STRAIGHT FROM THE BIG CITY

Ike ‘Ka Iking’ Seneres
Advocacy for unity

MANILA -- No one doubts the power of the student sector when it comes to activism. As a matter of fact, there is really no need to empower the sector because we have seen its power many times before, notably during the First Quarter Storm. Nowadays however, the power of the student sector seems to have no meaningful direction.

A new initiative of the La Salle Institute for the Environment (LIFE) and the La Salle Institute for Governance (LSIG) holds the promise of waking up the power of the student sector this time not for political reasons, but for environmental reasons. Nowadays, everybody complains about the bad state of our environment, but not everybody does something about it. This new initiative of La Salle could change all that.

I am privileged to be part of this new experiment. I attended the first meeting as a representative of Sama Kabuhayan. In a recent development however, Sama Kabuhayan has joined Magkaakbay, a new alliance for national development. I will therefore be attending the succeeding meetings as a representative of Magkaakbay. I am also privileged to be invited as a TV anchor for “In Business”, a new TV program that will be shown on Flip TV, “In Business” is aimed at young adults, including of course the student sector as an audience. The show will feature contests among schools in the fields of investigative journalism and good governance.’

Participating schools will be asked to form teams of students who will be asked to make an investigative TV report about a social problem that they themselves will research on. Another team will be asked to assist a local government unit in preparing a program plan that would address a social problem. The TV report will be shown live in the show. The program plan will be presented in the show and will be judged by an expert panel.
***
I have long wanted to form an alliance of development oriented organizations for the purpose of being able to coordinate and to consolidate our efforts towards our common goals. In this connection, I would like to report to you some new developments regarding this goal.

A group former Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS) employees and officers is now forming for the purpose of reviving the human settlements development (HSD) approach, along with the integrated area development (IAD) approach and the minimum basic needs (MBN) approach. The name United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) seems to be more appropriate for this group, so we are giving them the option to use this name.

Having bequeathed the UNIDA name to the new MHS group, the emerging alliance of development oriented groups will now use MAGKAAKBAY as its new name, denoting its purpose of working shoulder to shoulder towards a common goal.

Organizations that will affiliate with MAGKAAKBAY will retain their own identities, because it is an alliance and not a coalition. As originally envisioned, the alliance will coordinate and consolidate its programs and projects so that the usual shotgun approach will be avoided.

Schools are welcome to join the alliance either as individual corporate members or through the University Consortium for Resource Networking (UNICORN). We have found new ways to strengthen UNICORN, with the entry of new school members.

The inclusion of inter-school investigative journalism and good governance contests in my TV show “In Business” is also expected to generate new memberships in both MAGKAAKBAY and UNICORN.

Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text me at +639293605140. Watch my TV show “KA IKING IVE” every Friday from 930 to 1030 PM in Destiny Cable Channel 3. Form your own Inter Charity Circle and build our Nation. Tune in to “KAPIT-BAYAN” in DWIZ 882 KHZ 5 to 6 PM Mon to Fri.