Finding the Ateneo way

Finding the Ateneo way | Daily Tribune

It was a simple but powerful reminder that no matter what storms may hit our alma mater, it is the Ateneo community that will always rise to lift it up. But the reverse is also true. It is the same community that can bring the school down when it chooses silence over truth, image over accountability and distance over compassion.

Recently, Ateneo President Father Roberto C. Yap held a press conference. I have to admit that just a few minutes into it, particularly when he began explaining why Ateneo had remained silent because the University had its own rights, the students had their constitutional rights, and lawyers were standing behind him as he spoke, I stopped watching. I felt our school president was caught in a difficult place, struggling between saying what he truly felt and saying only what the University lawyers would allow him to say.

That was difficult to accept because, in moments like this, the community does not look first for legal positioning. It looks for compassion, accountability and genuine leadership. This made it all the more striking when I heard the accounts of our players, like Sam Reyes, Kieffer Alas and Jared Bahay, in podcasts and town halls. Their words were free-flowing, unscripted, and painfully honest. There was grief, confusion and even guilt, but there was truth. In moments of loss, truth often heals far better than carefully crafted statements.

In college, we studied Immanuel Kant and his idea of the categorical imperative: that actions are morally right when they follow universal duties and principles, regardless of their consequences. More importantly, Kant reminds us to treat humanity, whether ourselves or others, always as an end in itself and never merely as a means to an end. That lesson feels especially relevant now. Students, athletes and families cannot simply be treated as parts of a system or instruments for preserving an institution’s image. They must always be placed at the center of every decision.

There is still hope for Ateneo to find its way back. But that path cannot be paved by silence or self-preservation. It must be the high road, the harder road, the road of sacrifice, truth and care for others, all for the greater glory of God. That, after all, is the Ateneo way.