Rizal followers ask youth: Keep activism alive

RIZAL LIVES ON Order of the Knights of Rizal Supreme Commander Reghis Romero II calls on more than 500 youth participants in the 50th National Rizal Youth Leadership Conference in Baguio City to relive the ideals and teachings of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

BAGUIO CITY—Fighting the establishment was a noble undertaking for youths who rebelled against the Spanish colonial government, like Jose Rizal, or student activists and young professionals of the 1970s who stood up against martial law, a former senator and official of the Order of the Knights of Rizal said here.

But former Sen. Jose Lina, a member of the council of elders of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, urged participants in the 50th National Rizal Youth Leadership Conference not to distance themselves from politics as the country prepares for next year’s elections.

The three-day conference opened on Friday at the Teachers’ Camp, led by businessman Reghis Romero II, supreme commander of the Knights of Rizal. It drew about 500 delegates from different schools in the country.

Lina addressed the conference by stressing that politics itself was not dirty.

“Do not think that politics is dirty. It only becomes dirty when the leaders are dirty,” he said.

“But politics is a necessity. The government is a necessity,” said the former senator.

“We cannot shy away from the responsibility of making the government truly the instrument of the people,” he said.

“There are more pressing problems that are looking for solutions. Be the leaders this country needs… study the ills that afflict our society,” he said.

The former senator said the youth could start by organizing and lobbying for the passage of the freedom of information bill to institutionalize transparency in government. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon