August 22- Mindanao State University, known as “The Melting Pot of the South”, finally opened its doors to students for the first semester of the academic year 2017-2018. As it is located in Marawi City, the ceremony did not go well as expected.
“Balik Eskwela Program: Somombak Tano sa Pantaw a Mareg” is a joint activity of the MSU Office of the President, Division of Student Affairs and the Young Moro Professionals Network. And as what I’ve heard, the program was born through social media interaction fueled by passion and love for the university.
The program was supposed to start at 7am with a send-off ceremony in Iligan City. That was about the same time we heard loud explosions of what seems like airstrikes and bombs and continuous sound of gunshots echoing through the silence of the early morning. We then received text messages telling us of military ambush, the locking down of the university and other scary rumors about what was really happening. We also received information from our co-faculty waiting in the send-off ceremony that they were informed that the program might be cancelled due to our situation here.
An hour later, we received a go signal that the program will proceed and the send-off convoy will arrive in a few moments. It was not the crowd that I expected, that after the things we heard in the morning, still a large crowd gathered to join and support the program.
Never in my life did I expect to see commercial buses making their way inside the campus even on peaceful days, but guess what, commercial buses DID make their way inside the campus, with the students we lovingly called as survivors as they braved their way through war-torn Marawi reaching MSU.
As they arrived, the program to officially welcome them then began. The program was opened by Dir. Usman D. Aragasi of the Division of Student Affairs, and Prof. Salma N. Marohombsar held back her tears as she presented the rationale of the program. Key persons in the Philippine army and PNP and gave their messages to the students, and a message response was also given by a student.
As if everything was not enough to uplift the MSUan pride, the program was graced by the National Youth Commission chairperson himself, Aiza Seguerra (I will post a transcript of his inspiring message later). He identifies himself as an outsider to the current situation and says everything he knows was from the media, but still insisted to attend the opening of MSU to prove “na totoo pala talaga ang chismis, na ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan” (that the rumors are true, that the students are the hope of the fatherland). He then expressed his heart through a song in his beautiful rendition of “Sana’y Pag-ibig Na Lang/Sana” and “Pagdating ng Panahon.”
The program came to an end when the official university mascot “Sari” came out of the Antonio Isidro Hall together with the AFP mascots Juan and Juana as the crowd wholeheartedly sang the university hymn.
The program did not go as perfect as it was planned schedule-wise due to fortuitous events, but it was beautiful and inspiring. If there is one thing that left a deep impression to me today, it is that maybe it’s not just all about prestigious buildings and facilities that makes a university world class, but it’s the students that we nurture. After all, education is not just all about how well you do in school, but it’s how well you do in life even outside of school. See, Vision 2020 may not be so hard after all!
Kudos MSU, kudos MSUans!
Photo credit: The Local Government of Lanao del Sur
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