HIV and AIDS Issue Cited in Conference Declaration

HIV and AIDS Issue Cited in Conference Declaration
By Leo Christian V. Lauzon

Tacloban City – The An Waray Partylist recently hosted the 4th Eastern Visayas Student Council Leadership Conference on December 9-12, 2009 at the Commission on Audit, Government Center, Palo, Leyte.

With the theme: Becoming A Person for Others: Moving Toward A Generation of Youth Servant Leaders, it was gathering of 150 student leaders representing the various academic institutions coming from the different provinces of Eastern Visayas namely Biliran, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte.

A pool of high-profiled keynote speakers was invited to speak during the conference. Natividad Noel Alejo, the Senior Vice-President for Consumer Banking Group of the Bank of the Philippine Islands discussed about the importance of Going Beyond Traditional Leadership: Toward a Continued Leadership that Works among the Filipino youth.

Jose Bayani Baylon, the Vice-President for Public Affairs and Communication of Coca Cola Philippines was the keynote speaker on Corporate Social Responsibility as a Foundation for Ethical Servant Leadership Today. In his speech, he talked about the importance of corporations like Coca Cola in giving back to the people as a moral obligation in promoting the general welfare of the people.

World renowned choreographer and dance critic Douglas Nierras sent the audience into a deep silence as tackled about Social Artistry as a Foundation of Today’s Culture Builders. Nierras Tackled about how artistry can uplift people to servant leadership into the higher level of sensitivity towards social interaction and how an individual can be more sensitive towards other people.

Other noted keynote speakers who were invited to speak in the event are Rep. Neil Benedict A. Montejo of the An Waray Partylist, Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento of the City of Calbayog, National Youth Commission Commissioner Benjie S. Oliva Representing Visayas, and Rep. Florencio Gabriel G. Noel of the An Waray Partylist.

The highlight of the four-day conference was the Conference Declaration drafted by a Draft Committee composed of nine youth individuals – six of which represented the six provinces of Eastern Visayas respectively, a representative from Tacloban City, the Conference Director and the Secretariat Chairperson.

The Conference Declaration is the culmination of the event. It declares the guiding principles that the student leaders have learned and the course of action that they would take – one of which is the call for the establishment of Local AIDS Council in all local government units of Eastern Visayas.

It stressed out the great need for the realization of this endeavor, citing the legal provisions and mandates in our laws and constitution, the rapid urbanization of Tacloban City as a Highly Urbanized City, and the influx of migrant workers from the rural areas to the cities seeking for job and work.

In Eastern Visayas, only two cities and three provinces have Local AIDS Council. They are the City of Ormoc in the Province of Leyte and the newly proclaimed City of Catbalogan in the Province of Western Samar. Samar Provincial AIDS Council and the Northern Samar Provincial AIDS Council are the only LACs in Eastern Visayas.Conference Declaration - Page 1.jpgConference Declaration - Page 2.jpgConference Declaration - Page 3.jpgConference Declaration - Page 4.jpg

The An Waray Partylist is a democratic multi-sectoral partylist organization that envisions a just, progressive and peaceful Filipino society characterized by its principles sense of community, peace, and progress through the adoption of community based and peace oriented development agenda.