I should be thanking Ma’am Borican, my DevJourn professor, who required us to come up with a writing about MDGs on my last semester in PUP MassCom. When I surfed the net, particularly the MDG web, I came across the link of the Voice of the Youth Network. I got the contacts, and since it was a co-globe subscriber (Wow! Unli, itextmate ko kaya? Haha!), I right away sent a text of inquiry.

I can’t remember the exact details, but after some few text messages and a number of conversations over the YM for consecutive weeks, I finally decided to see the VOTY people. I felt the strong urge to see them, though I was totally oblivious of the reason then.

Being a volunteer was so new in my system. Of course, I already joined a number of outreach programs, but in all honesty, I never felt that I am a part of them.

The first time I met VOTY, I was so still and silent, kulang na lang sabihin ko, ‘Teka, time out, ‘di na ko maka-relate. May I go out?’ I was so bombarded with continuous flow of information then, and my brain cannot process all of those at that moment. But when I came to know them, particularly those who joined the Cavite escapade, I began to ask myself of what could be the driving forces of these young people to engage on such kind of activities. Most of them are younger than I, but they managed to be active and productive members of several groups and organizations. Most of them has their own careers to manage, but they never made VOTY the last item on their list.

What really amazed me during the Villa Dominga team building was the talent flourished by the members. They need not to be perfect on their abilities, because the confidence they possess is more than enough to make them shine and flicker. And if you’ll ask if I felt that I was really a part of that event, yes, I did. Finally. Definitely. For me to go rural, in a place I never reached before, and spend two days and a night with people whom I never really knew? Now, that should be something, I told myself.

Before I knew it, I was like telling my friends the following days, about how wonderful I felt with the VOTY people. I told them that I met younger people than us, and that these younger people are contributing big time to the society by involving themselves on these civic actions. I narrated how I felt when I realized that it seemed that we wasted all our four years in college by simply doing nothing for the society. ‘Tas tayo, antatanda na natin, pa-graduate na tayo, parang wala pa din tayong kwenta.’ I was not really blaming my friends when they began to giggle and asked what seems so wrong with me. Malamang, hindi nga ako yun. I remembered hearing them blew, ‘Tol, nangyare sayu?’ But still, I never really got tired of telling them to ask themselves of what could be their purpose, not only for themselves and their own families, but also for the society, or else they’ll regret one day, and ask why they ended up choosing being mere ‘audience’ of life, and not being ‘players’ of it.

Now, how far does VOTY is taking me? Being a part of VOTY is as if having a unique trophy of ’self respect’. Being respectful to your fellow is totally different from giving respect to yourself. Actually, the latter is more fulfilling. When I joined VOTY, I experienced a point wherein I finalized that I have a lot of abilities and capabilities, some seemed obvious, others are still to be discovered and used in the future. I came to know that once we give a chance to ourselves to use and develop our talents and abilities for the common good of the society, we are actually giving enough respect to ourselves too. We’re giving enough justice to the deepest essence of self worth. It’s as if burning your energy for a cause by being the moving object on Newton’s law of inertia. ‘Siguro mukha na s’yang matanda. Matagal na siguro tong mga pictures n’ya. Di lang siguro naaupdate ang website nya.’ That was what I thought of Kuya Choy. The first time we met, I contained myself, avoiding to blab how surprised I was to see a young and vibrant Pocholo Gonzales. I read his name and his numerous achievements over the net, and I assumed that he might be a bald man in his 40s (Hehe, peace tayo, Kuya!). Again, I was so wrong because Kuya Choy is still a young man, well driven and action oriented. And maybe, many years from now, I would still see him and the rest of the VOTY people as a ‘young’ individuals because of their decisions, actions and contributions imparted and will impart to the Filipino youth.

VOTY is not composed of ‘perfect’ people with ‘perfect’ personalities. I remembered how Kuya Ian differentiated perfect from EXCELLENT. These two words are as if another two battling words: idealistic and realistic. Excellent is better. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being idealistic, but possessing this character alone is not enough to climb the tree to success. You need not to arrive on your desired and expected outcomes. All you have to be is to be realistic enough to learn that you are not hundred percent in control of what is happening around you. A realistic and excellent person is an individual who is not afraid of failures and can always project a very positive attitude in the midst of seemingly-hopeless situations.

When I think of VOTY, all I can think of is a picture of an excellent and strongly made, but still unfinished wall. Strong, since each building block composing it, stands for every VOTY member possessing an excellent degree of social responsibility and excellently displaying such character. But still unfinished though, since there are still better things to come – more activities, more members, more developments, all in accord with excellence.

I can’t be so sure of what the future holds. But I have this stiff assurance that VOTY will continue to be, not just an organization or network, but a virtue to be learned and accepted by every Filipino who wants to move forward to victory.

For the nth time, I’ll claim it, VOTY is an eye opener. When I became a part of this organization, I was in full regret at first. I was like blaming myself for the past years I had let passed by without taking few steps towards betterment. But now, I realized that brooding over the past will not do any help. Instead, little by little I am trying to recuperate from the past rotten and stagnant years of my life. I want to be at blast, of help, of excellence. Why am I speaking this way? Because I am a more fulfilled person me now. Changes will not come into your senses at once, but I have my drive to do so, again, the VOTY. And as I continue my journey, I know this organization is still with me.

Though I already spoke of my countless insights about VOTY, those are still insufficient. I can’t put into exact words and phrases this sacred and noble feeling I have towards VOTY. I can’t give you the concrete details about it. But, I can make you feel what I feel now. Prove it yourself. Be one of us.

Last April 22, 2006, Voice of the Youth (VOTY) Network in partnership with Youth Power Against Drugs (YPAD), Diocese of Novaliches and Kristong Hari Youth Ministry, gathered together for a rehabilitation visitation done in “TAHANAN” located in the heart of Quezon City. This event is in line with the celebration of the Global Youth Service Day 2006. The said rehab visit was called "KABATAAN: LIWANAG SA DILIM".

There were activities done for the volunteers and the residents as well. The program was lead by Mr. Lionel Gonzaga with Mr. Rustom Mariano. One of the highlights of the event was the part when the volunteers were given the chance to interact with the residents of the rehab center. The said event aims the youth to enlighten themselves what drugs can do to people and also to strengthen the campaign against illegal substances. In addition to that, it also give the residents the chance to be surrounded with people that don’t judge them as what they did outside the center. It gives them the hope that once they go outside, there will be a community that will welcome them with open arms..

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has fallen down on Earth
by: Purple S. Romero

Slithering translucence.

With water caressing the grayness of the deadened road, footsteps are lost in a staccato pulse; minds wander into chimera, and tales unfold under the searing heat of Payatas, Quezon City.

The footsteps stop; a world is sensitized by fading differences, and will is emptied unto the arteries of valiance. Suddenly, the flowing water descends into but the hungry basin of dirt; and it is the stories of souls inside the rehabilitation center of Payatas that surge in a river of transcendence, whispering the sinuous lullaby of human hope.

Luto-lutuan, Voltes V
April 22, 2006 manifested the wandering of young benevolence into societal pains that have often been veiled in prejudice. In the menagerie of scars and nightmares, fear is both an enemy and a comrade. For the program of Voice of the Youth Network (VOTY), with the trivet of Youth Power Against Drugs (YPAD), the volunteers from Kristong Hari Parish and from the diocese of VOTY officer Pia Montalban, it is as mundane as a tearstain in the world’s skin, for people to see fear, upon knowing that these groups have entered the kaleidoscope of Filipinos and drugs.

Within the disciplined tempo of voices resonating in the gray, steel wires of a room where the residents (a sobriquet for the people inside the Payatas rehabilitation center) concoct their own mantra of obedience, a chasm of pulsating imaginations unravels. The “Dad” or one of the coordinators of the rehabilitation center shouts in an unassailable sound, and the residents answer, with numbers hanging on their tongues and identities. “One hundred eighty-one!” “One hundred eighty-two!” “One hundred…” The pattern resounds, and the volunteers listen, their minds suffused in discovery. With these, it is easy to paint the humid wind with unbending beliefs, but as the sun rose and disappeared in the serenity of heavens, lives gambol in the varied, boundless wonders of change and rekindled courage.

Kuya Ion and Ate Pia from VOTY spearheaded the first part of the program, where the residents were encouraged to take part in games. The ecstatic noise generated from such would then rivulet in a harmonious grandiosity, as songs were played, one of them the theme song of the Millenium Development Goals, to illumine the faith of both the residents and the volunteers, in humanity.

Lost in the ashes of suburban madness, where streets are numbed with smoke and anger, the residents of the Payatas rehabilitation center are easily mantled on frescoes of drunken, jagged choices, where blood and lust become jazzed deaths. But if only eyes and hearts could see the residents above those ashes, a precious portrait of sense could be fathomed.

The laughter, the words, the music, of the residents showed the embers of genuine glee, one found in the smiles and dreams of the young. It is as if they were not people dragged in the darkness of broken valor; it is as if the sea of old and juvenile faces at Payatas defines the spirit of childlike joy. Watching them, listening to them, would take one to those moments when a simple bahay-bahayan or a game with toy robots and wooden swords mean fulfillment and ambivalence.

Tres los hahahas and promises
She has a karaoke bar. She would go back to its melodies, and to the father of her children. The 18-year-old boy beside her would take care of his child, and would find a decent job for his wife. Seated together with small groups of the volunteers, they and the other residents share their past and bare their visions to their young visitors, as if they were old friends chasing the same destinies and prayers.

The remaining rays of the afternoon would witness the gems of artistry in the rehabilitation, as the residents dance to modern beats with pizzazz, and as Tres Los Baños, a group of stand-up comedians inside the center, bask on the hilarity of Pinoy taboos and music to everyone’s amusement.

Behind the mirthful sound, however, is the emanating realization that these residents have gifts that should be coalesced with the rhythm of tomorrow. They are people who have fallen to the void of a convoluted reality, but are doing their best to trace the path of a magnanimous life.

When the volunteers where given the last few moments to voice their reflections, Kuya Carlo, a volunteer who grew up at Australia, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the residents of the Payatas rehabilitation center. Everyone echoed this zeal…for after all, it is really the residents, and their lives, which emulated the soul of inspiration, and purpose of self, in this perpetually-drifting world.

Horizons
As cited by Mayen Jaymalin of the Philippine Star in her 2004 article “Lack of Jobs Forcing Youth to turn to Drugs – ILO official,” Emma Porio, the head of the researchers who conducted an International Labor Organization (ILO) study on the rate of youth unemployment, stated that 10 to 20 percent of the young people in the depressed areas in Pasay, Manila and Quezon City were part of the drug trade.

Wernes Blenk, the ILO representative then, also stressed that it is the lack of jobs that served as the primary reason why the youth resort to the use of illegal substances.

Two years later, the reasons for drug abuse would still lie on the decadent bridge of dearth and a montage of other social inequities. In the Payatas Rehabilitation Center, both the young people and the adults have been blinded by the ephemeral liberty of drug usage. Numbers could double as years pass by, with more homes getting broken, plans shattering into colorless fragments and relationships dissolving in the coldness of uncertainty.

As history have seen the old Beatles anthem “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as a caricature of drug abuse seeping in the oscillation of music, lifestyle and the routine of diverse people, the veracity of illegal substance sales and usage ceases to disappear at the present culture. But it is about time that the wings of fake release be clipped, and the ambage sky and diamonds be exchanged with the realness of a forgiving humanity.

Indeed, a day at a rehabilitation center would not be able to eliminate the problem of drug dependence. But as a single breath at dawn is enough to mark the felicitousness of chastity, so does a step towards change suffice for a pertinacious difference.

The Global Youth Service Day would not be the lone avenue for VOTY and other young volunteers to revitalize strength in the lives of their fellow Filipinos.

In the seraph’s hands, in the bastion of ineffable will, every day is a chance to sow courage and fortitude, in the bonhomie freedom, of hope.