{"id":7025535,"date":"2026-08-03T19:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/how-the-political-camps-that-presume-to-represent-civil-society-might-learn-from-the-debacle-the-ateneo-finds-itself-in-today-get-real-post\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T19:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:10:44","slug":"how-the-political-camps-that-presume-to-represent-civil-society-might-learn-from-the-debacle-the-ateneo-finds-itself-in-today-get-real-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025535","title":{"rendered":"How the political camps that presume to represent \u201ccivil society\u201d might learn from the debacle the Ateneo finds itself in today \u2013 Get Real Post"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Ateneans are in the midst of a massive, long-overdue frenzy of soul-searching. This is in the aftermath of the tragic deaths of basketball players Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili during a team activity in Baler, Aurora province and the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) administration\u2019s botched public relations (PR) management<\/a> following the incident. The debacle exposed an institutional dysfunction and a culture of denial that, as it looks now, festered for decades.<\/p>\n

What plagues the Ateneo today is a profound superiority complex that could likely be an outcome of its self appointment as the foremost educator of \u201cthe best and the brightest\u201d, the country\u2019s \u201cfuture leaders\u201d, and a special breed called to be \u201cmen for others\u201d. When an Atenean graduates, he comes \u201cdown from the hill\u201d and then \u201cdown to the world\u201d. Literally, in fact. Marikina valley, is at the foot of that hill where the ADMU sits. This is the site of those public schools to which Ateneo High School (AHS) seniors come down<\/em> to educate<\/em> their \u201cunderprivileged\u201d students as part of the famous Tulong Dunong<\/em> (knowledge assistance) programme of the AHS. This training sets the frame in the minds of these young men for how they would regard the world \u2014 the people they encounter down from their hill \u2014 over the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

Many generations of Marikina public students benefited from the Tulong Dunong<\/em> programme. But, perhaps, some reflection is due for a reckoning around the cost<\/em> of this in the form of the effect this may have had on the attitudes of generations of AHS graduates. Indeed one could see parallels between the let-me-come-down-and-educate-you<\/em> mentality an Ateneo education may have inadvertently ingrained in its students and the this-is-all-you-need-to-know-at-this-time<\/em> approach to PR management the Ateneo exhibited for weeks following the Baler incident.<\/p>\n

A predisposition to tell rather than listen<\/em> is clearly at the core of what resulted in this massive PR failure and the big write-off in brand equity the Ateneo is accounting for today. Indeed, it is similar in pattern to the way the Philippine Opposition led by the Aquino-Cojuangco political camp habitually miscalculated public sentiment at massive scales and lost important consecutive national elections since the miserable fall of the administration of the late Philippine president Benigno Simeon \u201cBS\u201d Aquino III in 2017.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the Ateneo\u2019s administration, its faculty, and its student body were all closely-affiliated with that partisan camp \u2014 the Opposition post-2017 and the dominant incumbent camp in power pre that year. The Ateneo clearly contributed disproportionate thought leadership to this camp over the last several decades. Indeed, no less than the defacto \u201cpresidentiable\u201d of that camp today, Senator Risa Hontiveros, is, herself, an alumna of the ADMU.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the bizarre blindness to the pulse of Philippine society that consistently misled one campaign manager and\/or strategist of the Opposition after another over many years can be attributed to this \u201cthought leadership\u201d or, more disturbingly, to the \u201cAteneo Way\u201d it gained from its leaders by osmosis over that period where this decline was most acute.<\/p>\n

The Opposition led by the usual suspects, those Aquino kids, the alumni that it continues to tap for \u201cleadership\u201d, and prominent communist intellectuals may do itself a favour by taking the opportunity to closely observe with eyes wide open the plight of the Ateneo as it desperately attempts to reform itself today. Perhaps lessons on self reflection and what it takes to effect authentic engagement with the Filipino public \u2014 voters down their hill \u2014 may serve it well over the coming months in the lead up to that next \u201cimportant\u201d election.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"benign0\"<\/a> <\/div>\n
\n

benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

\n
\"benign0\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/div>\n