The Successor Generation of Mindanao

Turning adversities into opportunities has always been one of the top most principles of a good leader. Thus, a group of young professionals from all regions of Mindanao joined efforts to come to conceptualize a common goal consequently giving transcend to the program called “The Successor Generation”.

The Successor Generation program as a concept is a borrowed idea from Coalition of Development – Non Governmemt Organizations or CODE-NGO’s “Kami Naman” program. This an eight-month course designed to train second-liners or middle managers of Caucus of Development NGO’s (CODE-NGO) member networks. The idea behind is not only to equip middle managers with knowledge and information they need to come up with sound decision, analysis and courses of actions but also equip them with necessary skills and expertise that will help them run and manage their own organizations in the future.

Taking off from CODE-NGO’s initiative, the Technical Assistance Center for the Development of the Rural and Urban Poor (TACDRUP) expanded the idea of coming up with its own Successor Generation program not exclusive for NGOs but a design that is open enough to absorb all interested young professionals of Mindanao. This concept is aligned to TACDRUP’s program and its role as catalyst in consensus building efforts in Mindanao, like the Kusog Mindanaw.

The Kusog Mindanaw Experience
The creation of Kusog Mindanaw (“Strong Mindanao”) in 1994 had so far brought a couple of roundtable conferences centered on peace and development for Mindanao. This multi-sectoral coalition, whose creation was spearheaded the late Mr. Rey Teves and Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, Jr., OMI, was primarily established to promote peace and development, and begin a process of increasing the voice of Mindanawons in national policymaking.

Kusog Mindanaw proceeds on the basis of and is guided by the spirit of unity in diversity. It seeks tohighlight points of unity rather than of disagreements.Proceeding from minimum consensus among Mindanawons, Kusog Mindanaw aspires to build a criticalmass that will undertake concerted action that can secure for Mindanao. It is just due in terms of politicalparity and economic equity.

The Challenge
In the last Kusog Mindanaw roundtable conference held last May of this year, conference participants coming from heads of major religious groups, business networks, military, legislators, non-government organizations, media, and academic institutions of Mindanao were looking for the participation of the youth and the young professionals. While the forum tackled pertinent issues securing Mindanao’s future but those that will benefit their discussions i.e. the youth were not well represented in the forum.



On the one hand, the youth including the young professionals comprise more than half of thepopulation of not only Mindanao but also the entire country. Yet, no mechanisms are there that cantruly represent collective views of the young on specific Mindanao issues without being suspected to bepartisan or allied to a particular group. On the other hand, there are a lot of thematic and issue-basedorganizations that are youth-led, yet, none are representative of a Mindanao-wide “consensus”.

Hence,the challenge is on how to direct and organize all these efforts leading towards a common vision forMindanao.

Picking from these realities, TACDRUP pushed through with the idea of consulting the regions on whether there is a need to organize a Successor Generation i.e. designed for Mindanao young professionals geared towards a continuing leadership formation. Fortunately, all regional consultations (e.g. Davao del Norte, Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City, Digos City, CARAGA, SOCSKSARGEN, etc.) positively responded to the idea and were looking forward to coming up with a mechanism that can consolidate all the efforts that are already done locally. Furthermore, there is a hope and aspiration from the group to hopefully influence policies and the policy makers in the near future to the benefit of Mindanao and its people. Hence, a Mindanao Young Professionals (MYP) Forum is born.

Defining the MYP Forum: Its Vision-Mission-Values
In August 25, after so many months of organizing and doing regional workshops, MYP Forum crafted itsVMV (Vision-Mission-Values) to give direction and definition of the group as Mindanawons vis-à-vis theirrole as professionals in making peace and development truly a reality in Mindanao.

Their vision is to become a leading network of young professionals committed to work for a better Mindanao ; and their mission is to facilitate a pro-active and consensus-building forum of young professionals that will helpin nurturing the next generation of Mindanao leaders to become dedicated in advancingMindanao Agenda including peace and development.

They will be guided with the principles ofCOMMITMENT for MINDANAO: SUGA-I!Which stands for Commitment for Mindanao, Sustainability, Unity in diversity, Good governance, Accountability, and Integrity.

They have plans of conveninh annually the Mindanao Young Profs Forum representing the (6) six sectors (i.e.business, religious, civil society, local government unit, national agencies and academe) to concretizethe Mindanao agenda and identify key issues affecting their sector and Mindanao, ingeneral and to mobilize sectors for policy advocacies and organize sustainable programs/activitiesaddressing specific issues in their communities; and to organize capacity-building programs to better prepare young leaders to assume strategicroles in the future.

Perhaps this successor generation of Young Mindanao Professionals will bring about the era of peace and development that we all have been dreaming for in our island.



(Joji Ilagan Bian is a strong and respected advocate for the development of the region. She is Chair of Joji Ilagan Foundation ( www.jojiilagancareercenter.com) ; President , Phil. Call Centers Alliance and Mindanao Tech Voc Schools Association; Mindanao Rep, Export Development Council. Email comments jojibian2@yahoo.com)