WATCH: Leni Robredo pitches Angat Buhay to Fil-Am Communities | TFC News Digital Exclusives
02:09.1
Only mandate of the Vice President is succession. Alam niyo yan, diba?
02:14.6
And ironically, mahirap yung isipin kasi diba dito sa US, yung Vice President is elected together with the President, diba?
02:25.5
Pero kahit walang direct mandate ang Vice President.
02:30.0
Meron siyang trabaho. Siya yung presiding officer ng Senate, ng upper house.
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Pero sa Pilipinas, kahit may direct mandate ang Vice President, walang siyang trabaho. Aside from succession.
02:42.0
Pero the Constitution allows the President to appoint the Vice President to a cabinet post.
02:47.7
And the cabinet post assigned to the Vice President becomes the core.
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The core of the six years of the Vice Presidency.
02:57.0
Eh dahil nakita kong parang outside ako lang po ako.
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Ang natakot po ako na baka masayang yung six years na I will just be doing ceremonial work. Diba?
03:10.5
So even before the inauguration, I already met with the core team.
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Ang pinili ko po sa team ko noon, yung mga co-term ito, mga co-term employees, mga bata.
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Rafi was one of them. Si Rafi, our executive director. Nandun pala sa likod sila.
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So, miniti ko sila. Sabi ko, I will not.
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I will not waste six years doing ceremonial work.
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And because my background is, I'm a lawyer but my background is really development work.
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I was with a non-government organization called Saligan.
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In all the years that I was not yet a politician.
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So I was with Saligan for more than ten years and we were doing alternative lawyering.
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We were working with the margins, farmers, fisher folk, indigenous peoples, women and children, laborers, urban workers.
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Yun po yung trabaho ko.
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So when we were thinking of a project, it made sense that it is going to be something like Saligan.
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We will be working with the margins.
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So we conceptualized Angat Buhay. We wanted to do an anti-poverty program, a poverty alleviation program.
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Pero yung problema namin, alam na alam ko yung gagawin. Pero yung problema namin, saan kami kukuha ng pera?
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Diba? Saan kami kukuha ng pera?
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And that is why we envision Angat Buhay in such a way that we will position the office of the Vice President as a sort of a conduit
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between communities needing help and organizations wanting to help.
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Na-imagine niyo po na parang kami lang yung dadaanan. Kami lang yung magmamobilize ng community to help those in need.
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Pero we were very much aware that it will not be as easy as it seems.
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Kasi, sino ang tutulong sa amin kung hindi kami mapapagkatiwalaan?
05:02.0
So when I assumed office, the first thing that we did was fix the system.
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Ang sabi namin, papano ba tayo mapapagkatiwalaan ng mga tao para sa ating ipadaan ng tulong?
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Meron kami, alam niyo yung vision board?
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Yung mga pangarap mo at mga plano. Nag-visioning na kayo.
05:26.0
So when we did that visioning exercise, dalawa yung na-identify namin na kailangang yun talaga yung pag-trabahukan namin.
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And the first one was to have the office ISO certified.
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Bakit ISO certified? Kasi that will professionalize the office.
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And that will send a message that we are serious. We are serious in the work that we wanted to do.
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So pag-upo pa lang namin, mahirap yun.
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Mahirap yun kasi we will be undoing a lot of things.
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But after a year, within the year after I first assumed office, we were awarded an ISO certification.
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And we were re-certified year after year until I finished my term.
06:14.0
Pero that, we knew that wasn't enough. So ang next namin sa vision board namin,
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kailangan tayo yung pinakamahusay sa COA audit.
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So sabi namin, we should have not just unqualified opinion, pero dapat number one tayo lagi.
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Mahirap din yun. Kasi we would need to fix the broken system.
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So we were not able to get it in 2017, which was a year after assumed office.
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But we were able to get it for the first time in 2018.
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And we were number one from 2018 until I finished my term.
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Again, I think the message here is marami ditong mga tiger women.
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Alam natin, ang pag-inusto natin, walang imposible, di ba?
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And that's exactly what ang atbuhay is.
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Ano po yung ginawa natin after 2022?
07:13.0
Sa totoo lang po, mas busy ako ngayon kaysa ng vice president.
07:19.0
Ano yung ginawa natin?
07:22.0
We continued engaging with all the many volunteer groups during the campaign.
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And we have been encouraging them to organize themselves into non-political groups because there's no elections.
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And either become ang atbuhay chapters or partner with ang atbuhay.
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In many of our projects.
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So umiikot po kami sa buong Pilipinas para puntahan.
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Kung nakita ninyo kanina, hindi lang ang atbuhay pero may ang atbayanihan.
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Yung ang atbayanihan is the organizing arm.
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So ang atbuhay na, parang yung kapartner niya, yung organizing arm, nakailangan-nakailangan natin.
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Not just for political ends.
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Pero alam natin na we have to be strategic if we want to save our country.
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We have five pillars now.
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The first of those pillars, those are the five pillars.
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Public education, health, food security and nutrition, climate action and sustainability, community engagement, arts and culture.
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Yung community engagement, nandun yung ang atbayanihan.
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That's the organizing arm.
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Yung arts and culture, hindi ko siya masyadong nang itidiscuss.
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That's the newest pillar.
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But the very reason why we decided to add arts and culture as a pillar is because,
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napansin niyo ba, during the election, so many of our best artists volunteered.
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Lahat na national artists sumulong sa atin.
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National artists for the visual arts, sina Benka.
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National artists for dance, sina Alice Reyes.
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National artists for music, sina Ryan Cayabian.
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Mga national artists for literature, gumawa pa sila ng libro.
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I don't know if you have that, yung 100 Pink Poems for Lenny.
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So ginawa yun ng mga national artists natin for literature.
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And they wanted to be involved still even beyond the campaign.
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So ngayon, we are mentoring public high school students who are budding artists.
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All the national artists are mentoring them.
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So we have been doing a lot of programs as far as education is concerned.
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Number one, we have been building classrooms.
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O, ordinaryo lang yung pag-build ng classrooms, diba?
09:49.0
Ang classrooms natin, ang cost is 800,000 pesos.
09:53.0
Hulaan niyo kung magkano yung cost ng gobyerno ang dating sa classrooms.
09:59.0
Between 2 to 3 million each.
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Sa atin ay 800,000 lang.
10:05.0
Pero di hamang mas maganda ang classrooms natin.
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May banyo sa loob.
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When we turn over the classrooms, meron na siyang dalawang ceiling fan.
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Merong blackboards, merong school supplies, merong libro.
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Yung lahat na desks and tables, nandun na may mga cabinets, 800,000 pesos.
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Bakit 800,000 pesos lang sa atin?
10:30.0
Walang corruption.
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So kahit sabihin marami na nagpapatayo ng classrooms, papatayo pa din tayo.
10:39.0
So number two, aside ng classrooms, we have been building dormitories.
10:44.0
Some of you have been asking me about dormitories.
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Bakit po tayo nagbibuild ng dormitories?
10:50.0
When we were just starting with Angat Bukay, ang una nating ginawa is find the 50 poorest towns in the Philippines.
10:58.0
Pagpunta namin doon, one of the biggest problems of CIAN was very high high school dropout rates.
11:08.0
So ang daming hindi nakakatapos ng high school.
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When we tried to find out bakit napakataas ng dropout rates ng high school, ang reason, accessibility.
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A lot of children have to walk three to four hours each way every day.
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They have to go to school.
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So yung team namin na nandun, sinubukan nilang samahan yung ibang estudyante, oh sisiw lang yan, three to four hours nag-hike kami.
11:40.0
Hindi nila alam na hindi lang pala siya simple hike but you have to cross rivers, you have to cross broken hanging bridges.
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When it rains, ang mga rivers nag-overflow, hindi kinaya ng team namin.
11:55.0
So that was when we decided to start building dormitories.
12:02.0
During the pandemic, we opened 129 community learning hubs.
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Pero when schools were reopening already, parang there wasn't much need for the community learning hubs anymore because schools were already open.
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We decided to start converting the community learning hubs into angat-basa and angat-bilang centers.
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So literacy and numeracy.
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So well and good, maganda yung programa, grabe yung accomplishment, reading improvement ng mga bata.
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But as we were tracking the progress of the children, nagtatrack kasi kami three months, six months.
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Our partner here is the UP College of Education.
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They train our tutors and they do the modules, they also do the evaluation.
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Meron kami nakikita na may mga schools, same training, same module, pero ang accomplishment nila mababa.
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And then when we tried to delve deeper, yung mga schools na mababa, sobrang baba ang accomplishment.
13:09.0
Just to give you an idea, usually when we start the program, ang baseline namin, mga 30 to 40 percent ang nakakabasa.
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Pagkatapos ng program, mga 90, 90 percent.
13:23.0
Pero may mga schools na ang start, ang baseline, 2 percent lang.
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And at the end of the program, hindi nga nag 50 percent.
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Guess what the reason is?
13:34.0
Children are stunted.
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Children in those schools are stunted, malnourished.
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So kahit anong turo mo, wala talaga, may hangganan.
13:46.0
So we started another program which is an offshoot of the Angatbasa and Angatbilang centers.
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And the program is called Bayan Ko Teacher Ko Program.
13:56.0
We partner with schools with College of Education courses.
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And yung mga eskwela nila sa College of Education, the UP College of Education would train them to be tutors.
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Pero the hours that they volunteer is credited to their practicum already.
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So it's already very sustainable.
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And parang nabibigyan ng buhay yung sinasabing it takes a village to raise a child.
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So yung education ng bata, hindi na siya obligasyon lang ng paaralan, pero is the responsibility of the entire community.
14:33.0
So with the Bayan Ko Teacher Ko Program, we've integrated a nutrition approach.
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So itong climate action and sustainability, this is not exactly new.
14:48.0
Kasi before, pillar na namin yung disaster relief and rehabilitation.
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What we were doing before was every time may sakuna, kami ang pinakauna on the ground.
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Na pinapakiusapan na kami ng DSWD na pwede ba huwag niyo naman kaming unahan.
15:04.0
Kasi lagi kami nauuna on the ground.
15:07.0
And nauuna kami kasi praktisado na kami.
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Pero narealize namin, it can't be.
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Na mas reactive lang tayo.
15:17.0
Ang dami-daming sakuna sa Pilipinas, pero reactive lang tayo.
15:21.0
Although we've perfected it already.
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Especially after the elections.
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Kasi we have a lot of volunteers on the ground.
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Before kasi ako mismo yung pumupunta and the staff.
15:32.0
Pero ngayon, I don't have to go anymore.
15:35.0
Because our volunteers on the ground are the ones who implement the relief operations.
15:40.0
We just send them goods or we just send them money for the relief operations.
15:45.0
So yung rehabilitation naman, we have been doing a lot of housing programs.
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The very first housing program that we did was in Marawi.
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Right after the Marawi siege.
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And then in 2020, in December of 2020, may magkakasunod na typhoon in the Philippines.
16:03.0
Typhoon Rolly, Typhoon Ulysses, maraming na wala ng bahay.
16:07.0
We did a housing project in Ginubatan, Albay.
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May isang village, there are a number here from Albay.
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May isang village doon na natabunan ng lahar.
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So yung natabunan ng lahar, we went to the mayor, si Mayor Chema.
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Sinabi namin, baka meron kang lupa na mas safer na lugar.
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We're willing to build houses and magbigay sila ng lupa.
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And you know, we are able to build more houses.
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Because our costs are low.
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We are able to build houses 60,000 pesos.
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Ano to ha, concrete?
16:44.0
Concrete na mga 40 to 50 square meters.
16:48.0
Partner namin ang IKEA.
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And IKEA has been giving furnitures.
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So mga furniture sa mga houses namin ay IKEA.
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Talo nga kami sa bahay.
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Pero the reason why I'm telling you this is it's all a product of Bayanihan.
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So this year, hindi na disaster relief and rehabilitation, climate action and sustainability na.
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We just finished our first batch of 80 SK officials.
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Ang pinaka idea is that climate action and sustainability should already be part of their agenda.
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So mas policy making siya.
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So we're pinning our hopes on our young local officials.
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So yung susunod ay community engagement and empowerment.
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This is ang Angat Bayanihan.
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We're encouraging all the groups to have programs of their own.
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During the first anniversary of Angat Buhay last July 1, 2023,
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we invited all the groups over, taught them how to pitch programs.
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And then we invited all our partners over.
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And then we did a developmental speed dating.
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Umiikot yung partners habang nagpipitch ng programs yung mga volunteer groups.
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And you know what? It was just for an hour.
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After one hour, we were able to raise 25 million pesos.
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And these 25 million pesos will not go through us.
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It will not go through us, but these are help that will go straight to the Angat Bayanihan Network.
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So our partners are also funding the programs of our network.
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So exciting, diba?
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And ang maganda nito, you did not just capacity.
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But the number one lesson is that when people have ownership of what they're doing,
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there is more energy, there is more passion, there is more inspiration.
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Salamat pa natin.
19:18.0
Thank you so much.
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Back to your seats.
