KAWSA's National Youth Summit: Claim Your Space

Good day to our irregulars and student-leaders of the Philippines! I am John Rafael D. Panis, and I am deeply honored to represent my beloved National Youth Organization, Sovereign Youth Alliance, my school and soon-to-be-alma mater, National University Dasmarinas, and the home of champions and universities, Region IV-A (CALABARZON)!

As someone who is always exposed to the talks on sex and gender, I have deeply evaluated my own principles as I have reflected on our role as Men, Women, and LGBT+ People. Women as a vanguard, LGBT+ as boundary pusher, and Men as a protector of all people's spaces in a world where the same sex is always recorded as perpetrators. I have discovered on this event the origin of being a binary person, that it could be traced back in pre-colonial stage of the Philippines and ancient civilization on the west. Such a discovery is a significant step on people's perception of sex and gender.

I am deeply honored to attain such insights from Mr. Roland de Vera, a Juris Doctor graduate from West Visayas State University and Dr. Moniq M. Muyargas, a professor from University of the Philippines Visayas specializing on the topic of genders. To these speakers, I lend my personal appreciation to you for expanding my horizon regarding the topic of gender and our roles in society. Your discussion instilled an important role to me: a protector of spaces, especially for men.

On behalf of Sovereign Youth Alliance, NU Dasmarinas, and Region IV-A, Thank you!

-John Rafael Panis