Day 2 of this year’s National POVCON commenced with the continuation of lectures apropos of capitalizing Filipino culture in transforming communities into a globally-competitive countryside.
Dr. Antonio Lim of Saint Scholastica’s College of Tacloban introduced the first plenary speaker of the morning session. By reason of a considerable circumstance, Alfredo S. Sureta Jr, Consultant/Federalism Expert of Center for Federalism and Constitutional Reform, represented Usec. Jonathan Malaya of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Sureta, who had his lecture on “Local Governance Integrity and Political Culture”, pointed out that political reforms, i.e. federalism, could be substantial for addressing the roots of internal conflicts in the country which primarily includes poverty.
Hon. Leopoldo Dominico L. Petilla, Governor of Province of Leyte, then, delivered a stirring message, encouraging everyone to understand poverty well as there are many factors that can cause poverty such as educational incapacity, employment issues, and high population growth. Gov. Petilla also cited government initiatives in the province to mitigate poverty incidence.
The second lecture centered on “Capitalizing Filipino Culture into a Global Culture of Excellence and Competitiveness” which was presented by Dr. Eric Babar Zerrudo, Director of UST’s (University of Santo Tomas) Graduate School Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics. He was introduced by Sr. John Mary Fornillos of Holy Infant College.
“The earth is the root of mankind. Nature is the source of culture,” Dr. Zerrudo emphasized during his talk on peace-enabling, heritage-driven development. According to him, development is a long, tedious process which everyone, particularly educators, could begin sowing considering that there is a bigger context of why they should do it – poverty.
During the open forum portion which was facilitated by Dr. Ma. Victoria N. Naboya, Vice-President for Research and Extension in Leyte Normal University (LNU), participants addressed queries concerning on political system revision, heritage education in the modern times, and government initiatives on heritage preservation.
SamLeyaw Dance Troupe of Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) revived the audience’s nationalistic spirit in their cultural presentation of the local folk dances, and was followed by a musical performance, a Disney medley, of the Koro Waraynon from the same university.
Subsequently, paper presentations were done in the afternoon. There were six tracks in parallel sessions, namely: Education and Culture; Culture, Science, Research and Innovation; Cultural Characteristics of Developed Communities; Culture and Environmental Issues; Culture, Health, Business and Economics; and Gender Issues in Poverty, and Culture, Poverty and Development.
Social media was used as platform for spreading the awareness using the official hashtags: #POVCON2019 #CapitalizeTansformBethelight and #endpovertynow.