Commencement Address 2026
Jose R. Soberano III delivers this year's commencement address
Jose R. Soberano III
Cebu Landmasters Founder & Executive Chairman
This speech was delivered by Commencement Speaker Jose R. Soberano III during the 31st University Graduation Rites held at the Plenary Hall, PICC on August 15, 2026.
Thank you for your warm invitation. It is a joy and an honor to be with you this afternoon.
As a young Cebuano from humble beginnings, I came to Manila 54 years ago to pursue my college degree. I arrived with a simple suitcase, a few clothes, and the hope that a better education would lead to a better future for me and my family.
Never did I imagine that one day I would stand here as the commencement speaker at one of our country’s most respected universities. Life, indeed, has a wonderful way of bringing us full circle.
But this is not my first UA&P graduation here at the PICC. I have sat in this audience before—not as a guest, a professor, or a commencement speaker—but as a proud father.
In 2009, and again in 2013, I watched two of my daughters, Joanna and Jamie, graduate from this very University, both from the Integrated Marketing Communications program.
Today, I continue to see the fruits of that education. Both have built successful careers on their own and now serve as important pillars in my company, Cebu Landmasters. As a father, I will always be grateful to UA&P—not only for educating my daughters, but for helping shape the women and leaders they have become.
So before I congratulate the graduates, allow me first to recognize my fellow UA&P parents. Parents, congratulations. This milestone belongs to you as much as it belongs to your children. May we give all our parents a warm round of applause.
Over the years, my relationship with UA&P has grown far beyond that of a parent. Through the SBEP Program, supporting the University’s recent expansion in Cebu, and learning from UA&P’s founders and leaders who have become my mentors and friends, I have come to appreciate what makes this University truly distinctive.
While I am not a graduate of UA&P, I have long admired what this University has sought to do differently: not simply to educate minds, but to form people.
And I believe that mission has never been more relevant. You, graduates, are entering the workforce at a remarkable moment, when AI is significantly transforming how we work and challenging us to think more deeply about what only we, as human beings, can bring.
Many people will ask you what you plan to do next. But I would like to ask you a different question: Who will you become?
Because in a world where knowledge is everywhere, and technology continues to level the playing field, what will ultimately distinguish you is not only what you know—it is who you are. That, I believe, is the enduring advantage of a UA&P education.
Over the past four decades, I have had the opportunity to hire people, build organizations, and watch countless careers unfold. Through it all, one question has stayed with me: What truly sets some people apart?
And the answer lies in many of the same values UA&P has worked to instill in you.
So today I will leave you with three principles—values central to your formation here, which I hope you will continue to strengthen as you step into the real world.
So first :
1. Build Character before Credentials
As you leave this hall today, you will join thousands of graduates entering the workforce. All of you will have degrees. Many of you will have impressive grades, internships, certifications, and resumes.
Those things will help you get noticed. But over time, people will remember something far more important: Can you be trusted? Because every opportunity in life ultimately rests on trust.
When people trust you, relationships grow. Colleagues want to work with you. Mentors invest in you. Teams follow you. People entrust you with greater responsibility. Over time, the quality of your relationships becomes one of the clearest reflections of your character.
The same lesson guided me when I founded Cebu Landmasters. We started as a small company competing against much larger real estate developers. Yet customers entrusted us with their homes, employees chose to build their careers with us, and partners chose to grow alongside us.
I don’t believe that happened because we were the best or the biggest, but because we placed relationships at the heart of our business. We worked hard to earn people’s trust by listening,
showing up consistently, and delivering on our commitments. Over time, those relationships became the foundation upon which our company was built.
So my first advice is this: Don’t spend your early years only building your credentials. Continue building your character.
Because character earns trust, trust builds relationships, and those relationships will open more doors than credentials ever will.
My second is this:
2. Build Wisdom before Convenience
Technology will continue to change the way you work. But it will never replace your judgment.
The defining moments in our careers rarely come when everything is going well. They come during times of uncertainty—when there are no easy answers and every decision carries consequences.
At Cebu Landmasters, some of the decisions I am proudest of were made during our most difficult times.
During the pandemic, for example, the safer and more convenient choice would have been to stop construction, postpone new projects, and minimize our exposure to risk, as many businesses did. Instead, we chose to keep moving forward. It was not an easy decision, and there was no obvious right answer at the time.
But we reminded ourselves that many people were relying on us: employees who needed their jobs, homeowners waiting for the homes we had promised, contractors and suppliers with businesses to sustain, and workers who needed to keep earning to put food on the table for their families.
So we kept going. We continued building, launched more projects, delivered homes, and served our customers instead of waiting for the situation to become more certain. We did not know exactly how the pandemic would unfold, but we made the best judgment we could, guided by what we believed was right for the greater good.
Those decisions helped define who we were as a company. And because we kept moving, we emerged stronger, stayed ahead, and most importantly, fulfilled our commitments.
The defining moments of your career will be no different. They will come when the correct path is not the easiest one, when your values are tested, or when there seems to be no clear right or wrong answer at all.
One of the greatest gifts of your education is sound judgment—the ability to think critically, discern wisely, and act with integrity.
So continue to cultivate it. Embrace technology. Master it. But never surrender your thinking to it. Never let convenience replace discernment, or speed replace wisdom.
Because in the end, your career will be defined not by the answers you find, but by the decisions you make.
And finally:
3. Build Purpose beyond Success
As you begin your careers, many people will ask what you want to become. What profession will you pursue? Which company will you join?
But there is an even more important one: What are you here for?
The answer did not come immediately for me.
After 23 years with the Ayala Group, I left a stable and promising corporate career to run for Congress, believing that was where I was meant to serve.
I lost that election, but I didn’t want to give up, convinced that public service is my calling. As I prepared for another campaign, I began to see a different opportunity to serve closer to home.
Near my hometown in the countryside of Cebu, I saw that many hardworking families did not have access to affordable, quality housing.
That inspired my first housing project, which I called St. Josemaria Village—named after my patron saint and the inspiration behind your University, St. Josemaría Escrivá.
That first project changed the course of my life, and eventually led to the founding of Cebu Landmasters in 2003.
I realized I had not abandoned public service. I had simply found a different way of living it. By helping Filipino families own their homes, building communities, and improving people’s lives, I found my purpose.
And perhaps the important lesson I can leave you with is this: I did not discover my purpose after graduation. I discovered it at 47. So don’t be anxious if you don’t have your whole life figured out today.
Be patient in discovering your purpose, but intentional in pursuing it. Keep asking yourself: What gifts have I been given? Whom am I called to serve?
Success may bring recognition, promotions, or financial rewards. But purpose gives meaning to them all. When your work is guided by purpose, success becomes more than personal achievement—it becomes a source of hope, service, and light for others.
As I stand before you today, I also find myself at a meaningful milestone in my own journey. Just last month, after more than two decades of building Cebu Landmasters, I stepped down as President and CEO. I transitioned to the role of Executive Chairman, passing leadership to the next generation—my children and the leaders who will carry the company forward long after my time.
That transition has reminded me of what truly matters.
While I am grateful for the homes and communities we have built, I am even more grateful for the home I return to every day - my wife, my four children, my eight grandchildren, my family and friends, and the many people who have walked with me throughout this journey.
And perhaps this is what Unitas has come to mean to me—recognizing that the work we do, the people we love, the values we uphold, and the God we serve are not separate parts of our lives. They are all part of one life.
And one day, when our own journey is complete, we will all be called home. What will matter then is not simply what we achieved, but how we used the one precious life God entrusted to us.
Graduates, today you leave this University, but your formation does not end here.
Wherever life takes you and whatever career you pursue, build your character. Cultivate wisdom. Live with purpose.
May you use your talents not only to build successful careers, but to build lives of meaning.
And when the world asks not only what you have achieved, but who you have become, may your life be the answer.
Congratulations, Class of 2026. Thank you and may God bless you all. Mabuhay kayong lahat!