With  photos by Sir Choy Arnaldo, Jonathan Balsamo and Meriel Bansil
 
Sniffing the cool, clean mountain air of Baguio, one cannot help but be more sensitive to the odors wafting on morning mists, like the smell of tutong, or burnt rice. It’s familiar, like one’s old self.

One is then inundated with the aromas of pine from the trees implanted throughout the city, it is an odor of newness, new environment, new faces, new ideas, new social interactions and situations. Is the old self changing?
 
And towards the end of the three action packed days, amoy fresco, amoy bago. Did I change?
 
The Order of the Knights of Rizal, collaborating with Kabataan Pangarap ni Rizal (KAPARIZ), its youth arm, organized the highly successful 48^th session of the Rizal Youth Institute (RYLI). This is a three-day forum to focus energies, build leadership skills and prepare to take up leadership roles in society. Over 400 students from all over the Philippines came to Baguio Teachers’ Camp, sharing rooms and meals, songs and dance, lectures and micro-group discussions.

 
Sir Rhegis Romero II, KGCR, Deputy Supreme Commander and National RYLI Coordinator, opened the Institute with the challenging statement, “You are the emerging leaders, you are the new Rizals. . . . Each of you has a dream, a hope, an aspiration to fulfil, each of you has talents and skills to share, each of you has a potential leadership role in your community. . . . 48 RYLI’s and you say the country has not changed? We are not politicians. We do not carry an ideology or a red Mao book. We do not preach any gospel of democracy. We work through education and social intervention. We build leaders on the model of our national hero, Dr José Rizal himself.  That is our ‘ideology.’”
 
Sir Rhegis then presented the representative of the Mayor of Baguio City, Hon. Mauricio G. Domogon. The Executive Secretary welcomed the participants and wished them all success.

KAPARIZ staff, Nino Naldoza, then introduced the guest speaker, Sir Emmanuel Calairo, KCR Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, de la Salle University, Dasmarińas, Cavite. “Rizal gave us the formula on how to emerge as a leader,” he said. In reviewing the achievements of Rizal in Dapitan, Sir Manny sought to provide ideas for possible student projects based on Rizal’s experiments: a water system, a clinic, a school, tree planting and agricultural production.




 
Sir Max Salazar, KCR, assisted by Sir Claude, the stalwarts of our partner, OCCI, then broke the 400 student leaders into micro-groups for focused discussions. From the ‘whole,’ now to the ‘parts!’ Even in the first hours, the participants learned discipline, punctuality, group spirit, team building and solidarity.
 
The next morning, Cadets of the Philippine Police Academy trooped the colours to formally launch the 48^th Institute. Sir Pablo Trillana III, KGCR, Supreme Commander formally opened the forum. RYLI Secretary-General, Norman J. Esteban, introduced the keynote speaker, Hon. José Midas Marquez, Supreme Court Administrator. “Systems thinking is being holistic,” said Hon. Marquez, “you see the whole and you see the parts. But more than that, you see the interrelation of the parts to the whole, you understand your role in the larger mechanism that is society, and by this you can do better in your community while at the same time contributing to the betterment of the whole.
 
Sir Pablo Trillana III, KGCR then recapped the previous speakers by talking of ELIAS, The New Rizals: Emerging Leaders Innovating Across Sectors. He urged the young people to get out of their box.  “Today, more than ever, you must think systems, see the whole picture and activate your role in it, so you can contribute your force and your talents.  Be alert to your inner potential, your dreams and hopes, and make them alive, render service to your fellow man. In Dapitan, Rizal showed us the way; he gave us experiments to follow in education, in farming, in water works, in language in understanding our country. So during these days, find your Dapitan and be alert to how you will serve you country as a leader.” He then showed a DVD of Charisse, an ordinary, perhaps too ordinary poor girl who had a magnificent voice and wanted to be a professional singer. Little by little, by hard practice, she did become known and was invited to the Oprah Winfey show, on which Oprah helped her get a rendez-vous with Celine Dion on her show in Madison Square Garden.  “Make your dreams come true, you can do it.”




 
The whole afternoon was then devoted to competitions in oratory, extemporaneous speaking, essay writing, posters, and song and dance presentations, also called Sayawitan. There were over 50 oratory and extem speakers, 43 essays from both high school and college, and some 50 colorful and highly imaginative posters.  All followed the theme of the new Rizals: emerging leaders innovating across sectors. [See slideshow of photos. See also SSS Dapitan, the winning high school essay.]
 
On the final morning, after team building exercises, Sir Max and Sir Claude conducted an introspection exercise to rid the personality of tensions, and bad emotions, so as to ‘cleanse’ the personality of the leader and prepare him or her for new roles. The 400 students then went out to Baguio city to find the statute of José Rizal at Burnham Park. They swept the area clean, laid wreaths of flowers and had a fury of picture taking.
 
Late afternoon, before dinner film on the problems of the Philippines was shown. And a final micro-group session was held to analyze the problems of the country and see how new leaders could return to their communities and attempt to influence the social improvement of their fellow countrymen. Among the issues raised were: the peace problems in provinces that know only massacres; tree planting and environmental measures to protect against climate change; education and supplements to education as a system; re-ordering of personal and cultural values to eliminate corruption an political robbery; harmony of government branches; social justice.
 
Sir Rhegis Romero II, KGCR formally closed the Institute by giving a synthesis of the key points of the 3-day forum and micro-group discussions. The PNP Cadets trooped the colors to marching music.
 
Wala nang amoy tutong. Ngayon, amoy pines at pawis, at bago na ang katauhan. The old self is gone and the new leaders emerge!

 

 

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