Frs. Noel & Jaime, other Salesians, Faculty members, past Faculty, Bosconians, past pupils, guests, good morning.

27 years ago, I would remember being a student at Don Bosco. We would wake up at about 5:30AM as a boarder, hear Mass at 6AM, eat breakfast at around 6:30AM. I would then go to the flag raising ceremony at 7 or 7:15AM. During lunch breaks, we would still sometimes review some subjects or help each other in our unfinished homework. After class, we would change at around 4:15PM for our sports clothes. If there was no intramurals, or interschool meet, I would go to the volleyball court and practice with Roli, Joy, Mario, and Virgilio. At around 5:30PM, we would take a bath and proceed to the study hall at 6PM. At 6:45PM, we would eat dinner. All our meals would be eaten in the same table and with the same funny and enjoyable friends – jay, Zane and maybe Onyok. We would have extra food like pork and beans, hotdog and/or corned beef to satisfy a growing adolescent. At around 7:30PM, we would have our prayers. At around 8:30PM, all lights would be out. By Friday afternoon, we would be going home to Bacolod with Jay, Zane and Nonoy to our respective families. Once in a while, we would have parties with our friends from other schools during the weekends.

In our daily and weekly routine at Don Bosco, we were made to experience the important things in life. We always have time for sports and food. There is always time for us to interact with our friends while eating, while enjoying sports, sharing notes or just having a nice time during weekends. We also learned how to study hard for our Geometry, Physics and Trigonometry and tackle because of our blood, sweat, and tears. We learned that life does not come easy. We also have time for our families every weekend. We would share experiences and just connect through sports and movies. But what Don Bosco showed us which was not present in other schools was our regular daily Masses and prayers at the Dormitory. We saw that every waking time should be in the presence of the Lord and not just during Sundays.

After another 12 years, major changes were happening to our batchmates in Don Bosco. Some have gotten married and have started their own families. I was nearing that stage also. With the person whom I have known for more than a decade, we discuss our priorities in life. We were able to find common priorities, which I shall call the 5 F’s: FAITH; FAMILY; FINANCE – career, business, prosperity; FRIENDS AND FELLOWMEN; FREE TIME – physical and mental health and leisure/relaxation.

Because we considered these elements our priorities in life, our success then would be dependent on how we are doing with each one of them.

For most people, success could be gauged with how much money one has in the bank or how much property one person has acquired or how big one’s business is.

Though money or finances is important since it determines your FREE TIME and how and where to spend it, it also determines how much help you could give to your friends and fellowmen, what your children eat, what they wear and where they go to school.

However, it is still the situation of your heart and the love for the people around you and your God which would determine if you would part with your resources (time, talent and treasure). So you could not say that you are successful even though you have lots of money and assets if you do not have enough time to relax and enjoy life and enjoy what life has given us (FREE TIME). We should have time to appreciate the wonderful world that God has created. We are not here to work for money, but we are here to use the resources given by GOD not just for our own good but also for our FRIENDS, FAMILY, FELLOWMEN AND FAITH.

But how could we enjoy life when we see many of our friends, fellowmen and even our batchmates are suffering or are without work? I would like to commend many of my batchmates who have helped our fellow batchmates who are not so lucky. A kind act of one person is emulated by others. One such batchmate is Jay who reached great heights in VMC, not because of his high position in the company, but because of the people he had helped when he was Assistant Treasurer. Jay is a VP for Finance now for a global company in Manila and is presently sponsoring scholars to help uplift their lives. Many batchmates seeing him also helped out, like Jun. Seeing some batchmates would be losing their jobs or needing help in certain concerns, he would not hesitate to help without sacrificing his integrity and the company goals of VMC. Jun presently has his own business and is operating in the Visayas and Mindanao. He is still trying to look for ways and means to help our fellow bacthmates. Another batchmate. Albert, despite of his own personal struggles, continues to help out in the community while doing consultancy work.

Indeed, success can not be spelled with FINANCES in absolute terms. I asked my son, Chris about 6 years ago if he liked to have more cars. He said yes. But I asked him if he preferred to have more cars or less time with us since we need to work harder. He said that he preferred to have more time with us rather than have more cars. How successful could one be if they see their children or family members unhappy now? How successful could one be if their children or siblings have failing grades, or college dropouts or are unproductive individuals? How successful could one be if you do not share your success with your love ones or family members? How successful could one be if you have a separate life from you spouse because both of you or one of you need to earn millions every year? One of our batchmates, Rodrigo is successful in the US working for IBM. But inspite of his success, he does not fail to improve the lives of his family members left here in Negros. He has invested in new businesses for them so that they could be more productive members of society. I know many of our fellow Bosconians abroad and many here left in the Philippines are also helping their family members become productive citizens.

Providing for the material needs of our family members, friends and fellowmen is not enough. Nourishing their souls with the Good News from the Bible is also a must for us to be considered successful. Gaining the entire world is nothing if we lose our souls and the souls of our love ones to the devil. Kingdoms will crumble, gold will lose its luster and diamonds will lose its sparkle but the love of God is forever. So why should I run after gold and silver? God owns everything. It is He who gives us the opportunity to acquire wealth. Many businesses that the Lord has entrusted to our family are highly dependent on Him for success. Though we could improve the service of our people, though we could make facilities that are in demand and competitive, He still controls the rain that affects the run of our resort business. He is the one who gives us also good health and a loving and supporting family. So if the Lord takes care of our business, I try to do my share in His business-the business of bringing more people to HIM. So it is not only how much money we deposit in the bank but more importantly how many souls we have saved for Him.

Many of our batchmates and fellow Bosconians have given their share. Aside from Fr. Edmund Barreta who has entered the Religious life, we have many who have taken upon themselves to share in the business of the Lord. Mario, inspite of his busy schedule as a successful plant manager in Sydney, has time to serve in our religious community there. Ed who used to be one of the more mischievous batchmates has taken up a full time mission of spreading the Good News. Hernani, not only runs a nursery school which molds the lesser affluent children of their barangay, spreads the Good News on a full time basis. Philip, aside from working in the sugar industry, does service also in his church.

Yes, with the exposure of the Bosconians in service and in religion while they were in school, you see them helping out in their main fields of endeavor or in their communities or in their church. We hope that in the spirit of Don Bosco and our Lord, we would continue to do better. Serving the Lord and our fellowmen and being with our families will not excuse us from succeeding in our careers and businesses. On the other hand, that by doing what God has planned for us like expanding the businesses or the corporations that he has entrusted to us, we not only help ourselves and our families but also fellow Bosconians and Negrenses who are looking for work or looking for better life. For fellow Bosconians in government, we hope also that they could improve the service. For our batchmates abroad like Mario, James, Miguel, Julius, Delano, Rodrigo, Virgilio, Erwin, Zane, Dennis, and all other Bosconians abroad, we hope that they could also be intermediaries as they could bring what the first world has to give to the Philippines and what the Philippines could provide to the world. With the collective resources in our hands, we could be a bigger force for change.

So AIM HIGH BOSCONIANS and TOGETHER WE CAN LET OTHERS AIM HIGHER!

(Mr. John Marie Servando Lizares is a graduate and salutatorian of Don Bosco high school class ’78 with honors in religion and sports and earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1982 at De La Salle University Manila. He started his career as cadet engineer of AG & P in 1983, then became production foreman of Colgate-Palmolive Phils., Team Field Supv’r. of Electrolux Marketing, Kitchen/Counter Manage of MacDonald’s, Quezon Ave., Branch and went to London for training at the Tate & Lyle particularly in sugar & molasses trading. He also attended some seminars and trainings, among them TOP MANAGEMENT PROGRAM of the Asian Institute of Management in Bali, Indonesia. He was formerly the President and General manager of Bacolod Convention Plaza Hotel and is presently the director of First Farmers Foods Corporation. He is also the Vice-President of the Dr. Antonio A. Lizares Co., Inc., and the Domingo Rodriguez Dev. Corp. At present, he is the President of various corporations among them, the Dr. Antonio A. Lizares Development Corp. (Palmas del Mar), Lifco Lending Corporation, Lizrod Trading, Inc., LS Land Corp., Lizares Town Center Corp., Plantation Hills Corporation (Woodside Subd.). He is the Past President and now the secretary-treasurer of the Rotary Club of Metro Bacolod, Corporate Secretary of the Subdivision, Housing Development Ass’n.-Negros Chapter, member of the Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Regional director of the Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Ass’n., Inc. He is also very active in the religious community being a member of the Couples for Christ, being once a household help and unit head, he is also the Cluster Head for Singles for Christ and is the Provincial Head for Tithing and Coops for Christ for the year 2003.)