Congratulations to Asia Society’s Philippines21 Batch ’09!

Bam and I gave a talk on Innovation and Social Business Entrepreneurship to AsiaSociety’s Philippines21 Batch 2009 last Thursday; It was an extremely interesting mix of people, a veritable cross-section of young leaders from business, social development, culture, and governance.

We then attended the gala dinner that night to welcome the new batch and converse with other Philippines21 alumni. The palpable energy amongst the group made me very hopeful that our generation of young leaders can really make a difference for future generations to come.

Below is the official press release :

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Asia Society honors new batch of Young Filipino Leaders
by Harvey Keh

The Asia Society, a highly recognized international organization based in New York that aims to promote international understanding and relations among the Asia-Pacific region has released its new batch of honorees for its Philippines 21 Young Leaders Program. It was at the Asia Society where current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first delivered the Obama administration’s policy statements on the Asian region. It was also at the Asia Society where former Senator Ninoy Aquino delivered his speech wherein he uttered the famous line, “The Filipino is worth dying for”. Every year the Asia Society gathers the top 200 young leaders of the Asia-Pacific region for its Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit which was previously held in Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Past Filipino delegates include current Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Ariel Hernandez, Shangri-la group CSR Head Patricia Gallardo, education advocate Ching Jorge, former National Youth Commission Chairperson Bam Aquino, DNA Forensics Scientist Dr. Ma. Corazon De Ungria, human rights lawyer Atty. Damcelle Torres-Cortez, social entrepreneur Mark Ruiz and former Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla.

As part of its selection for this year’s delegates to the summit, the Asia Society office in the Philippines screened more than 150 nominations of young Filipino leaders aged between 25-40 years old. These young leaders come from different sectors such as the academe, business, government, non-profit, religious, military and culture and the arts. According to Atty. Arnel Casanova, Executive Director of Asia Society-Philippines, their main criteria for screening and selecting the top 10 Filipino young leaders are their leadership experience, achievements in their chosen field and service to the country.

This year’s batch of Filipino honorees include Cecile Dominguez, Steve Arquiza, Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Jose Romeo de la Cruz, Jaime Gonzalez, Ryan Guinaran, Dennis Gupa, Rommel Juan, Darwin Mariano ane Efren Penaflorida. Dominguez and Arquiza both hail from Mindanao and represent the non-profit sector with Dominguez being honored for her work towards promoting quality basic education reform in the province of Saranggani and Arquiza being honored for his work towards encouraging civic participation among the youth in Davao City. Penaflorida of Cavite, is best known for starting the Dynamic Teen Company which helps provide quality education to out of school youth. Recently, he was chosen as one of the nominees for CNN’s Heroes for 2009.  Juan and Gonzales were both chosen for being at the forefront of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in our country. Juan is the founder of Binalot Fiesta Foods which promotes environmental awareness by serving its food in native banana leaves. Gonzales is known for being a maverick in developing start-up internet companies in the country which has since been acquired by larger US-based firms.

Showing that not all is bad in our government, Batapa-Sigue and de la Cruz are both incumbent councilors from Bacolod City and Santiago City, respectively. Batapa-Sigue was chosen because of her programs which continue to champion women’s rights while de la Cruz is at the forefront of promoting free legal assistance to indigents in Santiago City. Aside from them, Mariano has also had experience in working with politics and governance being the founder of the late Senator Raul Roco’s Aksyon Kabataan group.  Mariano has become the Public Affairs Director of Cemex-Philippines which implements environmental conservation programs all over the country.

Finally, Guinaran and Gupa both represent culture and the arts sector with Guinaran working towards the preservation and promotion of Ibaloi culture and Gupa using the theatre as a means to promote national moral regeneration in our country. All the fellows will represent the country at the Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit which will be held this coming November at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For more information regarding the Asia Society’s Philippines 21 Young Leaders Program, you can contact Patricia Vega at 0920-9083952 or send an email to patriciav@asiasoc.org.ph .

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under In the News, Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.