Category: forums and townhall meetings
News: Talakayan 2010 presents the state of Philippine Education
Sen. Chiz Escudero, Gov. Grace Padaca, Ms. CheChe Lazaro, Sen. Dick Gordon, Prof. Nicky Perlas
PhilSTAR.com: It was an afternoon of learning and sharing as people from different sectors gathered together and discussed the state of education in the country, the implications of these findings and the possible reforms that can be implemented to improve the situation and quality rather than its face value.
“There is a need to produce outcome, where results actually do matter,” said Chito Salazar, president of Philippine Business for Education (PBEd). He added since education is perceived to the nation’s future to achieve further growth and development, the country needs an education president.
“One who will put learning and learner at the center (of his platform agenda); appoint education managers who truly understand the education system and are committed to general reform; create a condition for educators to perform better, aspire higher and deliver continuous improvements; and finally the one who will not let even his own political considerations and aspirations prevent him/her from doing the right and necessary thing,” explained Salazar.
Education is just one of the series of topics for Talakayan 2010, a leadership forum hosted by the Movement for Good Governance. Described like a town hall type of meeting, the event focuses on one topic, with an expert speaker giving an overview of the issue and presidentiable aspriants serving as reactors to the keynote speech and the questions provided by the audience.
Issue oriented
According to Bill Luz, chairman of MGG, the forum seeks to improve the quality of candidates at all levels of the government. “I think that it is also good for the candidates to be able to respond directly to the questions and listen to the audience”.
“There hasn’t been an interaction, in-depth on a single topic. It does not happen often enough I think. And with ten months to go, I hope we are able to engage in this type of big discussion on a range of topics as we get closer to the elections,” said Luz.
Luz added, “It is also very heartening to know that most of you reserved without knowing who is actually going to attend the forum tonight. I think this is a very positive trend that we like to see in MGG because we need to be more issue oriented and I’m happy that just by advertising the issue of education and not who the speakers were we actually drew such a great audience”.
Information savvy
To make the forum more interactive, MGG invited bloggers and gave out Internet access to all guests, enabling them to blog and share the forum with netizens online via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
“All throughout the forum, a lot of comments have been coming in from the outside,” shared Luz. “We would also like to web stream this (forum) in the future so that people can watch it live not only on TV but even on the Web. Then we would also like to get the text component, so we could do a survey or gather questions to further expand Talakayan 2010.”
Moving beyond the forum, MGG hopes to spread the idea of grading candidates running for government posts not just in the national level but even in the grassroots. Luz noted, “Our goal is to replicate this (forum) so those who want to run it in your own organization or institutions can use the template that we prepared on how to run this meeting, including the things that should be incorporated.”
Believing that the nation deserve better education, environment, economy, justice, peace and order, foreign policy, agriculture and food, overseas workers and so on, these are the topics that MGG will be focusing on from August to November. Then after the deadline of filing for candidacy, the forum will shift in debate format, with more direct questions for the final list of candidates to further help the voting public in making the right choice.
Videos:
Townhall Meeting: Talakayan 20.10 on Education
This forum aims to provide a constructive exchange between the candidates and the audience about the candidates’ position on education reform and what they intend to do to upgrade the educational system of the country.
Entrance to the event is free and all concerned citizens are invited to attend.
The Talakayan 20.10 Team is extending a special invitation to Pinoy bloggers who would like to live blog during the event. Internet access will be provided.
For further information, please send an e-mail to wedeservebetter.ph@gmail.com or a text message to 0920-9061148.
Forum: Gusto Ko Magrehistro, Gusto Kong Bumoto
The Youth Vote (Yvote) Philippines, in its commitment of getting the youth involved in the 2010 National Election will having a forum entitled “Gusto kong MAGREHISTRO, Gusto kong BUMOTO!” on Thursday, April 30, 2009, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at AIM Conference Room, Makati City. This is part of Youth Vote’s summer registration campaign and will tackle the process of registration and issues related to it.
COMELEC Commissioner Rene Sarmiento will be present to deliver his message to the youth regarding the importance of registering for the national elections in 2010. The forum will also serve as a venue for the COMELEC and the youth to exchange concerns on registration irregularities.
Yvote Philippines will be launching Kabataang Rehistrado: 2010 headshots as part of making its registration campaign exciting yet meaningful for first time registrants. The project invites the registrants to send in actual photos of their registration. The ten best photos will then be posted at the Yvote website (www.youthvotephilippines.com) and blogsite. 10 minutes, 10 friends, 10 flyers for 2010, initiated by the Ayala Young Leaders, will also take flight on May 11, 2009 where youth volunteers will conduct distribution of “How to Register to Vote for 2010” in strategic locations such as MRT and LRT stations, shopping malls, bus stations, offices and schools. The campaign plan is to encourage 10 of your friends to dedicate 10 minutes of their time to distribute 10 flyers.
“Gusto kong MAGREHISTRO, Gusto kong BUMOTO!” forum is part of the We Deserve Better Forum series, spearheaded by the Movement for Good Governance (MGG), a group of ordinary citizens who profess their belief in transparency and accountability in governance.
Youth Vote Philippines believes in the force of the youth to make a giant leap and swing the votes in the coming 2010 elections. In order to vote, one has to REGISTER first. Youth, BE involved. Know the process and get registered. For inquiries and reservations, you may send an email to yvotephilippines@gmail.com or call 02.752.1065. The registration fee is Php 150 for young professionals and Php 50 for students.
Download the programme here.
Forum: Transparency in the 2010 Automated Elections
To help enlighten us on the various concerns raised about Automated Elections for the coming 2010 national and local elections, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), Movement for Good Governance (MGG), Computing Society of the Philippines, (CSP) and Computer Professionals Union (CPU) would like to invite you to participate in a Public Forum to be held at 9:30a.m. to 12 noon on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at the Lecture Hall, Department of Computer Science, UP Alumni Engineers Centennial Hall, Velasquez St. (in front of College of Science), UP Diliman, Quezon City.
Entitled “Transparency in the 2010 Automated Elections,” the forum will hear inputs and updates on the Comelec plan for the automated elections and how it hopes to address electoral issues like fraud. As a forum, we would like to devote more time to question-and-answer dialogue between the audience and the speakers.
IT specialists, poll watchers, and political analysts have also been invited to speak and/or react. A multi-sectoral audience representing the academe, people’s organizations, scientists, and other sectors are expected to join the forum.
We look forward to your invaluable presence and participation. For further inquiry or other details, please contact Forum Secretariat at Telefax number 9299526.
The Movement for Good Governance 