KWENTONG BAYANI-HAN PROJECT THE 4ID DIAMOND TROOPERS STORY 1Lt Charlynne G Jalandoni PA 4CMOBn, 4ID, PA The Philippine

Insurgency situation has been a governments problem for almost 4-decades now. The struggle has been present during the time of our grandparents and sad to say, it is still present up to this time with our children. How these communist insurgents thrive for survival is already a common knowledge. They destroy the economy so that people remain in poverty and they purposely manipulate the minds of the youth to feed their diminishing manpower. With this in mind, the 4th Infantry Diamond Division thru 4th Civil Military Operations Kasaligan Battalion (P) crafted an activity focusing on the youth sector wherein series of Youth Leadership Seminars (YLS) were conducted AOR-wide. Empowering the youth is the activities core purpose with the theme Responsible, Productive and Well-informed youth of our society. This aims to motivate the youth sector into becoming an asset to the society. Their eagerness will be fueled by enlightenment coming from the right institutions. Thus the YLS target audiences are those studying, out-of-school youths, IP youths, religiously organized groups and other youth organizations. Planning the whole activity requires detailed tasking and supervision. The 4CMOBn worked hand-in-hand with the religious sector (especially during the preparation phase) in the different areas wherein they want to show that despite everything they do, they put God at the center. The lecturers who gave their insights are from the different line agencies of the government since most of them have their own respective programs for the youth. An example is the Youth-Employment-System or the YES program of the DOLE wherein working students will be assigned to different government offices and financial assistance will be given as an aid to their tuition fees and other school requirements. This program is not that well disseminated to other youths in the provinces but through YLS, most of them availed of this program and were able to help their families at the same time. Other topics such as the Challenges to the Youth of Today were discussed and subject matter experts (from respected schools/colleges) are invited to speak about the topic. The general conclusion in every YLS conducted is that the Youth of Today is being challenged everyday but there is much hope to turn these challenges into opportunities for a better future to the participants and concurrently the country. The Local Chief Executives (LCEs) was the first agency the unit has tapped since they believe that with political will, other sectors will be mobilized, thus inspiring the youths to become role models and good citizens. They became the lead agency in the implementation of this activity wherein their very own constituents took advantage of this opportunity. Likewise, the business sector was also involved through support system during the whole duration of each seminar. The latter became the back-

up structure for the accomplishment of this task through food, catering, and other miscellaneous needs for the different requirements of the speakers. The unit was able to conduct 1 division-wide YLS (pioneer) with 82 participants; 6 provincial-wide YLS namely: Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Camiguin province with a total of 475 participants and 1 municipal-wide YLS in Balingoan, Misamis Oriental with 56 participants. YLS for the province of Surigao del Norte is still being scheduled due to the current conduct of Brigade Operations. The result was overwhelming; the participants appreciated the event and are now looking forward to more activities since the unit is planning to have a Division-wide YLS summit for all officers voted during the previously conducted YLS. Likewise, the unit proposed activities during national holidays wherein the youths can show, in their own way, their patriotism for the country and they will have the leverage of doing something more. Conclusively, these kinds of activities will never be completed without the wide array of support from all stakeholders within the area. As stated, we have the youth sector, religious sector, political sector, security sector and even the business sector to thank for in line with the realization of the whole activity. With the established structure from the previous YLS, we are now looking forward to municipal-wide YLS spearheaded by those who participated on previously conducted seminars. With the upcoming YLS-summit, the unit is envisioning a youth organization to be registered to the Securities and Exchange Commission which will gear the Filipino youths into their rightful path for their families and for our country.