by Harvey S. Keh
from The Manila Bulletin
In 2006, Bam Aquino and I were chosen to represent the country at the Asia Society’s inaugural Asia 21 Young Leaders Forum held in Hong Kong. The said forum brought together 20 of Asia’s most dynamic young leaders from different fields aged between 25 to 40 years old.
For those who have not heard about the Asia Society, it is an international organization based in New York that is dedicated to strengthening relationships and deepening understanding among the peoples and leaders of Asia and the United States. Just recently, newly-appointed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a lecture at the Asia Society on the Obama administration’s plans for its relationship with the Asian region.
The Asia Society also has an office here in the Philippines and among its board members are well-recognized business leaders and philanthropists such as Washington Sycip, Doris Magsaysay-Ho and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.
As soon as Bam and I got back from the forum, we decided to work with the Asia Society office here to help set-up the Philippines 21 Young Leaders Program wherein we would annually select 10 of the most accomplished young leaders from our country to represent us in the annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit.
Unlike the Asia 21 Forum, the summit gathers not only 20 but more than 200 young leaders across different countries in Asia and the United States. For the past three years, the Philippines 21 Program continues to send one of the biggest delegations to the summit, behind only the USA and India.
Among last year’s delegates are noted social entrepreneur, Mark Ruiz who helped establish Hapinoy, a social enterprise that helps sari-sari store owners earn more by making their procurement system more efficient; Quintin Pastrana who is currently involved in promoting the use of alternative energy sources in the country; and Sheila Algabre of Notre Dame of Marbel University, who is actively providing technical and alternative learning programs to out of school youth in Mindanao.
From among the attendees of the summit, the Asia Society then selects 20-25 young leaders who will be known as Asia 21 fellows thus, they will have the opportunity to represent their country to the Asia 21 Young Leaders Forum.
GOOD LEADERS AMONG US
Aside from Bam and I, there have been other Filipinos that have already made it to this elite group of Asia 21 fellows.
One of them is Major Dennis Eclarin, a well-respected and admirable military leader in our country who graduated from the prestigious United State Military Academy at Westpoint. What is remarkable with Eclarin is the fact that aside from continuing to be an effective and ethical military leader, he has also helped in poverty alleviation in our country by establishing Hometown Corporation, a microfinance company that helps women in far flung areas all over our country by providing them with very friendly loans which help them set-up small businesses.
Another Asia 21 fellow is Patricia Gallardo, who is now spearheading the Shangri-la hotel group’s corporate social responsibility program. Even as a student, Gallardo’s leadership skills have been well-recognized as evidenced by her being chosen as one of Ateneo de Manila University’s representatives to the Ayala Young Leaders Congress (AYLC). Now, Gallardo is developing programs that will help towards ensuring that the Shangri-la group will implement sound environmental systems and policies in its chain of hotels.
Last but not the least, the latest Asia 21 fellow from the Philippines is Bato Balani Foundation’s Ching Jorge. Jorge’s Bato Balani Foundation is currently helping address our declining public education system by providing training programs to public school teachers nationwide. Aside from this, Jorge is the chairperson of the Young Public Servants (YPS), an organization that is currently spearheading a voters’ registration drive for the upcoming 2010 National Elections.
The selection of these young Filipino leaders to the by-invitation only Asia 21 forum only shows that we do not have to look outside our country to find good leaders that our youth can emulate and look up to. This is an affirmation that despite the failure of many of our current government leaders to help uplift the lives of Filipinos, there is still a bright future that we can look forward to with the likes of Aquino, Eclarin, Gallardo, Jorge and the rest of the Philippines 21 young leaders.
This year, the Asia 21 Young Leaders Forum will be held in Manila. If you would like to support the Philippines 21 Young Leaders Program as well as the Asia Society here in the Philippines, you can contact us at 02-7524374. Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.com.
(Harvey S. Keh is director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government.)
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