Local execs from RP lead Asean training seminar

BANGKOK – Opening today in Bangkok, Thailand is the first Training-Seminar on implementing Type 2 Initiatives of the coming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) among local authorities of the ASEAN countries.

The theme of the five-day event is "Building Gender-Responsive and Sustainable Towns and Cities". It is being conducted by the Asian Women’s Network on Gender and Development (AWNGAD) and the Ugnayan ng Kababaihan sa Pulitika or the Philippine Women’s Network on Politics and Governance.

According to Daphne D. Roxas, executive director of AWNGAD, with reference to WSSD and other international conferences, "Type 1" outcomes of global conference are agreed government actions. "Type 2" outcomes, on the other hand, are voluntary NGOs, business, donors and other international organizations which contribute to translating the political commitments of governments.

Leading the participants of the training seminar are Governor Jose Caballero and Vice Mayor Jessie Bolo of Compostela Valley and Mayor Vicento Rendon of Sebaste, Antique. There are 60 participants from LGUs of the Philippines. Organizers of the training-seminar are led by former women sectoral representative Leonor Ines Luciano.

The participants represent different offices of LGUs in the Philippines. Their professions and training include medical doctors, technologist, political affairs, nursing, business, school teachers and religious priests.

Among them is Shirley R. Aala of District I, Davao del Norte. She is chair of the committee on women and children and family relations, which has been training women in such livelihood & skills-development projects as chicken dispersal, bag-making, microlending and basic cooking.

During the 1992-2001 terms of Imelda Carpio, MD the health and nutrition program of Tangub City of which she was chair, won several awards, top of which was the Grand Winner of the Sentrong Sigla Movement. It won awards for its four Barangay health stations, and its immunization program was declared national winner, its child-friendly movement, the regional award. Its child development program got the Grand Slam prize for three consecutive winners sponsored by SINULOG, Cebu.

Mildred Caballero, a banker by training and wife of the governor of Compostela Valley, Joe Caballero, is president of the Compostela Valley Provincial Council of Women. The council, with 500 card-bearing members, has conducted training in backyard gardening and tilapia-raising. It has trained 2,000 women in such diverse occupation as manicure, pedicure and hair culture, electrical works and plumbing.

For lack of space, the resolution passed by the participants in the UNESCO-sponsored international conference on Media and Terrorism was omitted from my last column. That resolution is important as it expresses in no uncertain terms the journalists’ commitment to freedom of expression in their coverage of acts of terror.

The media, the resolution said, has "both a right and a duty to report fully on terrorism in the interest of the public’s right to know and to promote open, informed debate about terrorism."

It said all parties to conflicts should respect the right of journalists to investigate and report "freely and to have maximum access to conflict areas."

It further said:

"The threat of terrorism should not be used as an excuse to impose restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and of the media, or on freedom of information, and specifically on the following rights: to editorial independence; to protect confidential sources of information; to access information held by public bodies; to freedom of movement, and to privacy of communication."

At the same time, the resolution called for states at peace, among others, "to devote sufficient resources and attention to preventing attacks on journalists, to investigating such attacks when they occur, and to bringing those responsible to justice without delay; that they should take measures to promote the safety of journalists reporting on conflict and terrorists, and the new media industry and the international community should consider reestablishing a fund to assist under-resourced media organizations and freelance journalists to have access to safety training and equipment."