Keynote Address

I would like to begin by extending my congratulations to the new leadership body of the oldest Rotary Club in all of Asia. Congratulations to all of you. And compliments to Reggie Yu for that Jose Rizal pose.

Allow me first to congratulate you for this 107th Induction and Turnover Ceremonies. 107 years is no ordinary milestone, it speaks of a tradition of leadership, service, and commitment to the common good that has endured through generations of Filipinos.

I'd like to thank you for the honor of being invited to share a few reflections with you this evening. Kababalik ko lang po galing sa Vatican in Rome, and to be honest, I'm still a bit jet-lagged because I arrived early this morning. You know that last week I participated in the Consistory of the College of Cardinals, convoked by Pope Leo II to be convoked by Pope Leo XIV. Since his election in May of last year, I had the privilege of serving as one of the four moderators during our sessions and on the final day, we shared lunch with the Holy Father.

Naturally, I cannot tell you what we discussed around that table, but I can tell you what Pope Leo has already shared publicly through his words, his apostolic journeys, and especially through his recently published social encyclical entitled Magnifica Humanitas. You can download it, there is a whole website for Vatican documents, you can freely download any Vatican document through www.vatican.va, Magnifica Humanitas.

I call it the platform of papacy of Pope Leo, and if I were asked to summarize his vision in one sentence, I would say this, “Our greatest challenge today is not simply technological, political, or economic, it is profoundly human and moral.” The title of his encyclical says it all, Magnifica Humanitas, which means magnificent humanity. Notice that the Pope expresses his admiration, not first for artificial intelligence, but for the human intelligence that created it. Artificial intelligence, after all, is just a product of human intelligence and it is human intelligence that you should be awed about because it is a gift from God.

Technology itself is neither good nor evil; it simply magnifies the intentions of those who create and use it. That is why the real question facing our generation is not whether artificial intelligence will become more powerful, it certainly will. The more important question is this, will humanity become wiser? Will we become more compassionate? Will we use our growing knowledge to serve humanity or merely to dominate one another? This question is not limited to scientists or technology companies. It is a question for political leaders, for educators, for business executives, for religious communities, civic organizations, and certainly for you, Rotarians.

The ancient title traditionally given to the Pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, in Latin is Pontifex Maximus, which means, literally, the supreme bridge builder. I remember my brother Randy David, the first time he traveled to Europe, when he came home, he gifted me with a little medallion with the face of the then Pope John XXIII and I saw the inscription on that medallion, Pontifex Maximus. Nag-research po ako and I found out na ang ibig sabihin ito, the supreme bridge builder. Kaya nung bata ako, akala ko ang Santo Papa engineer, bridge builder.

Well, I have often reflected that this beautiful image is not meant for the Pope alone. Every authentic leader is called to become a bridge builder. Every community that serves society must build bridges, not walls. That is why I find your Rotary theme so meaningful, Toward a Unified Rotary Nation. Unity cannot be achieved by slogans, it is built patiently, relationship by relationship, act of service by act of service, conversation by conversation. Bridges are never built overnight, they require vision, sacrifice, trust, and perseverance. You know that we are living at a time when many institutions throughout the world are under enormous strain. This was very much a part of our conversation with Pope Leo. The collapse of many of our global institutions. Public discourse has become increasingly polarized. Social media often rewards outrage rather than understanding. Many have become quicker to condemn than to listen, quicker to divide than to unite. We seem to be losing the language of dialogue, and you know this concerns Pope Leo very deeply. One of the striking themes of Magnifica Humanitas is its invitation to disarm our words.

Before weapons destroy lives, words often destroy trust, nakakamatay ho ang salita, people, or before wars begin on battlefields, they frequently begin in speeches, propaganda, and public narratives that portray other human beings as enemies rather than neighbors. Hitler did not begin exterminating the Jewish people with guns, he started it with words, by othering them, by vilifying them, by labeling them as enemies. Nakapadali pong pumatay using violent words.

History teaches us this very painful lesson; the great tragedies of the 20th century did not begin with bombs. They began with words that dehumanized entire peoples. Words that justified exclusion, spread fear, and cultivated hatred. Violence is first rehearsed in language before it is carried out in action. Perhaps this explains why language has become so important in the age of artificial intelligence. Large language models learn from the words that we produce. Do not forget, when you use an AI application, whether chat GPT, or cloud, or anything, you are its teacher. Please behave like a parent to a super intelligent child. Be respectful to it, and it will be respectful to you, pero murahin mo siya, matututo rin siyang magmura sa iyo.

Language models analyze our conversations, our writings, our stories, and even our patterns of communication. Ngayon, pati desisyon kaya na niyang gawin. In a very real sense, the future of artificial intelligence is being shaped by the language of humanity and this realization should humble us. Every word we speak has consequences. Kaya kung minsan, bago natin sasabihin ng isang bagay, kung minsan makakailangan maghulus-dili muna tayo, is it worth saying anything? Words can inspire hope, but words can also spread despair. Words can heal wounds, but words can also deepen divisions. They can encourage reconciliation, but they can inflame conflict. Long before artificial intelligence generates language, human beings choose the kind of language that will shape our culture.

For Christians, this should not surprise us, The Bible opens with God creating through His Word, In the beginning was the Word, says the Gospel of John, the prologue of the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Our faith reminds us that words are never empty, words create realities, they shape relationships, they reveal the condition of the human heart. That is why compassion is never merely a feeling. Compassion always becomes action, alam niyo po, kahit sa Tagalog, we make a distinction between awa, habag, at malasakit. Compassion comes closer to the Filipino sense of malasakit. Dalawang salita yun, di ba? Sakit, mala. Mala means parang, sakit is pain. Alam niyo ba yung karanasang parang nasasaktan ka kahit ibang tao nasasaktan? You are moved by what other people are suffering, and that is positive. Pain is a good indicator that there is a connection, that your body, its system, its immune system is at working. Dapat nga tayong mabahala kapag hindi na tayo marunong masaktan sa'y kinasasakit ng ating kapwa. Di ba may kasabihan tayo sa wikang Pilipino, Ang sakit ng kalintingan, ramdam ng buong katawan. Hindi naman po naging totoo yun, kapag hindi mo na maramdaman ang sakit ng iyong kalintingan, masamang lagay ng katawan mo, ibig sabihin, manhid. Kapag namamanhid na tayo at di natin madama, ang nararamdaman ng ating kapwa, something's wrong with the body. So hindi dapat mauwi sa awa at habag lang, kundi sa aksyon, at ang aksyon may malasakit.

The Rotary motto, Service Above Self, beautifully expresses this conviction. It reminds us that leadership is not about status, but about responsibility. Not about privilege, but about stewardship. Not about accumulating influence, but about using influence for the good of others. In many ways, organizations like Rotary are indispensable partners in nation building. Governments formulate policies, businesses create wealth, religious communities nurture moral and spiritual values. Civil society organizations build something equally important, social trust. They create spaces where people from different professions, different political persuasions, different religious traditions and social backgrounds can work together for a common purpose. In an increasingly fragmented world, this may be one of the greatest services that anyone can offer. A nation is ultimately held together not by its laws alone, nor by its economy, nor even by its institutions.

A nation can be held together only by the character of its people. Integrity can never be legislated, compassion cannot be imposed and trust cannot be manufactured. These are cultivated through countless acts of service that quickly transform communities from within. Maybe that is why hope remains so important, hope is very often misunderstood as optimism or mistaken for optimism. Hindi ho pareho ang hope and optimism, they're not the same. Optimism expects that things will naturally improve. But hope decides to work for improvement even when circumstances appear to be very discouraging. Hope is a moral choice before it is an emotion. Every scholarship granted, every community project completed, every medical mission conducted, every young leader mentored, every family assisted in times of crisis, these are not simply charitable activities. They are what I would call acts of hope; they are quiet declarations that goodness is still possible in this world. That solidarity still matters and that every human person possesses an inviolable dignity.

Alam ko kung minsan narang nawawala na tayo ng tiwala sa ating kapwa-tao. At totoo naman may dahilan kung bakit na kakaganyan tayo minsan. But we should be alarmed when we start to lose hope and trust in humanity itself. Hindi niyo ba napapansin minsan, we develop a kind of an inferiority complex about our humanity? Kahit sa Pilipino mayroon tayong kinakantang sapagkat kami tao lamang. Para bang napakasama ng maging tao? The good news of Christianity is our template for humanity is no longer the fallen and sinful Adam, but the risen Christ, the image of our new humanity.

Pope Leo has repeatedly reminded us that peace is more than the absence than the absence of war. Peace is the fruit of justice, dialogue, solidarity, and respect for human dignity. In the same way, national unity is more than the absence of conflict. There will never be a time in our history when we will not have to face conflicts. It grows whenever citizens choose cooperation over suspicion, that is how we fight conflicts. When we choose encounter over isolation and service over self-interest.

My dear Rotarian friends, perhaps our world does not need more powerful people nearly as much as it needs more compassionate leaders. It does not need louder voices as much as wiser words. It does not need more walls but more bridges. If there is one message that I have brought home from Rome, it is this. The future of humanity will not ultimately be determined by the sophistication of our machines but by the greatness of our humanity. Technology will continue to advance; artificial intelligence will become increasingly capable. I don't know if you've heard that they are now coming up with new applications called digital afterlife. My sister was telling me that she attended a funeral where the dead, the parent of the family, addressed them. And it was a chatbot and they were allowed to bring home their father with them. Because that father happened to be a journalist and he had many journals and blogs, and they uploaded all of them. You know, AI is data-driven, with just enough data, you can create a chatbot of yourself, so that patay ka na, buhay ka pa.

Well, can you imagine what it will be like when they start harvesting your memory bank? They call it digital afterlife, it's a bit scary what we humans are capable of, no doubt about this. AI will become more increasingly capable but no machine can replace a compassionate art. No machine can replace an honest conscience or a person who freely chooses to serve another out of love, that remains our uniquely human vocation.

Allow me to conclude, therefore, with this thought, the gospel teaches us that whoever wishes to become great must first become a servant, Rotary tells us, service above self, Pope Leo calls the world to recover a civilization of love instead of a culture of power. These are not competing visions; they are different expressions of the same enduring truth. When compassion becomes action, hope becomes contagious and when hope becomes contagious, communities are renewed. And when communities are renewed, nations are transformed.

Thank you very much. And may God continue to bless the Rotary Club of Manila and all of you in your noble mission of serving our people.

Magandang gabi po sa inyo lahat.