(NYMWPS) — To continuously create awareness and educate the Filipino youth about the issues regarding the West Philippine Sea, Justin Keith Baquisal helped draft a National Action Plan on Youth, Peace, and Security or NAP-YPS in Butuan City, in the southern island of Mindanao, the Philippines.
Baquisal is the national vice chairperson of the National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea, a peaceful, trans-global and non-partisan organization that advocates for the preservation of Philippines’ sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The event in Butuan was hosted by the Philippine Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity and the German Agency for International Cooperation.
The event, which was held that was held from May 29 to June 1, 2022 gathered 25 youth leaders, practitioners, and experts from the academe, civil society, Sangguniang Kabataan or youth council, and humanitarian organizations to deliberate and craft the contents of the country’s first action plan for the youth on issues such as preventing, countering, and transforming violent extremism, human security, peacebuilding, and the protection of national sovereignty.
The NAP-YPS is a participatory strategic document “made by the youth for the youth” whose goal is to define a strategic agenda for government agencies.
Baquisal provided technical recommendations for youth participation in West Philippine Sea, national defense and foreign affairs issues. He underscored the need to involve youth-serving and youth-led organizations in geopolitics and to lobby the Philippine government to continuously uphold our national patrimony.
The NAP-YPS is one of only three such plans in the world and will be submitted to the Philippine president for approval.
The National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea will tirelessly engage the Philippine government and all relevant stakeholders in pursuit of the defense of national sovereignty and territory.
Dr. Celia Lamkin of the CNMI and Guam is the global chair and founder of the National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea.
Justin Keith Baquisal is the national vice chairperson of the National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea.
Justin Keith Baquisal, national vice chairperson of the National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea, poses for a photo with Vanessa Pallarco, director of the Social Healing and Peacebuilding Department of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity in Butuan City, the Philippines.
