Featured LPU Davao Employee of the Month: Dr. Marlyn D. Biton

“You need to BE KIND, to BE GENEROUS to people of what you have learned. YOU WILL ONLY HAVE YOUR LEGACY IF YOU SHARED YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO OTHERS” 

This is how Dr. Marlyn D. Biton view a person’s legacy and success in life.

Dr. Marlyn was born and raised in a big ancestral house together with her parents in North Cotabato, together with her two brothers and a sister, her cousins, aunties, and uncles. 

“I did not grow up in a rich family. I grew up in a very big family and I have a happy childhood. Even though we are many in the family, we are still very happy. I was used to socialize with other people and I was used to understand other people’s behaviors. And that made me maybe understand the behaviors of others while I work,” she said as she told us a brief story of her life.

She went to a public school at M’lang Cotabato and graduated as Salutatorian. She graduated as First Honorable Mention in high school when she transferred to Notre Dame of M’lang Cotabato. Though they don’t have that enough money, Dr. Marlyn’s parents managed to send her to Ateneo de Davao University when she went to college. She was a consistent Dean’s Lister but failed to make it to Cum Laude because of one reason: “I had some arguments with one of my teachers, a priest, because he did not teach us well and he did not give us the grades we deserved. So, there were many of us who were very angry and disappointed at him that time. But of course, we cannot do anything. I just like everything to be organized. I was very competitive then and up until this time that I work.”

When asked about her biggest challenges in life, she said “Of course, when you are achieving your goals there are really challenges. At times, you’re happy because your friends are happy seeing you achieve something. But at times, there are still people who are not really that happy for you because of maybe what you have right now. You cannot deny the fact that there are difficult people in our lives. All people have encountered difficult people in their lives but it’s up to us to really move forward even if others have crab mentality. We really have to do our best in order that we will be able to prove to them that we can really make it.”

Dr. Marlyn rose from the ranks. She started in DepEd at M’lang National Highschool North Cotabato and taught there for 23 years. First, she was a high school teacher. From Teacher 1, she became a Head Teacher. While she was finishing her Master’s degree in teaching Biology, she was already designated as a Head Teacher of the Science Department as she was a Science Teacher. Dr. Marlyn had obtained two Master’s degree — Master of Arts in Education major in Educational Management and Master’s degree in Teaching Biology. But she wasn’t able to complete the latter because of the great opportunity that came in that time. While she was taking up her Master’s degree in teaching Biology, she was able to take up a Civil Service Exam for Government Employees to be a scholar of Civil Service.

She used a Civil Service Scholar when she took up her Master of Arts in Education major in Educational Management and got a minor in Public Affairs Management. She was a scholar then of Civil Service. She was also given an advice by the Civil Service Director that she didn’t need to complete her other Master’s degree in teaching Biology because that’s already her major and that even though she’s in the Administrative, she will be vertically aligned if she finished her Master of Arts in Education major in Educational Management. After that, Dr. Marlyn did not want to take a break and she then took up her Doctor of Education Major in Educational Management. She had minor in Extension Education in Rural Development.

Dr. Marlyn’s realization in life is that, “In order to be successful in life, you need to be kind, to be generous to people of what you have learned because everything that you have learned should be shared so that it will be spread to others. You do not keep what you have learned because if you keep that you will not let you have any legacy. YOU WILL ONLY HAVE YOUR LEGACY IF YOU SHARED YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO OTHERS. That is why I am really sharing everything to my faculty and to everyone in LPU Community.”

“Before I really retire from work and focus only on my family, especially on my grandchildren, I like to share everything and teach everything that I’ve learned in life and from the academe.”