51st Commencement Guest of Honor and Speaker Jimenez shares a message of hope and unity to the 461 TCTO graduates

The Commencement Guest of Honor and Speaker was the 22nd President of the country's premier national university, Atty. Angelo Azura Jimenez, who was formally introduced by Chancellor Mary Joyce Z. Guinto-Sali during the University's 51st Commencement Exercises last August 2, 2023.

Our speaker is a labor lawyer and a respected authority on global worker migration whose work has contributed to the establishment of the Philippines’ new Department of Migrant Workers, as well as the labor migration regulatory framework in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

A son of Mindanao, our speaker’s understanding of the factors that have led to the Filipino diaspora is the product of his education and experiences in Butuan, Agusan del Norte ‐- where he was born and raised — and in UP Diliman, where he obtained both his Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) degrees.

UP President Jimenez shared his Commencement Address to the 461 graduates, emphasizing the importance of hope and unity in serving the community.

"Baby dolphins, after graduating, you can swim the world's oceans. But I hope that you have enough memory and strong feelings for your land that after seeing the world, you will and you might wish to come back and serve your small communities."

As he went along with his speech, Atty. Jimenez envisioned reforms in the University of the Philippines dedicated to deliver and promote equal opportunities to graduates both from private and public schools, including MSU Tawi-Tawi, who wish to enter the University and pursue further studies.

"The University of the Philippines wants to be a part of your life, a part of your dreams. We wanted to contribute to policy making and policy analysis in an area where we are best able to contribute because we are academics. I also wanted to have reforms in the University of the Philippines system that will enable many of our young people, including these young dolphins, baby dolphins from Tawi-Tawi, to enter the University of the Philippines as well in the form of an admission policy that will balance the natural advantage of those who graduate from private schools to those of public schools."

In his concluding message, Atty. Jimenez was elated to bring the message of the graduates - "the message of strength, the message of hopes in their faces, and the message of loyalty to their community."

"And I hope one day we could all meet each other as young people and together move forward as one united people because we are just really one people," the President added.

Each academic unit has the following number of graduates: Graduate Programs (25),

College of Fisheries (46),

College of Arts and Sciences (120), College of Education (202), Institute of Oceanography and Environmental Science (19),

College of Islamic and Arabic Studies (11), and

Institute of Information and Communications Technology (13).