To the organizers of this event, the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance with whom I owe leadership development, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to be one of your reactors.
All in all, the National Youth Commission has done its job well. Not too well or not that too good perhaps but the efforts of the agency for me and for the rest of the campus journalists in the Philippines, deserve more than an applause. They deserve appreciation and encouragement for them to really move on and soar to greater heights for the benefit of the common good of millions of Filipino youth nationwide.
Being the future media practitioners and opinion-makers of the country, I believe we should be in the list of your priorities. And I mean real priority.
Seventy to eighty percent of media practitioners came from student publications or at least had experience in writing while still in school. Therefore, the very foundation that they apply now is in-school experience. However, we see a little attention coming from the Commission. To my personal capacity, I don’t do all initiatives to lead in changing the quality of media we have now for the sake of my interest. I do these for the sake of more than 80 million Filipinos and millions more to come.
Presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto D. Tiglao for example keeps on saying the newspapers are reflections of community, mirror of public sentiments and image of the entire society. Correct me if I am wrong but I didn’t see MTYDP concerned in campus journalism. First part, page second of the report says we are being prioritized together with the student government. Yes, maybe but the plan didn’t give clear policies and directions for us.
The same part page fourth, third to the last paragraph says that “a large percentage of the youth population has not heard of NYC primarily because the Agency was unable to deliver services to the regional and provincial levels”. This is a fact, I believe but this is not a problem. For me the problem is the inability to deliver services but incapacity to strategically promote the Commission.
Take this from our group: We are willing to promote the Agency in national scale through student publications we have up north in Cagayan Valley down south in Tawi-Tawi. This commitment expires when the Agency stops caring for us. We can do anything we wanted without the Commission. But more than this premise, we wish to do everything with you. We need motivation from you.
As to National Youth Parliament, I see no point why are we still spending millions of pesos for it. I was once a participant of the Parliament and unfortunately majority of the recipients didn’t deliver. Recommendation: Localize the parliament.
We don't need an agency do to our works. We need people persons, not traditional politicians, to advocate our cause for the benefit of the common good of the Filipino Youth and the Filipino people.
« return.