To Dean Dr. Maria Antonia Tanchuling of the UP College of Engineering, distinguished members of the faculty, award donors, partners, proud families — and the graduates of class of 2026 — isang mapagpala at mapagpalayang umaga po sa ating lahat.
First things first: Congratulations!
Tapos na ang hirap. Or to be precise, ang isa sa mga hirap. As early as now, let me say: the hardships are not over.
But today is not about that. Today is yours. You earned it — and so did the people behind you: your families, the ones who stayed up with you, prayed for you, supported you, and probably pretended to understand what you were studying.
Alam nating lahat kung gaano kahirap ang engineering, lalo na sa UP. The attrition. The all-nighters. The doubts. The exams that felt less like tests and more like acts of survival.
But you stayed. You endured. You finished.
Huwag ninyong maliitin ang nagawa n’yo ngayon. Araw n’yo ito. Ipagdiwang natin. Let us give the graduating class, and the families who carried them here, a big round of applause!
I am not an engineer. I am a public administration and management graduate — from NCPAG and from UP-SURP, which, if you ask about the Engineering building, is basically just across the acacia trees, but might as well be in another universe. While you were solving differential equations, I was writing policy papers. While you were designing load-bearing structures, I was trying to figure out why government moves so slowly — which, if we're being honest, is its own kind of unsolved equation. At least yours eventually converges.
Magkaiba ang ating mga pinagdaanan. But we share more than what you think. Because if you ask me how one runs the Department of Budget and Management, my honest answer is this: parang isang engineering project.
You start with a design: the national budget. In fact, as we speak, we are in the middle of presenting our proposed Fiscal Year 2027 National Expenditure Program to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. — a Php 7.2-trillion blueprint for what this country will build, repair, protect, and invest in next year.
Every road, every school building, every hospital, every rail structure, every airport the government funds in 2027 starts with this document.
And like any engineering design, it is only as good as what gets built from it. You have specifications: the programs, the targets, the timelines. You secure the funding: the appropriations. You hand it over for implementation. But sometimes — more often than we would like — what gets built in the field does not match what was drawn on paper.
That is exactly why the Philippines needs engineers in and around public service. Not because the government simply needs better math, but because engineers are trained to make things real — to close the gap between what is designed and what is delivered. At DBM, that is the only standard we accept. And we hope you will hold us — and every government project that bears your signature — to the same.
Today, your diploma will say many things. It will say you completed the requirements of your degree. It will say you survived one of the most demanding colleges in the country. It will say you are graduates of the largest degree-granting unit in the entire UP System.
But there is something in this ceremony that your diploma will not say: that you are now part of a tradition.
The Melchor Hall where many of you spent your sleepless nights is named after Col. Alejandro Melchor — an engineer, a war veteran, and a public servant. The building is not ornate. It is deliberately functional, plain, and purposeful. Bauhaus-influenced, designed without frills, because the work is the point. Hindi ang dekorasyon, kundi ang trabaho. Fitting for a college that already runs on minimal sleep and zero decoration.
That, to me, is the spirit of UP Engineering. Engineering is not primarily about getting a degree. It is about what breaks and what holds. What fails and what stands. What protects people and what leaves them exposed.
You are heirs to that tradition. And that tradition demands something from you that technical training alone cannot give — something your board exam cannot fully measure, something the Philippines urgently needs right now: INTEGRITY.
Ang inyong board exam ay magiging sukatan ng inyong kaalaman. Ngunit hindi nito masusukat ang pinakamahalagang bagay — ang inyong integridad. Iyon ay susukatin ng buhay ng tao.
Tulad ng motto natin sa UP: Honor and Excellence in the Service of the People. Hindi lang iyan pangako sa unibersidad — pangako iyan sa bawat Pilipinong umaasa na ang inyong kaalaman ay magsisilbing proteksyon, hindi panganib;
kalasag, hindi dahilan ng kanilang kapahamakan.
Honor means you do not sign what you cannot stand behind. Excellence means you do not settle for what merely passes. And service means remembering who all of this is ultimately for — not the contract, not the client, not the politician, but the Filipino people.
We walked the same campus, rode the same Ikot jeep — and complained about it just as loudly lalo na kung may bababa sa NCPAG. We pulled the same all-nighters under the same harsh fluorescent lights and felt the same pride the first time we heard UP Naming Mahal sung by a full crowd. In UP, that feeling has a name: Iskolar ng Bayan. It is not just a title. It is a contract between you and the 115 million Filipinos whose taxes helped pay for our education. Today, you receive your part of that promise. From this day forward, the country begins to receive yours.
I am going to say something difficult, because I believe UP engineers can handle difficult truths.
For many years, our country has struggled with problems in public infrastructure — projects poorly implemented, left unfinished, delayed, or, in the worst cases, existing more on paper than on the ground. Among the most painful examples are flood control projects: dams, dikes, and drainage systems meant to protect communities from disaster. When these fail, the consequences are not abstract. When storms come, families are exposed, homes are destroyed, livelihoods disappear, and lives are put at risk.
I say this not to cast blame on any one administration, agency, or generation, but because this is the reality you are entering — and the reality, you now have the power to change.
Somewhere in the long chain of failed projects, there are technical decisions, inspections, estimates, designs — and signatures. Sometimes there are moments when professionals know something is not right but choose to look away, stay silent, or simply let it pass. Hindi lang ito usapin ng korupsyon. Ito ay usapin ng konsensya.
For engineers, every signature carries weight. It can protect a community or expose it to danger. It can affirm the truth or hide failure. That is why the future of public infrastructure does not depend only on budgets, policies, or contracts. It also depends on the character of the professionals who build, inspect, approve, and certify them. That includes you.
At DBM we have a saying: ang pera ay wala pang silbi hangga’t hindi ito ginagamit nang tama.
We appropriate, disburse, and monitor.
But in the end, what determines whether a Filipino family actually receives what was allocated for them is the person who designs the project, builds the structure, certifies the work, and signs their name at the bottom of the page.
That person may one day be you.
Ang inyong lisensya bilang inhinyero ay hindi lang patunay ng kaalaman. Ito ay patunay ng responsibilidad. That is the weight of your profession, and that is also its honor.
Let me tell you what this college has given you.
Your College of Engineering faculty have gone to communities to assess earthquake damage because their expertise was needed. Your professors have designed solar power systems for off-grid schools, bringing electricity to classrooms that had never had it. Your fellow students have developed innovations using Philippine-sourced materials to solve local problems with local science. Your alumni are helping build smarter and more resilient communities. Your National Engineering Center exists as a public good that this university offers to the nation.
That is the tradition you are being inducted into today.
Hindi lang technical excellence. Public purpose.
And from where I sit — at the Department of Budget and Management, where the national infrastructure budget flows — I can tell you exactly how much the Philippines needs you to live up to that tradition.
That money will pass through projects. Those projects will require engineers. Engineers who will decide whether those investments actually reach people or disappear.
Kayo ang pinagkakatiwalaang tagapamagitan sa budget at sa buhay ng tao.
The government’s resources are limited. Pero ang epekto ng mabuting inhinyero — tulay na hindi bumabagsak, mga paaralang naitatayo nang nasa oras, mga komunidad na mananatiling ligtas — ang mga ito ay walang katumbas. The positive effect is immeasurable.
So today, I will not give you a long list of advice. Nakapagbigay na sa inyo ng maraming lecture ang ating mga propesor.
Three things. Just three.
Una: Huwag n’yong kalimutan ang inyong pinagmulan. Be grateful to your alma mater and to everyone who has helped you along the way.
Hindi lamang sa inyong mga pamilya, kundi pati ang mga magsasaka’t mangingisda, ang mga jeepney driver, ang mga vendor sa palengke, at ang mga manggagawang nagbabayad ng tamang buwis.
Their money helped bring you here. Your work must find its way back to them.
Pangalawa: Huwag masanay sa “pwede na” lalo na kapag alam n’yong mali.
In your career, there may come a time when you will be asked to sign something you know is wrong.
The explanation may sound reasonable. The package may look attractive. The pressure may be real. And the cost of refusing may be high.
But when that time comes, remember this: your signature has meaning.
It may determine whether a bridge stands, whether a drainage system works, whether a family is protected, or whether a community survives.
So, when you are asked to approve what should not be approved, refuse.
It will not be easy. But it is right. Refuse because the line between a safe structure and a collapsed one is sometimes drawn by one person willing to say no.
Hindi ako inihinyero. Gayundin ang mga nagre-review ng budget ng mga ahensyang namamahala ng public infrastructure. Pero hindi rin kami papayag na ang listahang mapupunta sa isusumiteng budget ay hindi sinusuportahan ng kumpletong dokumento at mga
planong inihanda ng mga lisensyadong inhinyero.
Ikatlo: Pagsilbihan natin ang ating bayan.
I know the salary packages abroad are promising. I know the working conditions are real. I know the frustration with Philippine bureaucracy and politics is real.
Alam ko — I live inside that bureaucracy.
But this country — our country — needs you.
Stay, if you can. Serve, where you can. Fix what you can from the inside. Gumawa ng paraan. Maging ang pagbabago na kailangan ng ating bayan.
Ang Pilipinas ay hindi kulang sa talino. Hindi tayo kulang sa kakayahan. Hindi tayo kulang sa pangarap. Kulang tayo marahil sa mga taong piniling manatili — at piniling gawing tama ang mga bagay kahit mahirap.
I want you to remember D.B.M.:
Design. Build. Monitor.
Design systems that work. Build with integrity. Monitor with accountability.
Because in engineering, the work does not end when the plan is approved or when the structure is completed. It ends only when what you have built truly serves the people, protects them, and continues to stand when it matters most.
Kaya buo rin ang ating paninindigan na tunay na gawing bukas ang ating budget. Sa loob lamang ng isang buwan mula tayo ay itinalaga , naitaguyod at nailunsad natin ang DBM COMPASS o ang Centralized Open Monitoring Platform for Appropriations and Spending Statistics na naglalatag ng impormasyon tungkol sa budget upang mas maunawaan ng taumbayan.
Hindi lamang ito palamuti. Patuloy natin itong pagbubutihin hanggang sa bawat mamamayan ay maging katuwang natin na bantayan ang bawat piso mula sa ating kaban.
Ito rin ang parehong dahilan kung bakit bago pa ako maitalaga sa DBM bilang Secretary, hindi ko po ginagamit ang salitang Kalihim. Dahil sa DBM, dapat walang lihim.
Isang karangalan na maging katuwang na adviser ni Professor Adrian Roy Valdez para sa thesis nina Denise Mae B. Dee at Carl Geevee D. Vitug na nagdisenyo ng Tamper-Evident Data Workflow para sa Philippine Fiscal System. Isang online system na kanilang binuo from scratch sa loob lamang ng maiksing panahon.
Katulad ng COMPASS, pinatutunayan ng design project ni Denise at Geevee na kapag ginamit ang galing sa tama, walang hindi kakayanin.
Last, but definitely not the least: Choose this country — again and again and again — even when it is hard… Especially when it is hard.
The Philippines does not need perfect engineers. It needs honest ones.
Laging tandaan: Ang integridad, iskolar, at inhinyero, kailangang nag-uumpisa sa “I”. Ngunit sa imprastraktura, kalimutan ang “I,” at unahin ang bayan. Dahil sa huli, ang tunay na bayani, ay s’yang inuuna ang bayan, bago ang “I”.
Maligayang bati, College of Engineering Class of 2026.
Bilang kapwa Iskolar ng Bayan — ipinagmamalaki ko po kayo.
Higit sa lahat, ipinagmamalaki kayo ng UP. Ipinagmamalaki kayo ng inyong mga pamilya. Ipinagmamalaki kayo ng sambayanang Pilipino.
Simula ngayon, mas mahirap na ang susunod na yugto, dahil bilang mga anak ng UP, hindi tayo dapat naniniwala sa “imposible.” Dahil para sa bayan, walang imposible. Kaya nating kalimutan ang “I” at “M” para maging posible.
Samahan niyo kami na abutin ang pangarap nating DBM: Dapat Bayan ang Makikinabang. Dapat Bida ang Mamamayan.
Mabuhay, Engineering Class of 2026!
Maraming salamat po. Mabuhay ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas. Mabuhay ang mga Iskolar para sa Bayan!
[END]
