RAIN OF FIRE

Empowerment f the youth
CESAR G. BONILLA

LAOAG CITY -- The youth today are partners in nation-building. We should remind ourselves the significance and value of the youth sector. In seeing through their development as citizens and eventual leaders of the nation, we should not be remiss in pouring the necessary resources and setting up the mechanisms for their intellectual, moral and cultural development.

After all, our common wealth is not merely an inheritance from our forbears; it is also the result of youth’s contribution to our patrimony. The creation of a sangguniang kabataan in each and every barangay reinstitutionalizes the youth’s positive and potential impact on national life. It does not merely provide them a basis for political representation within the community, but also brings them closer to political maturity.
This type of empowerment is sourced from the premise that the youth shall be allowed to govern their affairs. This allows them to heighten their awareness of their concerns and eventually parallel their narrow sectoral interests with the general concerns of the Philippine population. Other than providing them access to the formal system of education and training, the youth’s participation in national affairs should also be broadened. The youth’s action has also created both positive and negative ripples in the process of change and development.
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Tribal Filipinos should be given proper attention by the government. Grandstanding and egoistic adulation cannot liberate the country from poverty. Due to their minority number and living in scattered isolation, tribal Filipinos tend to be forgotten and neglected. What’s perhaps worse is the fact that, in some cases, heartless lowlanders take advantage of these peaceful, timid people driving them away from their long-cherished lands. We have to recognize their ownership rights over their territories and the government should provide for efficient programs in their pursuit of a well-dignified and honorable life though in the vanguard of isolationism.
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Our time is not very impressive especially in the field of public administration. The government can only give promises and pacifying words but not total eradication of the ills of society. Hot-headed and blood-thirsty Filipinos continue to wreak havoc on our peaceful environment by using firearms and other explosives just to show their superiority and stupidity to law-abiding citizens.

Cases of indiscriminate use of guns abound in the province. In the past, the military had neutralized lawbreakers and leaders of well-known gangs from using unlicensed firearms in their criminal activities.
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The rush of kidnapping cases in Mindanao must be the main concern of the Arroyo administration. Kidnapping is immoral. It brings with it immeasurable anguish to individuals, unnecessary deaths and bloodsheds, and a horrifying degradation of human dignity.

The victims are innocent people. Kidnapping makes the kidnapped and the kidnapper less and less human. The full force of law must be applied on criminals. The military and police forces must be purged completely of all personnel who have in one way or another contributed to the perpetration of such crimes.

Kidnapping is a grave violation of human life, human dignity and human freedom. There is a growing feeling of skepticism among the population that the problem will take a long time to solve because of poor coordination with proper authorities and the alleged involvement of some powerful men disguised themselves as pure civilians. Let us hope and pray for the best to come in our country for the proper resolution of all these cancers in society.
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I would like to congratulate the students of DATA Center College of the Philippines especially officers of the Supreme Student Council on their acquaintance party last July 25. The program was attended by the faculty of this well-known institution under the leadership of its president Joseph Sicco.

Brigida Arrubio, with her angelic face, rendered a song to entertain the crowd with her melodious voice. Truly, the students enjoyed the memorable event.