on different current public issues. They can
participate meaningfully in public discussion or public debates. They can deliver
a speech or address to a formal gathering of persons or to a mass gathering. They
can write opinion articles for newspapers. They maintain a blog for considered
personal opinion.

Skills in organizational management. They can organize an event. Or, they can
organize an organization. Or, they can organize a cause-oriented movement. They
prepared and coached by mentors or moderators who have given them space to
lead.
Skills in Community Organizing. The ability to organize a community around
issues towards winning advantage for the community against structures adverse
to the community.

Skills in Ignatian Spirituality. This does not only mean skills in living ones own
Ignatian spirituality, but the skill to be able to share this with others.

UNIVERSITY-WIDE EFFORT IN LEADERSHIP FORMATION

Some Jesuit schools, like the Loyola Senior High School in Mt. Druitt, Sydney,
Australia, only have their students for two years. Yet, when I visited that school,
the leaders among the students whom I met were genuinely admirable:
knowledgeable, alert, conversant in Ignatian spirituality, ambitious, focused. I am
told that graduates look back to their senior high school experience with great
gratitude. With the K-to-12 reform kicking in this year, prepared for by two years
of pre-school, and followed by four or five years of college, we shall have many of
our students for 17 or 18 years of their lives. But even if it were only for grade
school or high school, or career academy, or for college or post graduate work, we
should be able to form leaders for Philippine society or the Philippine Church, in
a way that these kids shall never be able to forget.

In bringing the implementation of our Vision-Mission forward, I propose a

university-wide, coordinated, and critical effort at developing an ADDU Leader
sui generis, as described above, coordinated through a ADDU Center of
Leadership.

For that we need a leadership-development infrastructure, e.g., a culture of

instruction which draws out and encourages the leadership among students,
encouraging them to articulate their thoughts (not memorized thoughts of
others) and think out of the box. Such thinking should be treated with respect,
in manner that is encouraging but not patronizing. In the end, it is truth that is
sought, not wishful thinking; it is reality that is desired, not idle dreams.

Part of this infrastructure should be an ongoing series of administration- or

teacher-sponsored talks or seminars or exposure trips where interaction of our
ADDU leaders with noted leaders of the Church or Philippine society might take
place. Here noted leaders include leaders of barangays and Lumad and Muslim
communities and priests, sisters and lay persons working closely with the poor.

ADDU leaders should be active in extra- and co-curricular activities, easily able to
take on the challenges of leadership in these organizations. Here, faculty or
qualified staff accompany the student leaders, and coach them, especially when
difficult problems occur.
There should be a systematic array of student- or faculty- organized public
discussions and debates on an array of topics where the public, thinking skills
and eloquence of the ADDU leaders can be exercised and honed. Participation
here can be graded, and students should be able to join any of these events,
limited only by the space of the venue. Service Learning Programs for Leaders
have been suggested.

Our efforts of formation of leaders should be outcomes sensitive. Unto this end, a
student might himself maintain a record of his exercise of leadership at ADDU,
including discussion and debates participated in, papers written on social issues,
authenticated by a leadership development office. This record shall be of great
usefulness in the students application for employment.

INVITATION TO MAGIS

Let me close with a simple thought. I dont know whether you were happy or sad
about the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona. His failure to properly
report the bulk of his 2.4 million dollars and 80 million pesos in his statement of
assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) was judged to be a culpable violation of
the Constitution. Even as it was asserted that he is a decent man. As a result of
that conviction, today he is no longer Chief Justice.

But Chief Justice Corona was an Atenean from grade school to law school. He
was a skilled lawyer, a law professor, and became a national leader. He was one
among many from our Ateneos who have become national and community
leaders of significant national weight. Yet many of these leaders have lost the joy
of learning, have succumbed to an insidious secularized culture of materialism
and hedonism, consider the profit motive an ample norm for their lives and
labors, place themselves and their family above the common good, have lost a
personal sense of honor and integrity, and in many cases through the
companies their represent or own, have become the greatest offenders against the
environment.

Of course, it is very easy to say, we taught them, we formed them, but they were
free to make their own decisions which is in fact true. On the other hand,
because we belong to a University that is serious about our vision and mission,
the question is: ought we not try to do better? Ought we not try to raise the
educated and formed leaders of our future who will truly serve the common good
because they have experienced the love and compassion of God and are deeply
committed to the humanity God loves? I propose that we are called to put our
minds, talents and awesome resources together to raise leaders for our Church
and society leaders sui generis as only Ateneo de Davao can. This is our
missio