DAVAO ORIENTAL—The culmination of the Linggo Ng Kabataan, which was in celebration of the International Youth Day, highlighted excellence of the youth sector.
During the week-long activity, the youth have participated in various events including a clean-up drive, motorcade, and competitions such as on-the-spot poster-making contest and spoken poetry competition.
At the closing program on August 10 at the Capitol Covered Court, various individuals have been awarded for their exemplary leadership in the field of culture and arts.
CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT
Recognizing the youth’s role as future leaders, the Provincial Chief-of-Staff Ednar Dayanghirang, who represented Governor Nelson Dayanghirang, challenged the Sangguniang Kabataan members here to not only focus on organizing sports events and other entertainment activities but to also to participate and contribute to the development undertakings of the provincial government.
“A Filipino youth can be a world-class leader. A Filipino youth can lead the nation, not only the nation, even the world in many perspectives. It can be in dancing, singing, or in other ways like community organizing… So, it is important as early as now to lay down the foundation of leadership…You should have a good plan where to spend the Sangguniang Kabataan fund instead of just focusing on sports. You should have something for the future like support for education, scholarship, either formal education or skills education. In both cases if the Sangguniang Kabataan can help the education of the youth, that will be a very good legacy of the SK leaders,” he said.
Ednar Dayanghirang said that the goals of the Sanguniang Kabataan should be harmonized with the Development Framework of the Provincial Government to help achieve poverty reduction, environmental protection, and insurgency-free province.
“The harmonious relationship of the youth to the province is important because the provincial government alone cannot achieve development faster without the participation of the youth sector,” Dayanghirang said.
Local Youth Development Office (LYDO) focal person Fiel Milan Bulaong, said that the Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) will be crafting the Local Youth Development Plan which will be the basis of all programs and activities of the Sangguniang Kabataan. As mandated by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), SK funds shall be allocated for youth development and empowerment programs and projects that will promote and ensure equitable access to quality education, youth employment and livelihood, anti-drug abuse, gender sensitivity, sports development, and capacity building, among others.
“The LYDO registers and verifies youth and youth-serving organizations. We will be the secretariat of LYDC which who will craft the Local Youth Development Plan of the province which is a three-year plan for the youth in the province,” Bulaong said.
LYDC is composed of youth organizations registered and verified by LYDO. Headed by Local Youth Development Officer Jay Dayanghirang and at the same time Provincial Employment Services Office (PESO) Manager, 11 youth organizations have been officially verified by LYDO.
