2 Pinoys seeking YouTube votes

MANILA, Philippines - Two young Filipinos are seeking an opportunity to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark next month if they win a contest on climate change.

Paul Darwynn Garilao and Alfonso Orioste Jr., both graduates of De La Salle University in Manila, joined the “Raise Your Voice” campaign and are asking their friends to vote for their entry at www.youtube.com/cop15 from Nov. 6 to Nov. 30.

CNN, Youtube, and the Danish government sponsored the contest, which encourages individuals to send videos with their views, opinions, and questions about the global event.

“We are massively campaigning for our video through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. A lot of friends and contacts are linking the video to their networking sites. For the offline approach, we have also tapped schools and environmental organizations to use the video as a campaign drive to fight climate change,” Garilao said.

In their video entry, they discussed disaster management system and major shift to use alternative energies. Based on viewpoints from a developed and developing nation, they also highlight the action plans to reduce carbon emissions by industries and implement preventive measures when natural disasters strike.

Garilao, who used to work in a public relations firm in Manila, is now based in Hawaii. He is a licensed engineer in Manila and had made a research on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) engines.

Orioste is now a law student in San Beda College.

“As we have experienced, the storm Ondoy taught us a lot of lessons. This is a wakeup call for the Philippine government to implement laws and programs on environmental management and disaster preparedness. We want to echo this concern to the global leaders of UN Climate Change Summit,” Orioste said.

“We may not be the experts in this field, but it is our passion to keep the conversations on Climate Change issues rolling both in the communities and the cyberspace. If we are given the chance to go to Copenhagen, we will return our key learning points to communities in the Philippines,” Garilao said.

If they win the contest, they would be able to participate in the discussion on Climate Change in Denmark from Dec. 7 to 21. During the meeting, global leaders are expected to iron out platforms to “reduce global warming emissions and ultimately chart a course that avoids the most severe impacts of climate change.”

To vote for Orioste and Garilao’s entry just visit www.youtube.com/cop15; click “vote”; search Philippines on the videos per country; and click the “green thumbs up” sign for the entry entitled: “Raise Your Voice by Filipino environmental advocates.”

The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch