With the pressing threat posed by the highly transmissible
COVID delta variant that reached northern Mindanao, Department of the Interior
and Local Government (DILG)-10 encouraged the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and
members of the Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) to involve their peers to
take action amidst the pandemic.

“As future leaders of this nation, I urge all of you to
take part in all government undertakings. Even the small and simple act of
doing your part in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in your communities, this
will result to a positive change,” said DILG-10 Regional Director Arnel Agabe.

Director Agabe briefly discussed to the young participants
the efforts of the government in containing the much dreaded variant of the
virus. With its ability to be transmitted easily, he called each one to
strictly enforce the minimum public health standards in their communities.

“We know that young people are not vulnerable to succumbed
to the ill-effects of COVID but I hope that you remind your peers to consider
those around them, their parents, grandparents who are at risk of being
hospitalized once infected.”

He also promoted volunteerism by encouraging the youth to
consider participating in contact tracing activities. Banking on the
invincibility of the youth versus the virus, an augmentation on the number of
contact tracers on the ground would be a game-changer in this fight.

Director Agabe said, “In PDITR strategy, if we could detect
those who are COVID positive and they are immediately quarantined, we could
avoid infecting more individuals unnecessarily. With your power and your
number, this is possible.”

With the availability of the vaccines already, Director
Agabe is hopeful that the pandemic will soon end. He encouraged the youth
leaders to come up with programs and projects that will help their young
constituents recover economically.

“In our efforts to recover from this pandemic, I suggest
you come up with a kabuhayan assistance
or interventions for the youth that will hone their skills for them to be
employable,” he advised.

The virtual activity dubbed as Youth Matters was a Policy
Advocacy Consultation led by the National Youth Commission (NYC) on August 2,
Monday.

Presentations were made by Assistant Secretary Alexa
Danielle Dayanghirang, commissioner representative for Mindanao, for the five
(5) proposed policies, namely: (1) Online Platforms for Graduate Studies, (2)
Mandatory Mental Health Break, (3) Commission on Audit (COA) help desk, (4)
Empowering Young Mothers, and (5) Prioritization of Slots for Disaster Risk
Reduction Management (DRRM).

The DILG and NYC continuously organize interventions for
the young people for them to be proactive and productive future leaders to sustain
the efforts of the government.