When Hon. Ricardo P. Presbitero, Jr., Mayor of Valladolid and former president of the LCC Alumni Association, stepped up to the podium at La Consolacion College Bacolod’s 2025 Graduate School and ETEEAP Commencement Exercises, you could feel the Quad shift. This wasn’t your usual speech packed with platitudes. This was personal. This was legacy talking to its future.
“I was once in your place,” he began, voice steady but warm, not just as a politician, but as a fellow LCCian. And just like that, the distance between the stage and the seats dissolved. He wasn’t just delivering remarks—he was sharing the map of his journey.
For someone who’s worn many hats—local chief executive, lawmaker, alumni leader—it was striking how much he focused not on titles, but on mission. “Leadership is not about the position. It is all about the mission—to lift others, to change lives, to dream not just for ourselves but for our communities.”
It hit home. Especially for the 9th batch of ETEEAP graduates, many of whom had taken non-traditional paths to this moment. For them, he offered perhaps the most powerful line of the morning:
“You are living testimonies that dreams deferred are never dreams denied.”
You could see it on their faces—those words were not just inspiring. They were validating.
But Mayor Presbitero didn’t stop at celebration. He issued a challenge, a call to action that felt more like a mirror:
When you see poverty, respond with compassion.
When injustice knocks, speak with courage.
When power is within reach, use it to lift, not to rule.
This wasn’t moralizing. This was remembering. This was a man who had once sat where the graduates sat, reminding them what it means to leave LCC’s gates with purpose.
He quoted Scripture—Luke 12:48: “To whom much is given, much is required.” And in that moment, it didn’t feel like a warning. It felt like a blessing with responsibility.
For the faculty and parents in the room, many were visibly moved. For the graduates, it was clear this wasn’t just another ceremonial sendoff. They were being handed not just diplomas—but torches.
Mayor Presbitero’s homecoming didn’t just mark another milestone in the school’s long history. It sparked something deeper—an awakening to the truth that what LCC teaches isn’t just for passing exams, but for shaping a world desperately in need of heart-led, truth-telling, bridge-building leaders.
He closed with words that might very well live in the minds of this graduating class for years to come:
“Let your success not be measured by how high you climb, but by how many you lift as you rise.”
Photo by Kasper Grey Lanza