MANILA, Philippines??I will be president of me!? was Ateneo high school student John Stephen Batalla?s winning declaration that won him the national championship of the Second Volvo Voice of Leadership competition.
With the theme ?If I were President I would?,? this year?s version of the VOL sought to get young people?s views on leadership and how to solve the country?s innumerable problems. Some finalists chose to address the issue directly, enumerating problems and offering solutions. Batalla chose to open his piece by confessing that he has always been ?self-centered,? but expanded his thesis that by centering on oneself and seeking to become the best ?president? of oneself, a young person could become better equipped to face life?s challenges and thus become a better citizen and, who knows, a better public official.
First runner-up was Billie Crystal Dumaliang of Miriam College, who compared the challenges of national leadership to solving a jigsaw puzzle, beginning with a vision that would give both direction and meaning, not unlike consulting the picture on the puzzle box to guide one attempting to get the pieces into a coherent whole.
Second runner-up was Allan Arthur Cabrera of Colegio San Agustin, who approached the topic much like a corporate planner would, logically laying out the predicates of the problem, then offering solutions for each.
Drawing high school students from 16 private and public schools in Metro Manila, the Voice of Leadership, organized by Viking Cars Inc. and Scandinavian Motors Corp., begins with a Voice of Leadership Camp, an intensive two-day workshop where they not only learn more about speech writing and elocution skills, but also get insights on leadership from resource speakers and group exercises.
* * *
AFTER THE camp, the participating schools select their official representative through intra-school competitions requiring candidates to write and deliver their speeches. At this point, each winner already receives a medal and a monetary award from Volvo. The school representatives then face off against each other in the national finals, which were held last Feb. 23 at the Carlos P. Romulo auditorium at RCBC Plaza.
A panel of judges, chaired by McCann Ericson chair emeritus Emily Abrera with CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peńaflorida as co-chair, selected the winners. The other members of the panel were former basketball player and now trainer Alex Compton, ANC?s David Celdran, and lawyer and TV host Zorayda Ruth Andam.
There was more than prestige or honor at stake. The winner got to bring home a plaque and P50,000, with a matching amount given to the school for leadership programs; the first runner-up received a plaque and P40,000; while the second runner-up received a plaque and P30,000.
For those of us in the audience, it was often difficult to believe that the finalists were only in high school, since their pieces were, for the most part, thoughtful and even insightful. And they were all remarkably poised, with none of them resorting to the rhetorical flourishes and dramatic touches that often characterized ?oratorical contests? in the past.
Then again, maybe that only reveals my age.
* * *
THE FOOD and Drug Administration recently banned seven crčmes meant to minimize freckles and two skin-whitening products that were found to contain mercury. Earlier, Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, who must be commended for the strong stance she has taken on several controversial issues, including condom distribution in the face of the HIV/AIDS threat, declared that the department would no longer give permits to sell thermometers with mercury and would soon include blood-pressure gauges containing mercury.
These moves were hailed by Health Care without Harm-Southeast Asia, which also called on the DOH to step up its own campaign to ban mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers.
?It seems that mercury is under siege here,? said Faye Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Program Officer for Mercury in Health Care. ?Let us not forget mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers. These devices need not be tested for their mercury content. It?s out in the open that they are mercury-containing.?
* * *
?PUTTING more money in poor people?s pockets? is not an election slogan but a component of the Accelerated Hunger-Mitigation Program (AHMP) of the Arroyo administration.
The cornerstone of this component is income-generation, including programs and projects related to improving productivity in coconut areas, microfinance, employment generation, scholarships and employment-oriented skills training. Land distribution in upland areas is also part of the component.
The National Nutrition Council, which oversees the AHMP, noted the following accomplishments of the Anti-Hunger Task Force in 2009:
A total of P62.4 billion was spent in loans to almost 3 million active clients in their various income-generating projects. Microfinance also generated 1.3 million jobs.
About 164,000 jobs were created in the agricultural sector through emergency employment and construction programs of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Under the Pangulong Gloria Scholarships of the Tesda, TUPAD Program of the DOLE and the ISLA Program of the DA, 605,000 individuals were given skills that would make them more productive and employable.
In anticipation of the negative effects of El Nińo and the rise in hunger incidence, the government is committed to improve economic access to more affordable basic food items especially among the poor. Providing more employment opportunities through the CLEEP (Comprehensive Livelihood Emergency Employment Program) and other microfinancing programs are among the possible interventions to help poor families survive the season.
