Young legislators here for assembly

Around 800 young legislators from across the country will arrive in Cebu today for the staging of the 16th general assembly of the National Movement of Young Legislators.  

NMYL is composed of lawmakers below 35 years old that include vice governors, vice mayors, members and ex-officio members of the provincial board, and city and municipal councils.

Shierwin Taay, NMYL board member and chairman for Region 3, told The Freeman that a major item in the agenda is the proposal to amend the group’s Constitution to create a policy-making body that would compliment its existing national executive officers.

Taay said there have been consultations made on the proposal and tomorrow, the group will formally put the proposal into a vote.

City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, former chairman of NMYL in Region 7, said the proposal is significant because legislators from Visayas and Mindanao have been clamoring for leadership in NMYL. The last time a legislator from the south was elected NMYL president was during the term of former Bohol Vice Governor Edgar Chatto.

Carillo said his fellow Cebuano legislators Edu Rama, current Region 7 NMYL chairman, and SK Cebu City Federation President Rengel Pelayo, are both supportive of the move.

A significant stipulation in the proposal is that no two legislators from the same area-either Luzon, Visayas, or Mindanao- should sit as president and chairman of the executive board. In other words, if the NMYL president comes from Luzon, the chairman of the policy-making body should only come from either Visayas or Mindanao.

“Visayas and Mindanao have been clamouring for leadership in NMYL…the proposal is intended to have more voice, to have more representation from Visayas and Mindanao,” Carillo said. 

Active members of NMYL run up to 200,000 from all over the country but not all of them are expected to attend the convention.  – Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM