Dead wrong (but thank God!)

Youth in revolt: Leandro Leviste, the author, and Tricia Peralta are part of the group behind Model Congress.

MANILA, Philippines - Six weeks ago, I received a random Facebook message from my friend Leandro Leviste. It was random not just because he and I hadn’t really talked much before then, but also because he was asking me to join him in organizing something even though we had never worked together before. He said that “a group” (which I later on learned was just him and two other friends) was thinking of organizing the first Philippine Model Congress. They wanted to bring over 300 students to the Senate Building together to debate current bills. It would be in six weeks and they hadn’t started planning yet.

I thought he was crazy. But I liked crazy, so I obliged. I told him I’d help out by designing their poster, but I didn’t know if I could help out with bigger things like logistics.

But before I knew it, I was sitting in a Starbucks with Leandro, Thomas Rosal (one of the friends), and Tricia Peralta (whom I invited along to help out). Nobody at that table had ever organized something like this (in fact, in this country, very few people have), so none of us knew what to expect. As we went on with what was probably the most passion-driven four-hour meeting I had ever been in, we began listing potential problems we could face, and how we could preempt them.

The first thing we thought was that we wouldn’t get any sign-ups because the event would be too esoteric. Or if we did get sign-ups, we’d be flooded by activists who’d want to hijack the event and turn it into a rally. After all, how many teenagers (aside from us) would want to spend a whole Saturday dressing up and playing congressman?

The second thing we thought was that we’d have problems getting sign-ups because we lacked credibility. We were really just a group of friends who, before that day, didn’t even all know each other. And while we wanted it to be nationwide, would anybody buy a plane ticket to Manila from Mindanao to attend an event organized by a bunch of teenagers?

The third thing we thought was that even if we did get any sign-ups, the people who did would be too shy to step up and debate, and wouldn’t know anything about the technicalities of the bills and laws. Would anybody (save law students) know anything about Senate Bill or Republic Act number so-and-so?

It turned out that on all three accounts (and many others), we were dead wrong. In the two weeks that we opened registration, we received over 600 applications. It seemed as though these students were willing to place their trust in us (either that, or they didn’t care about who was organizing) because students from Naga, Cebu, and Sultan Kudarat signed up with all intentions of coming if they got accepted. And after we announced the results of the applications and created a Facebook group, we were overwhelmed with the rich, eloquent debates about Republic Act 9994 and Senate Bill No. 1826. We were so overwhelmed, in fact, that we had to create a separate online forum so that the group’s wall would not get flooded. And while we did get a sizable share of applicants from UP, very few of them (if any) were from the usual activist groups. We were dead wrong… but thank God!