COTABATO CITY—Eighty young parliamentarians from different parts of the region began their legislative journey Monday, Nov. 7, as the Bangsamoro Youth Commission (BYC) officially opened its Bangsamoro Youth Parliament (BYP) 2022 – The 13th National Youth Parliament Regional Assembly for BARMM.
BYP is a capacity-building mechanism that aims to bring together youth representatives from all provinces and sectors across the region to discuss current and emerging issues affecting the youth sector. BYC held the first batch of the same event last year.
This year’s BYP will run for five days, until Nov. 11. Of the eighty participants, fifty five (55) are male and the rest are female.
During the 5-day-event, participants will be exposed to lectures and orientation on leadership in Islam, the Bangsamoro Peace Process, parliamentary procedures, and policy formulation/lobbying among others. They were also distributed to their respective committee assignment.
BYC Chairperson and Member of the Parliament Marjanie Macasalong cited in his inspirational message that the program “ensures that the youth are given avenues to understand and experience first-hand how parliamentary system of government works”.
“This activity is a great avenue for you to exercise your technical capacities and leadership skills, and will immerse you to a new set of experiences,” Macasalong said.
He added that it will also expand the youth’s understanding of how the government works and deals with societal concerns specific to Bangsamoro context.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim emphasized in his video message that the BYP is not a “venue for competing ideas”.
“Rather, it is a path where we find commonality as an approach towards the process of drafting more inclusive laws,” he said.
In a separate press conference after the opening program, BYC Commissioner Nasserudin Dunding shared that participants underwent a rigorous screening process prior to onboarding.
“Ini-open po natin ito sa public at dumaan po sila sa matinding proseso. Yung 80 delegates natin ngayon ay may dalang kanya-kanyang bill at yun ang pagsusumikapan nila na madala sa plenaryo,” Dunding said.
