Graduation is the day all of us have been waiting for after months or years of sacrifices and efforts for our studies. It’s a rewarding feeling na makita natin pangalan nating nakaflash sa screen and finally hold the diploma that we've been dreaming to have for a long time, kaya majority of us, when we learned about the official announcement of the graduation date, walang hesitations book agad ng ticket kasi we trusted the fact that it is an official announcement. For those na gumastos ng malaki for their flight tickets and have to repeatedly ask your bosses to move your VL (Vacation Leave) I know how you feel, I’ve been there too, at alam ko kung gaano kahirap magfile ng VL kasi I was once handling leave requests and approval of more than 500 employees, daming tanong ni boss kasi daming mga bagay na need i-consider sa work, like HC required for that day, sino na naka vacation leave, sino naka long sick leave, maternity leave and so on, di biro kasi we’re not the bosses of our own companies, kahit nga mga boss hirap magleave eh, you’re lucky kung may kaworkmate kang payag makipagpalitan ng VL date sayo, yung iba kailangan ng temporary replacement kasi di pwedeng mawalan ng tao sa post nya, yung iba maaapektuhan yung promotion or regularization kung yung boss nila is not happy about this VL issues, it’s not easy, plus yung stress na magpaparesched ka na naman ng flight at di ka sure kung may available pa at kung magkano aabutin, then there are other things to consider like yung schedule ng school ng mga anak natin, etc kasi hindi tayo regular student na nakabase lang sa Dasmarinas or nearby cities and so less yung hassle kung may changes man sa date kasi we can easily adjust to it.

We don't need a glamorous venue for the graduation. In my opinion paying 8,450 pesos for graduation is too much. Attending the graduation in the premises of the school is way more memorable than in a huge venue like PICC kasi kagaya namin na under the ETEEAP program we've barely seen the school where we're enrolled, so graduation day is the best moment to do a tour of the school and take memorable photos, while we're on our togas, plus it will cost us the students less since we are the ones paying for the graduation fee.

To sum it up, I think it’s normal for us to vent out since we sacrificed a lot of things and paid a huge amount to be in this program. We deserve to be heard since we paid for our tuition and graduation fee religiously.

To all PCU graduating students, under the ETEEAP program or not, local man or OFW, if we share the same aim to graduate on July 31, 2023 (the previous official graduation date disseminated to us) then let’s help one another to achieve this goal by voting as one.

To the PCU management/deciding body, Sir/Ma'am, you have our outmost respect as you help us achieve our academic goals. We thank you for that. Nevertheless, we hope you understand that we have other priorities and schedules to follow and we already made many adjustments, family wise and professionally, just to free our time for this date. Thank you for taking your time to hear our thoughts and we hope that you're kind enough to consider our petition to keep the July 31 graduation date.