My dear fellow Filipinos, I am here to share with you my thoughts on what it means to serve you. I have always preferred to let my actions speak louder than words but as I would like to reach all of you, this medium would have to do.
We are active in the Filipino-Australian Community because we want to serve.
And in our service, I would like to remind all of us of our own ethics, our own values, and our own integrity as these influence every decision we make.
I am encouraging every Filipino and Filipino-Australian to maintain a pro-active role in the community. And for our leaders to lead by example, we should not just pay lip service to the notion of what is popular but not necessarily right.
We have a moral obligation not just to our kababayans but more importantly to ourselves. We should believe that things should be examined; we should constantly try to improve any given circumstance. We must learn from people who react by acting, by pro acting.
Until you risk everything, until you get to that point in life where you face losing everything – and overcome the fear, you are not going to effect change.
I am calling out to everyone in our community to be true agents of change in every sense of the word.
When you look at the 10 commandments, they were not 10 suggestions. There are basic values that we need to live by. And if we do not live by those basic values, we are going to do ourselves in.
What gets us into trouble is not our ego. Although it is fair to say that some of us have let it overcome us.
It is this egotism. This false pride, this business of believing our own good press; One of the best ways to avoid this is to keep a sharp lookout for your own weaknesses.
I certainly got my share, a bad one at that, long on planning and talking and thinking and short of execution.
If I know my weakness, I can find a way to overcome it. If I won’t admit my weakness, it will surely find a way to overcome me.
Mga kababayan, we need to admit our own personal weaknesses so that we can work on them and turn them into strengths. If we deny and believe in our own mistaken sense of perfection, we can never grow.
You do not need to yell out and embarrass yourself with a sense of false modesty about what you think people can accept as your weakness.
No, what I am asking from each of you here today is in the darkest of night or in the first light of day, meditate, BE HONEST, open up your mind and be true to YOURSELF AND TO GOD. And catalogue your faults.
Afterwards, VOW TO YOURSELF that you will DO BETTER!
I have said this to anyone willing to listen. DO NOT TRY, JUST DO.
Unless we accept our own inadequacies and work on them, we can never move forward and truly grow.
We will always be plagued by petty squabbles that cripple our community.
Let 2013 be the year of not just faith but of courage. Let us be courageous enough to look within ourselves.
My message to you is the same from the first day I have taken office as your Consul. Make a difference. But this year I wish to expand it. Make a difference and START WITHIN YOU. Once you have done this, your light will be infectious and you can truly effect change.
The great Nelson Mandela once said,”Be the change you want to see in the world.”
I, as your Consul, am ever at your service. Always and able to be with you every step of the way.
