Bataan Peninsula State University is the first and only state university in the province of Bataan of the Philippines. For BPSU, a life without challenges to conquer would be futile as the university always stretches the limit to adapt to the changes and to turn trials into opportunities.
A university of excellence acknowledged in the country and the Asia-Pacific Region for quality graduates and knowledge responsive to socio-economic needs, provides quality and relevant education that will develop highly qualified and competitive human resources responsive to national and regional development.
A Commencement Exercises was held at the BPSU main and former Las Piñas Representative and Team PNoy senatorial candidate Cynthia Villar was guest of honor and speaker. BPSU, during its recent commencement exercise, she received an Honoris Causa in Doctor in Humanities from the Bataan Peninsula State University with officials led by its President Delfin Magpantay conferred on Villar the honorary degree Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa.
In her acceptance speech, Villar said the recognition is ‘extra special’ since it was given by a state university in Bataan, the home province of Senator Manny Villar’s mother, Curita Bamba Villar or Nanay Curing, who hailed from Orani.
“I am honored and happy to receive the honoris causa from Bataan Peninsula State University and to be invited as their commencement speaker. I always look forward to interacting with the youth and in my own way, give them inspiration and guidance as they start a new phase in their lives,” said Villar.
Villar, in her commencement speech, urged the more than 1,200 graduates of the Bataan Peninsula State University not to be discouraged by the unemployment and underemployment problems in the country but rather consider entrepreneurship as an option to merely seeking employment after graduation.
“There is always the option to go into entrepreneurship—to be an entrepreneur, to employ people instead of getting employed. In fact, I hope, many of you will aim to go the entrepreneurial way,” Villar told the graduates from the main campus of BPSU in Balanga City and branches in the towns of Abucay, Dinalupihan and Orani.
As an active advocate of entrepreneurship, Villar narrated to the graduates the success story of her family’s real estate business, which started as a small gravel and sand company. She cited that capital is not everything in business.
She added that entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty. “When (Senator) Manny and I started our business in the 1970s, we only had P10,000. So we had to borrow P70,000 from a bank to buy two second-hand trucks that we used in delivering sand and gravel to construction companies. Then, Manny saw the potential of building small houses. We pursued our dream with hard work and persistence.”
Villar was awarded by Go Negosyo as among the ‘The Women Entrepreneur Icons and Filipina Entrepreneurs of 2013’ during the 5th Filipina Entrepreneurship Summit last month. As a congresswoman, Villar led the passage of bills that benefited entrepreneurs, among which was the Magna Carta of Micro-Enterprises and Republic Act 9178 or the Barangay Micro Business Enterprises (BMBEs) Act.
