The Youth for Peace and Development Movement Philippines concurs with the statement of presumptive Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio that "our country needs a future generation of patriotic Filipinos that advocate peace and discipline in their respective communities."
She said this after accepting the offer of presumptive President Ferdinand Marcos to lead the Department of Education on March 12, 2022.
As an organization that collectively shares the same view, we strongly believe that whatever we teach our children and youth, and the action they see among adults, hugely reflect how our society will become once it is their time to lead.
We see peace and discipline as necessary tools that our youth must understand and acquire while they are inside their schools as these are fundamental to how they would manage and transform our country into a better, united, and conflict-free society in the future.
For the past 50+ years, we have seen and heard testimonies on how terrorist-linked organizations infiltrate our education system to instill hate and radical ideologies among our students to the point that some of them have become enemies of the state, killing innocent civilians and fellow Filipinos, and put up a huge barrier in our local and national development.
To solve this, our current educational system must create new or revive other relevant programs that will transform our youth into stewards of peace to keep them from the influence, radicalization, and recruitment schemes of terrorist-leaning organizations lurking on our schools' premises.
Our educational institution must also provide foundational instructions for our future leaders to identify solutions to our nation's root causes of conflict that are counteractive to radical organizations' violent and anti-development ways.
That is why since 2017, we have been an advocate of institutionalizing peace education as part of our schools' curriculum and reviving the Citizen Army Training (CAT) or the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), to help our students become disciplined, government supportive, and peace-loving members of their schools, communities, and their respective families.
With presumptive VP Sara Duterte's appointment as DepEd Secretary, we are looking forward to seeing these programs and other innovations that will benefit not only our students and youth but also our country in general.
Be assured that we are also with you pushing for the best for our youth. Mabuhay ka!
Photo from: Hugpong ng Pagbabago
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