By HARVEY KEH
FOR the past months, the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government has been going around different colleges and universities all over the country to run its iChange Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship training caravan. This program is currently being done in cooperation with the Office of Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and the Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership. The training caravan provides skills development training to college student leaders and helps them develop project proposals that help address the social problems in their communities. One good example is a group that uses used paper to develop trinkets and other accessories that they sell so that they can use the funds that they have raised to help train out of school youth to be able to get back to school. Another good example is helping indigenous communities in Nueva Ecija to be able to upgrade their products such as soap made from natural resources so that they can sell them at a higher price which will help them earn more and improve their quality of life. Just last week, iChange visited the province of Ifugao and through the assistance of Rep. Teddy Baguilat, Jr., the training program was implemented at Ifugao State University, Lamut, Ifugao.
One of the important discoveries of this program is the fact that many of our young Filipinos have good ideas to help bring about positive change in our country if only they are given the proper opportunities and support. More importantly, many of them are also motivated to do their own share to contribute to nation building in our country. By providing them with seed funding and adult mentors to can help them further improve their projects, the end goal of the program is to see these innovative project proposals into actual working projects that will benefit more marginalized Filipinos in their communities.
Black propaganda
Just the other day, some of my friends forwarded to me a text message which is being circulated by the camp of former Chief Justice Renato Corona alleging that I was one of those who helped fund a recent video by Mae Paner aka Juana Change which shows the truth behind the impeachment proceedings. The video highlights how the defense panel is trying to twist the truth using all sorts of legalities just to be able to show the general public that Corona is innocent of all charges. First of all, given my not so high salary as a member of the academe and the non-profit sector, I do not have the financial capability to even fund a portion of the video production. Secondly, for those who know Mae, she is not someone that you can dictate upon and has always remained independent in terms of pushing for her advocacies and beliefs. If you will recall, it was Mae who also created a Juana Change video criticizing the President for buying a Porsche last year. Clearly, we see here that Mae is neither pro-President Noynoy Aquino nor is she pro-Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or pro any political personality for that matter. Mae is pro-people and pro-country that is why when she sees that something is terribly wrong about one particular issue, she makes her voice heard regardless of who will get hit by her videos. These are the reasons why it is very hard to believe that I was involved in the production and funding of the recent Juana Change video that portrays Corona as guilty of the charges that he is currently facing. I hope that these public relations spin doctors and online trolls of the Chief Justice and former President Arroyo would take some time to check and verify their facts before coming up and circulating unfounded text messages. Then again, I am no longer surprised about this given their group’s consistent propensity to lie and deceive the general public.
Best way out
The last Pulse Asia survey showed that President Noynoy Aquino (70 percent) and Vice-President Jejomar Binay (84 percent) continue to enjoy high trust ratings from the general public while Chief Justice Renato Corona continues to languish with a measly 14 percent trust rating. The Chief Justice’s trust rating is probably one of the lowest trust ratings ever for a Chief Justice in our history. Clearly, we can see here that majority of Filipinos can no longer trust Corona with being able to deliver impartial and fair decisions in the Supreme Court. Given that the survey was taken prior to the defense presentation of evidence, I don’t think much will change especially now that there are new allegations that Corona even owns some properties (not declared in his SALN) put under the name of his daughter in the United States of America (USA). Given these scenarios and knowing that the Senators will also strongly consider public opinion which is clearly against him, if I were Corona, I would rather resign than be convicted by the impeachment court.
Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.comand opinion@manilatimes.net.
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