BUSTOS, Bulacan—The number of young Filipinos who want to join in the constructive efforts to help Lakas-Kampi standard bearer and former Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro win the May 2010 elections has swelled to over 18,000 nationwide following his recent visit here where he won the hearts and minds of the Bulacan youth.
Over 4,000 students have signed up to become youth volunteers for Gibo in Bulacan alone, where he recently went on a series of campus tours.
Gibo conducted a series of dialogues with students at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and the Bulacan State University (BSU) in Sta. Maria and followed it up with another string of open forums at the BSU Annex and the Bulacan Agricultural State College in Bustos during his two-day visit to the province.
The young presidential bet received a rock star welcome during his visits to these schools, where students eagerly awaited his arrival. At the BSU compound, students punctuated his answers to their questions during the open forum with shouts of “We love you, Gibo!”
Luke Britanico, one of the founders of the National Youth Movement for Gibo said that about 2,000 students signed up during the visits to PUP and BSU and another 2,000 were recruited from the BSU Annex campus and Bulacan Agricultural State College.
During his campus visits here, Gibo called on the Filipino youth to spearhead a new kind of activism by being actively involved in government affairs that would help bring about positive change in our society.
“So far, we now have about 18,000 youth volunteers for Gibo nationwide,” Britanico said. “We expect tens of thousands more to join our movement as many young Filipinos now believe that Gibo Teodoro is the best qualified among the current crop of presidential bets to lead the country.”
Besides the success of his campus tours, Mike Ong, a Gibo volunteer who is in charge of Gibo’s Facebook fan page noted the site now has over 62,000 fans online.
As a Gibo volunteer, Britanico said one will help in fundraising; personally attend events to support Gibo such as in debates and forums; assist in poll watching; help in the distribution of paraphernalia like leaflets, flyers, calendars and posters.
Gibo volunteers may also coordinate activities in their schools, municipalities and within their groups to add momentum to his campaign, Britanico said.
Gibo has been touring school campuses across the country since January as part of his efforts to introduce himself and share his vision and plans for the country to the Filipino youth, which comprise the biggest chunk of the electorate in the May 10 national polls.
In Bulacan, Gibo was practically mobbed by thousands of students who either wanted to take his autograph or have a picture taken with him.
Gibo also met with local leaders of the province, and over 2,500 representatives of multisector organizations and women’s groups who earlier pledged to back his 2010 presidential bid.
Gibo’s campus tours are fast paying off as online surveys for presidential candidates show him dominating these Internet-based polls.
These include philippinepolls.com, where he topped the survey with 30% of the votes and philippineselections.com, where he got a 37% share of the votes as of Jan. 26.
As of Jan. 26, Gibo also topped Round 11 of the Facebook survey of presidentiables with 54.86% of the votes and philippinedailybrew.com with 49%. He also topped the survey by blogwatch.ph with 24.2% as of Jan. 25.
Besides being the youngest official to hold the Defense portfolio at age 43, Gibo was also a former congressman of the first district of Tarlac for three consecutive terms. He obtained his commerce degree at the De La Salle University and completed his Law studies at the University of the Philippines. Gibo topped the Philippine Bar Exams in 1989 and also passed the New York State Bar exams.
Gibo is also a licensed commercial pilot and a reserve colonel of the Philippine Air Force.
Gibo has underscored during his campus tours the need for quality education and training to equip young Filipinos with the right skills and knowledge base to make them globally competitive.
He has likewise said the government must exhaust all means to provide everyone with the proper college education and create solutions, other than scholarships and subsidies, to ensure that every Filipino gets the education that is rightfully his.
He has proposed, for instance, a student loan system that will benefit deserving students at the tertiary level. When a student applies for a loan, he is also given a Social Security System (SSS) number so that when he graduates and gets his or her first paycheck, the SSS will immediately detect it and subsequent deductions to his or her salary can be made to pay off the loan.
|
