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INSPIRATIONAL TALK 56TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BETA SIGMA FRATERNITY Orlando P Peña, Batch ‘48
Distinguished Brods and Sisters Distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentlemen:
As one of the few remaining Brods who is older than the Fraternity, I have decided to accept Brod Lumauigs’s invitation to be the inspirational speaker tonight. After 56 years I realized that there are only one or two things you cannot change in life… being a Betan is one of them. You can change your name, your country, your spouse, your job, your physical condition, your school and everything else about you but you can never change the BETA SIGMA brand that has been imprinted in your buttocks when you were initiated into this Brotherhood of Scholars.
This is a brand which you cannot get rid of and it will not go away nor can anyone, even if the fraternity revokes it. Thus we have no choice but to make it a symbol of what we represent individually and what we dream of for the future. In the words of Brod Romy, at an inspirational address delivered a few weeks ago at the anniversary of the Los Banos chapter and induction of the new officers of the Alumni Association, Los Banos chapter.
“WE SHOULD NOT ONLY ADMIRE OUR FOOTPRINTS OF THE PAST BUT WE MUST ALWAYS BE AWARE OF OUR PREFERRED FUTURE IN THE FRATERNITY’S VISION AND MISSION WHICH WE HAVE VOWED TO PURSUE.”
It is inspiring to note that finally after many years, various Beta Sigma enclaves which share the same vision and mission regardless of where they are, or who they are, have united in one Beta Sigma alumni association.
I have decided to be active after I was reminded by the Brods who called on me one day that I am a product of the Fraternity’s assistance all throughout my career. My banking career was from our Founder, Brod Jesus Jayme who introduced me to Banking where I was involved for many years and Brod Tem Rodriquez who introduced me to my international career where I spent a large portion of my life.
In the rolls of the Association are some of the great businssemen and professionals of this country known for their courage, their patriotism, and their wisdom. We have in our roles the likes of Brods Justice Teddy Padilla who became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and other distinguished brothers in the Judiciary; Brod Sec Horacio Morales, who served as a Cabinet member and pursued his belief in social justice despite threats to this life; Brod Sec Vic Ramos DENR and other government officials; Brod Dr. Jose Abueva, educator, who became UP President and now has his own university and other distinguished members of the academe; Brod General Picache of the Armed Forces and other brods in the armed forces; the Labadan brothers and the TOYM awardees in agriculture; Brod Tem Rodriguez, an officer of the SEATO who could be named the architect of the Asian Institute of Technology which he organized as the SEATO Graduate School in the 60’s; Brod Romy Lumuig our Alumni President who served as Congressman and in various cabinet level positions in government; Brod Jesus Jayme Beta Sigma Founder and Brod Vic Valdepenas, President of Union Bank and other brods who have distinguished themselves in Banking; Brods who have served in various international organizations, like Brod Dr. Orly Sakay of the World Bank and Brod Dr. Sofronio San Juan, and we have many other brothers who have distinguished themselves in the field of business, banking, medicine, law and many endeavors including our famed brother actor-comedian Brod Willy Nepomuceno. Any many more, too many to mention.
Thus standing here, what kind of inspirational message can I convey to you tonight? Perhaps nothing less than to share with you my thoughts of how the fraternity can reflect our individual greatness in supporting it.
I must confess that I am embarrassed when with all our individual successes, and professed love for our fraternity, we are too poor to support it. Every time, our President has to appeal, to coerce, and to beg for funds to carry out the projects that we want him and the Board to do.
Together we represent a huge reservoir of talents and resources, when properly harnessed, can provide sustainable support for all our Fraternity and its projects. I do not speak only for money. I speak of contributions in talent, in ideas, in kind, from each to help the President, the Board and our individual Brods who are working for the Frat to fulfill the essence of our Fraternity.
No doubt many of you have given time and talents to the Association. Many have contributed financially to its projects. And all of us profess our loyalty and love to our Fraternity. But we need a strategy, an organization and the money to piece together the things necessary to sustain the projects of the resident brods, the President and the Board and to make our dreams a reality.
We will start with a dream and I submit the following dreams which I hope you will take up as your inspiration, too:
1. I propose a P1O million peso trust fund starting with a Pl million fund to be formed from the personal endowments of our brothers whose names will be perpetually enshrined in the rolls of the Fraternity as BENEFACTORS. The earnings of the trust fund will be used exclusively for the operation of the Secretariat. We need just 10 brods contributing P100,000 each to build the first million. I have started with mine.
2. I proposed another P10,000,000 to be raised from projects that can be generated by money making activities of the Secretariat. This is a fund for scholarships, livelihood development projects, sports activities, and other worthy fraternity undertakings to enhance the vision and mission of the Alumni Association.
3. I proposed a fund for the Betan House in the UP Campus , maybe another P10 million to be raised from the brods abroad. This is equivalent to $250,000 or $1000 each from 250 brods abroad. Our brods abroad can probably initiate fund raising activities for this project.
These are broad plans; maybe we can talk about them in the future.
All these projects start with a network. Sadly, we do not know all of us. We do not have a complete directory which will give us the names of our Brods and where they are. We are slowly building up this file.
We have build our Fraternity to be of value to ourselves, our future Brods, our school, our community and our country, in fulfillment of our vision and mission.
I would like to cap my talk with these phrases… all too familiar to all of us:
“I KNOW NOT THE DIGNITY OF YOUR BIRTH NOR THE GLORY THAT MAY COME TO YOU BUT AS YOU COME FORTH AND MEET US ON OUR WAY, LET US EXTEND MUTUAL AFFECTION AND AS BROTHERS, LABOR TOGETHER MAY IT BE IN HAPINESS OR IN BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS.”
This has been our belief and it is the only inspiration which I can offer to explain my dreams. It may take some years to achieve something, but at least we can begin by building the Betan network and with whatever resources you can donate to complete it at least before our 57th anniversary. I pass on this inspiration to you, Mr. President and I thank you for your efforts to shepherd us all.
Maraming Salamat Po.
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ORLANDO P. PENA
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) 1951, Master of Science in Management (MS) 1955, University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines, CEO Japanese Management Program, AOTS Tokyo, Japan. Fellow in Management, Philippine Council of Management, Diplomate in Personnel Management, People Management Assn of the Philippines. Mr. Peña is a development management specialist known internationally for his role in development financing reforms, institutional development, human resources management, training and research having been involved for many years, in programs of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development, the UNDP and the International Trade Center of the UN, the German DSE and the USAID. Concurrent with his international assignments, he has been the President and CEO of Asia Business Consultants, Inc. (ABC), a Philippine based training and consulting organization Founded in 1959. ABC is considered a pioneer in business consulting in the Philippines It has conducted programs for large and small enterprises as well as international development organizations and governments. His current affiliations are: President of the San Antonio College Foundation Laguna, Vice President, Community Chest Foundation,, Chairman, People Management Association Foundation. Vice-Chairman, World Association of Trainers in Development based in Washington D.C, member Advisory Committee of the JN Institute of Development Banking, Hyderabad, India. During his career he has been involved in the organization and management of prestigious institutions and contributed to the development of strategic projects both in the private sector and in the government. He served as the founding Secretary General and Chief Executive of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) this from 1977 to 1004. In 1994 he became concurrently the Secretary General of the World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI). Concurrent with his ADFIAP position, he served as visiting Course Director and faculty of the Trainers Program of the EDI of the World Bank for fourteen (14) years, from 1980 to 1994, served as Chief Technical Adviser of a World-Bank – UNDP Training Development Project for Asia and the Pacific. Some of his other affiliations are as follows: Adviser of the Graduate Program in Development Banking, American University, Washington, member, Euro-MBA International Advisory Board, Helsinki University of Technology in Finland; Vice-Chairman of the World Association of Trainers in Development, Washington, D.C.; Faculty Resource, International Training Programs of the Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines; African Development Bank in Abijan, Cote’ D’ Ivoire; the Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland and the DSE, German Foundation for International Development in Berlin. Before becoming involved in development banking, he spent 12 years in various positions as Vice President of the Philippine Commercial and International Bank. He also served as Chief of Personnel of the South East Treaty Organization in Bangkok in Bangkok for four years. He was President of the Personnel Management Association of the Phlippines for four terms, President of the Philippine Council of Management, for three terms, Chairman of the Employers Council of the Philippines. He once served as Director and vice President for Asia of the International Society of Education Training and Research in Washington. D.C. He has been the recipient of several citations and distinguished awards for his achievements among them the Bolo Award (rank of Supreme) of the Philippine Centennial Commission, the 20th Century Personnel Management Award of the PMAP, the international Achievement Award of the PMAP, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Association of Development Financing Institutions of Asia and the Pacific, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Beta Sigma Fraternity of the University of the Philippines, the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the College Business Administration, University of the Philippines, and others.
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