Kurt B.

Del Rosario NSTP101 N24

WAKE UP!

“If you want to be a leader, you should make a distinction between Traditional
leadership and Servant Leadership.” A quotation coming from “Woke Lolo” or Atty. Chel Diokno,
during the Alternative Class Program, happened last October 18, 2019. The ACP event that I
have attended was the forum with Woke Lolo, entitled: Woke, Youth as agents of Social Justice.
The event was fun and at the end of the event, everyone will really be able to get a good
insight and the words of speaker will make you feel enlighten and can also touch hearts and our
minds to start the change that we are longing for the long time. The speaker mainly discusses
what is social justice and the role of the Filipino Youth in changing the Philippines to be a better
place to live.

The quotation mentioned above made a great impact to me as I have realized that this
words of wisdom is not only for the leaders, bur applies also to everyone. As a Filipino voter, we
should choose the best and when we say “best”, we should be able to distinguish between a
traditional leadership and a Servant leadership. Traditional Leadership is a style of a leader,
wherein his actions are based on the actions of previous leaders. (Burley, 2017). In other words,
the style seems to be static, because the action of a leader is always with preference to the
previous ones. It is too sad to say that here in the Philippines, our leaders is mostly a traditional
one that is one of the reasons why Philippines is not changing. Many years ago, the Philippine is
one of the poorest and corrupt countries in the Philippines, until now, we are still here in the same
situation many years ago. This is the reason why I do not think that Traditional Leadership is not
available anymore to the Philippines. On the other hands, Servant Leadership, is also a style of
leadership wherein the leader serves his constituents accordingly to the needs and demands of
the his constituents (Greenleaf.org), Meaning to say, to be a servant leader, you have first to
hear and serve what does the constituents needs before serving yourself. In the Philippines, it is to
ironic that most of the leaders are not serving the constituents first but rather they first satisfy their
hungriness in terms of Power and Money, that is why the Philippines is still a poor country right
now. With this, knowing these two concepts could lead as to the change we ever wanted to
have.

In addition, I also realized my essence as a Filipino youth, the moment that I heard Atty.
Chel words about we are affected by social injustices in the Philippines. I felt that I was sleeping
and I was blinded by the fact that I was not part of these social injustices, but I realize that we
are all victims of these social injustices especially of corruption. We may not really feel it directly
but the grass roots sector of our country is the one devastated by the effects of this corruption, I
think without corruptions. The government could provide more services and benefits to the
Filipinos. Without corruption, our country will not be a poor one, then, no Filipino will be forced to
work illegally just to have money because the government could provide assistances. However,
It is a saddening fact that corruption cannot be removed easily in this country. In my opinion,
one way to solve this is to instill in our youth the values of a good person and citizenry. We should
teach them because they will be the future of our nation’s growth and development. By
collaborative effort of cleaning the system the country will be a better place to live.
Furthermore,

I believe that my learning and realizations could help improve the various issues in our
society by also sharing it to other, by uncovering blindfolds and opening their eyes to see the
real situation we are really facing. By sharing this, I would be able to teach and inspire everyone
especially the youth sector to use their voices and in to raise awareness against the social
injustices of the country. In that simple sharing of realizations, it could lead to domino effect. The
more the number of the Filipinos who are aware and eager to change the system, the easier we
can help the society in these issues. But how?, Let us start the change at homes and let us vote
wisely for a servant leader who can help us alleviate this issues of the country,
Kurt B. Del Rosario NSTP101 N24

In conclusion, I believe this Alternative Class Program was an eye opener for me to see
the injustices of the country. A way for me to realized that for all the time, I was just sleeping and
blinded by the reality. With this, I think God’s Invitation for me is to help others realize the reality
as well. This frightening truth could be a way to solve the problem, by voting wisely. Let us
choose the servant leader over the Traditional Leader. Because a servant leader is a follower of
the people, He will be the voice of those voiceless. He will up us rise from this nightmare.
Moreover, another way is to teach the youth the essence of “Love”, because lack of love is the
roots of all these issues. If the people had feel how to be love, then he will be able as well to give
love. If everyone knows how to love, there will be no poverty, corruption, and social killings. To
finally end this, Let us all wake up from this nightmare and let us spread the news and fight for
this social injustices.

References:

Burley, K. (2019, February 11). Emergence of Traditional Leadership Styles. Retrieved from

https://bizfluent.com/info-8469011-emergence-traditional-leadership-styles.html.

What is Servant Leadership? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-

servant-leadership/.
Kurt B. Del Rosario NSTP101 N24