By Engr. Herman Lagon

THOUGH he was the youngest of all contestants, Ateneo de Iloilo’s Neil Andrew Llorente seized the gold medal in the 2004 World Environmental Day Essay Writing Competition Finals held Monday, December 6, in Makati City.

Llorente, a junior student of the only Jesuit school in Western Visayas (Santa Maria Catholic School-Ateneo de Iloilo), received P10,000 as prize money aside from copping the bragging rights of being “the best environmental essayist of his age in the country.” He bested 358 other contestants in the three months long contest sponsored by Hydro Electric Development Corporation (Hedcor), Aboitiz One, Inc. (Aboex), Aboitiz Transport System Corporation (SuperFerry), and the United Nations Information Center for the Philippines (UNIC).

Asked on his secret of winning, Llorente retorted in an Atenean tone, “Joining a contest is not all about seizing the crown. It is a matter of doing more, and of living life to the fullest, with competence and character, all in the name of change and for His greater glory. I may lose in any contest and in many ways, but having this (Magi’s philosophy of doing more) in mind, in heart, and in deeds is already more than getting the gold. It’s winning God Himself!”

“I am trained to write to express truly what I feel. Winning is just a consequence, a good one though. But on top of it all, what is more important is the writer’s motivation. On my part, I hope that the message of my essay on the issue of cleaner source of energy to sustain growth will be clearly put across people,” Llorente, news editor of the school’s official publication Ripples, added.

Llorente’s two-hour, 1,200-word article is entitled “In Clean Air We Trust.”  In his masterpiece, he said, “if you still want to see our future generation to breathe fresh air and swim on clean waters, we need to start investing on cleaner energy such as hydrothermal, tidal, solar, geothermal and wind… there’s no point in sticking with non-renewable fossil fuels.”

Judges from Hedcor, Aboitiz One, Inc. (Aboex), SuperFerry, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer agree. From the five national finalists, they rated Llorente first overall, Angerica Armenta of Cavite placed second while Mary Gold Pinera of Cagayan Valley settled in third spot. Althea Fabrero of Davao City and Brisnere Edullantes of Tuguerarao got the consolation award.  Except for Llorente, all the other contestants are fourth year students of their respective schools.

AdI Director Fr. Manny Uy, Jr. of the Society of Jesus, for his part, said, “using the power of language to heighten awareness that leads to reflection and action is an essential dimension of Atenean education.”

“The achievement of Neil is doubly significant because the theme is on environment and energy. The disastrous flooding in Luzon because of deforestation should compel us to act fast in the protection and care of our Mother Earth.”

Llorente, a candidate for loyalty awardee of SMCS-AdI having been enrolled in the school since kinder, received his prize in an awarding ceremony Monday afternoon, in time of the celebration of the Philippine Energy Week, at a special reception at the Horizon Café of SuperFerry 17, Eva Macapagal SuperTerminal, Pier 6, Port Area, Manila.

After the win, Llorente, also champion of this year’s Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) General Information contest, is now set to represent Iloilo City in editorial writing for the Regional Schools Press Conference slated in Bacolod City on December 16-18, 2004. He will be joined by 19 more regional qualifiers from SMCS-AdI who recently bagged the overall championship for the third consecutive time in the Department of Education Division of Iloilo City Schools Press Conference./Ripples