PAMET-USA, Inc.

September 26, 2020

Good afternoon, members, officers, and honored guests of Pamet USA. I thank each and everyone for being here with us virtually and participating in this meeting. I am very pleased to be able to welcome those of you that have been with PAMET-USA for a long time now, as well as those who are new to this professional organization.

Today, we are celebrating the 32nd Founding Anniversary and 17th Biennial National Convention of PAMET-USA. I was pleasantly surprised when I was approached recently to give the Welcoming Speech, and to make it an inspirational one, at that. Having been at the birth of this organization sometime in late 1987 and early 1988, I consider your organization with personal satisfaction, very much like an obstetrician present at the time of the birth of a baby, and now seeing the grown-up person as he or she is. Now, I see it as a strong grown-up, full of promise and future success as an organization. If there were a few words that you remember from this speech, it would be “Keep on doing what you’re doing, for a more accomplished future.”

I would be remiss if I do not say a few words about the founding of this organization. I was there to see the interplay of personalities, the aspirations, hopes and dreams, the meetings, and the conflicts, and of course, the coming together. In any human intercourse and relationships, especially in a diverse group like this, there will be conflicts. Conflicts in ideas, goals, methods, and other areas. However, conflict is where all the ideas, goals, and methods of the group are tested out and discussed and debated, so that all the weaknesses and strengths are pointed out, realized, tested again, and finally either adopted or discarded for better ways. As long as there is an open mindedness, transparency, and honesty, and the goal for a better organization is paramount, success of an organization is guaranteed. My role during that time was only to help, to give pointers on properly doing things, to give advise in coming to a consensus or to make a decision, and to calm a few ruffled feathers with objective, practical solutions which could be agreed to by the majority. The work was done mostly by your founding mothers and fathers. My being there was only as a witness to history being made.

Looking at your most recent endeavors, I am impressed and thrilled that many of the significant plans and dreams of your founders have been met and sustained. PAMET-USA has promoted unity for many of our countrymen, and has helped many others succeed in their professional careers in this, their adopted land. That alone is a singular achievement, changing the lives of many of you here today. Other successes and achievements by PAMET-USA are noteworthy but so innumerable, that there is no time to recount each and every one of them. So, I would rather say, keep on doing what you’re doing, for a more accomplished future.

Since I have not been in touch with your organization in a long time, getting to know your present officers, and speaking with them recently, gives me satisfaction that the future is in good hands. I pray all the incoming officers and all aspiring leaders in your organization in the future have the foresight, will, and the goals of PAMET-USA upmost in mind, so that your organization will be better each year than the last, and that it will still be a presence to help your members, your profession, and your country for a long, long time to come.

More power to all of you and PAMET-USA. Mabuhay kayong lahat.