 I'm truly overwhelmed to be invited to a milestone event of one of the most important influences of my life, the University of the Philippines, my alma mater. Being one of the alumni seeking to pay it forward for our countrymen and women, I want to offer solutions to the current problems of our society through my experience and knowledge as a student and as a city builder. It has been my life's commitment to derive inspiration from possibilities from opportunities that can strengthen our dignity as a nation and provide an enabling environment for the future generation. Just a quick sharing lang po. When I entered the University of the Philippines, I was a bracket one STFAP scholar. I came from the province. When I was asked for an ITR, I asked them, because my family never really experienced filing an income tax. My parents, my father was unemployed and my mother was a seamstress. I was the first one to graduate in college in my family. Datihosa amin walang nakakagraduate ng college. Therefore, UP was a very special institution to me because kung may model who are getting out of poverty, probably you could make me as one of the examples. I would tell you that when I graduated from UP, my other siblings followed not necessarily from UP, but education eventually pulled us out of poverty. So, this invitation to speak before you is significant to me as it serves the recognition of what we in the BCDA have done for our country in the past 24 years. I am part of the team that built the Bonifacio Global City and one of the most beautiful master plan cities in Metro Manila. Now, the location of the new campus of the University of the Philippines, I was the one who actually signed the deed of donation for the UPBGC. And yes, there's a connection between Bonifacio Global City also and our national defense. BGC is in Fort Bonifacio, a former army camp under the stewardship of BCDA. And through proper stewardship, BCDA and its partners paved the way for the rise of vibrant urban districts. In fact, when I was in my first year in UP, I was living in the slums of Fort Bonifacio. Sometimes life comes full circle. So, in my office in BGC, I looked from the window and I could see the slums where I used to live. Until eventually, I got the chance to get admitted sa Nara residence hall. So yung mga taganaro po dito mo buhay kayo. So, my roommate was then the lead guitarist of Eraser Heads, Si Marcos Adoro. And that was the time when they were composing yung pariko and all these other songs. So, last March 28, we are happy to report that our work enabled us to remit a record high four billion pesos to the national treasury for socioeconomic development projects and military modernization projects. Good governance is indeed not only good but great economics. Since I became president and CEO of BCDA, we have remitted at least almost 13 billion cash to the national treasury. BCDA has never depended on or never depended on taxpayers' money because we are actually a net revenue generator for the government. Hindi po kami gumagasos ng buwis ng ating taong bayan in fact, kami pa po ang nagdadagdag. We also constructed the 94 kilometer Subiclar Tarlac Expressway. So yung mga tagang central Luzon and northern Luzon, you will probably experience the convenience and efficiency of traveling through this tall road. This is the longest tall road that in the Philippines at 94 kilometers and we have recently interconnected it. The first also in our country to have an interconnected tall ways, NLEX and SCTEX. So it's a very, very convenient and very fast travel time. We also provided socialized housing to 3,000 informal settlers that you would see along the C5 road. Most of the apartment units there are socialized housing units which we provided to our people in uniform. We replicated military facilities also in honor of the service and sacrifice of BCDA's main stakeholder, the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Now we are building the Philippines first green global and smart metropolis, the Clark Green City. And of course, what first came to my mind was to really bring the first UP campus in central Luzon. And last April 11, we broke ground for Clark Green City in simple ceremonies at Capas Tarlac. Witnessing the milestone, the partners from the national and local government, the academy and the private sector and this being led by President Aquino himself. And of course, we have the honor of having President Pascual join us in that historic moment. This is significant in our history because for the first time in so many decades, we are master planning an entire metropolis. This is not a development similar to the scale of Bonifacio Global City but this is similar to the scale of Metro Manila itself. So the entire Clark Green City is more than the size of Manhattan, about 9,500 hectares. This would be the first metropolis that is a city in a farm and a city with its own forest reserve and a lot of green spaces. The world is urbanizing. More than 50% of the world's population are living in the cities. By 2030, 75% of Filipinos will be living in the cities. This is the era of mega cities. We see challenges in food security, climate change, congestion, lack of shelter and even terrorism. When I came from Batangas, I first came to the slums because I could not afford the other housing facilities and accommodation in the city. I worked in Jollibee as a fast food crew and eventually, I was lucky enough to have the SDFAP. Without the SDFAP, I would probably not be able to go to college. Right now, one out of two Filipinos live in cities. By 2030, the number would have increased to three out of four. The question is, do our cities today have the capacity to sustain a growing urban population? We see dignity in the urban spaces we have now. Clark Green City is the future of our metropolis. Green, smart, disaster resilient and inclusive. We envision it with walkable spaces. We emphasize on inclusion because we believe that this is the way forward. Many of our challenges in our societies are brought about by alienation of people. UCC in Metro Manila, traffic congestion is also caused not only by the volume of vehicles that are happening, but if you look at the data, you will find that the gated communities actually also encourages vehicles to concentrate simply on two major arteries of Metro Manila, C5 Road and EDSA. Yun lang ho, in between are gated communities and therefore, the sharing of roads, the vehicles could not be dissipated within the metropolis itself. Also, the pedestrian lanes, bike lanes are nonexistent thereby preventing people from moving from one point to another when in fact, these distances could have been reached through walking and biking. But at the same time, we envision the city with the bike lanes, mass transport and 75% green spaces. One of the inspiration is living in UP when I was in NARA because I cannot afford a kasa'a food so do lang ho kumakahain kami kaya Aling Lina and the Aristocard. I actually survived with a 100 pesos per week. NARA, we only pay 175 pesos per month in NARA. Hindi ko pa mabayaran yun. I had to secure student loan to pay for the rent in NARA. And then I have to survive on 100 pesos per week because what I do and most of us do actually because many NARA residents most of us came from the provinces. So what we do we buy 3 pesos of rice kaya Aling Lina at Aristocard and then we just ask for sabaw. So we survive by that breakfast anymore because that would again be a pressure on our pocket to admit to you I was afraid to have a girlfriend kasi baka magkilangan ko mag-date ula akong perang pandate. So we can see millions of people benefitting from things that BCDA have built and will build in the future. I would like to think that we in BCDA are redefining city building it's important to plan physical spaces to uphold human dignity and to encourage inclusion collaboration even encouraging compassion to people. As civil servants we know that in every decision that we make we have to be able to improve the lives of many Filipinos. We can empower them, we can build opportunities that can enable our countrymen to achieve their dreams. This we do through the selfless stewardship of our country's resources the adherence to integrity and good governance and commitment to business contracts with partners who have expertise in urban development. This journey in building Clark Green City has been successful through partnerships with organizations particularly UP we look at UP as the anchor for an innovation district. This would be an opportunity to bring about continued economic growth and lasting change to our society to drive innovation, research, creativity even for our artists and those who are into the creative business and industry. City building goes beyond towering buildings the most modern technology the best architecture statics there is a certain depth to city building which is human so we are planning to improve humanity it should be something that is inclusive, sustainable and disaster resilient something that sees and feels for the human being giving respect to our capability to love to live to create and to dream this is a new Philippines we should be dreaming the biggest dreams these are inspiration in city building and for UP it's really really important to change our mindset so that we will be an educational institution that will be an advocate for openness for collaboration for partnerships and even for equality I believe that every human being should have a place to live when I was a student on the floor of a bake shop in the slums I was romancing the rat and the cockroaches my mat was a cigarette carton, yung karton na malaki ng sigarilyo and if I am fortunate enough I get to I get to sleep on the table where yung nagmamasa ng tinapay most often times though I will be on the floor therefore I think it's important that if you're living in that kind of squalor sometimes it tends to actually also limit our capability to hope and to dream education is the only way I would say the only way really that would allow minds to explore beyond the physical boundaries when I first the first time I was able to use the library was when I was in high school when I was in grade school we had a library but you know whenever I would ask our teacher if I can use the library sa sabihin ng teacher ko ay wog na uto yung bakayan yung masira for those who have been to public schools you would realize this most of our books are always locked in the cabinets pang dispay lang when the district supervisor comes in the only but for us who have been I learned how to read well you know in the most extraordinary place in the town not in school, not in the library but in the public market where there is a where they sell dried fish yung tuyok kasi doon nila nandun yung mga old magazines time life magazines national geographic as a junk so but I believe that whenever I read those kind of materials well of course I started with comics in LWYY superstar and all these things but then my reading materials improved in the fish market when I get to experience readers digest and national geographic but that kind of material that kind of opportunity to open the mind to also dream bigger beyond what I see in my community in my community I had never known anyone who finished college the highest educational attainment was actually high school so pagkatapos ng high school sa sabihin yung magulang anak tumulong ka na sa pamilya and usually it's the eldest who suffers I'm part of the board of trustees of card which is a microfinance group when we look at the data and research that we had we realize that it takes about 6 to 10 years to live a family out of poverty and this is because simply one of the family members able to finish college and get employed or start something so it's very important so I think as a UP as an institution as a very critical role being the number one state university in the Philippines you have a very critical role a very important role in moving our country forward so let us break down all the silos and be able to open our university to everyone to every creative mind, to every dreamer out there I believe that every human being should have a place to live a place that is safe for a mother or a father to settle his or her family a place where one can achieve dreams defined by one's passion and compassion for others early this year we signed a memorandum of agreement for the establishment of a new campus of the University of the Philippines at BCDA's most relevant project for the country's future the Clark Green City I have introduced some of our colleagues in UP to the people from MIT and Harvard to push for this collaboration one thing also that we're looking at is the collaboration with the best institutes in Japan and also so that we could bring back our technology and our capability it truly warms my heart to be instrumental in enabling UP, my beloved alma mater which stood as a solid empowering ground for a impoverished young dreamer like me to be the first locator of BCDA's global smart disaster resilient metropolis like the University of the Philippines my second home we give premium to the youth and the world that we can build for them and shape for them BCDA also welcome early this year the technological university of the Philippines to Clark Green City which will soon develop the human resource in technical, industrial technological and professional skills through its engineering and technology education program just a few days ago we signed a MOA with the department of science and technology and the Philippine Science High School for the establishment of a super fabrication laboratory at the Clark Green City which highly compliments the BCDA's vision for Clark Green City to promote competitiveness and innovation the super fabrication laboratory is a technical prototyping platform of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for innovation and invention which provides stimulus for local entrepreneurship and also a platform for learning and innovation we have given the Philippine Science High School five hectare of property and 25 million in cash for the establishment of this super fabrication laboratory the idea here is to be able to provide a playing ground an innovative ground for any genius out there not only for the students of the Philippine Science High School but even for a street child roaming our streets probably a Filipino genius is out there with no means there's no avenue and no forum to test these ideas so we want to create this open super fabrication laboratory with CNC machines laser printers laser cutters 3D printers computers and any other high technology we envision Clark Green City as a place where we could have the best education and institution even artists, animators, musicians, engineers you will have a place there it's your community where the future generation can immediately be empowered to see himself as a global citizen this is a brain capital in its truest sense through this new metropolis we hope to shape humanity and the future it's not just a simple slogan carved out of branding activity to sound good we seek to be relevant and to respond we seek to bring a community which they deserve we embrace and recognize this opportunity to build a city that breeds equality innovation, security and inclusion and we invite enterprises reputable institutions in the country and over the world to help us do this to shape humanity in the future so the way we will do this is first to build a city we have to first build the human capital and that's why we look at the innovation district as the one that would drive enterprises and technology and will attract capital to move into the city more than anything else we want poor people to have a place in the city poor people that could hope, that could dream that could act, that could create and that could contribute very positively to our society so I think I will never tire of sharing this story because really I would say UP has defined me I am a product of the State University's ability to be able to provide a platform for someone like me who has been when I was young has been considered to have no hope in fact even my elementary teacher thought I will never pass an entrance exam I remember when I asked my teacher ma'am gusto ko po mag-exam sa Pilipin science sabi sa akin alay wag na utoy at ikaw naman na hindi papasah well that kind of academic elitism somehow marginalized people who are because mostly you will see in the public schools only the top 10 is being encouraged to actually take the up cut but if you're a troublemaker in your grade school you'll never find that opportunity palagi po kong bagsak sa isang subject GMRC because I always ask my teacher questions so I hope that you would share this vision because this is actually happening the way to move forward is to really embrace openness and innovation the way to also collaborate hindi porky yupit tayo tayo ng pinakamagaling actually we believe that excellence is really bringing light or shining brighter when everyone is shining we cannot be a light in a world filled with darkness true excellence shines when you are shining so brightly when everyone else is shining brightly as well that is the only way we could measure our true excellence so as one of decision makers of BCDA we fulfill our tasks with open mind open eyes and compassionate heart we pursue our projects we know that the kind of space that we should build should be human centered we do not just plan structures we go down to the basics quality living is having access to food and being able to produce food for a sustainable future quality living is in a community that is safe from the effects of climate change quality living is having access to clean water and clean air we in BCDA take pride at our mandate as we are being given the opportunity to uphold human dignity through technology and knowledge sharing we can bring that dignity in humanity by shaping the physical space people live to make this world an inclusive we can make mass transport more efficient bringing people together with their friends and families I hope we could share drinks there we could play music we could invent things we could explore the limitless bounds of science and arts and music we can make this world a sustainable one where we need not worry about food and water and by ensuring that water is utilized efficiently and watersheds managed carefully our cities need bridges rails, roads and parks our world can be made smaller by information technology not by each individual imprisoning ourselves in our rooms or in our silos but encouraging us to go out and shake the hand of our friends and hug the people we love as BCDA builds a super-sized city with the intention of promoting further and inclusive kind of growth that will trickle to all people from all walks of life we shall envision it to be a center for innovation and sustainability for our young its future presidents residents, partners and rest of our countrymen and women and the new generation who we recognize as global citizens the world is boundless the possibilities are limitless the future holds much promise as the expansion of UPS academic programs on science, technology music and the arts in Central Luzon with its 12 million population growing at 2.37% will drive the economic and human development of Clark Green City and will serve as our concrete response to our fellow men and women need for quality yet affordable education UPS lang ho na kikita ko na may the Clark Green City is the perfect place for the country's premier national university and we are very much excited and ecstatic to propagate the feeling of freedom and self-expression and as a result breathe a new standard of quality living that is adaptable, engaging modern, progressive and vibrant we hope to bring together is a public space that will benefit all knowledge that bring people together with UPS board we have now collectively branded what will be the most modern sustainable, high tech globally connected city as the rising knowledge and innovation capital of the country this will further promote one of the top investment generating zones the Clark report zone I thank University of the Philippines for seeking to be relevant to generations before me my generation and the generation of my children and starting this knowledge festival for a country men and women for a vibrant future to the youth it must not escape you that you are here because you have the ability to change things despite lies, failures and challenges we can persevere after all these the new Philippines we are the new Filipinos before I end let me just let me just think about let us let me welcome you to think about this as we all continue to carry on with our businesses, with our professions whether it be great infrastructure a new metropolis or modern technology let the foundation of everything we do be laid about the magnificent love for humanity in our country let us recognize the fact that we are all in the position to shape lives let us try to recognize the freedom of our fellow men and women to dream and to hope there is no force as strong as hope in this world when we plant the seed of hope in a young hopeless person you actually provide a gate an opportunity for him to recover and to achieve again his self-esteem his self-respect and his own capability to innovate and to create social innovation is the key and it's the perfect solution to recognizing human dignity so, maraming-maraming salamat po sa university of the Philippines I will never tire of propagating this idea because I myself have been a product of this institution the institution that shaped me the institution that brought me to where I am now the institution that I would find to be the network platform to again lift others up it is a time to share it is a time to reach out to those in the margins of the society if we are truly the university of the Philippines then we must be able to accomplish our mission to lift the entire country forward by reaching out to those who are in the margins of our country Thank you