MANILA, Philippines - With his upbeat song “We Can Be Anything,” Apl.de.Ap, the Filipino-American member of the multi-Grammy Award-winning Black Eyed Peas, delivers an important message on education to the Filipino youth.
Apl.de.Ap, Allan Pineda Lindo Jr. in real life, yesterday provided a glimpse of the “We Can Be Anything” education advocacy campaign during a press conference with Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF) president and executive director Rafael Lopa at the Sofitel hotel.
He said this was his way of “giving back to his country the Philippines” and helping students to achieve their dreams.
A joint advocacy of the NCAF and the apl.de.ap Foundation, “We Can Be Anything” will support private sector efforts to build public school classrooms and other learning centers all over the country.
The song carries apl.de.ap’s personal message about how education helped him become the successful person he is today.
It invokes a call to action wherein he empowers today’s youth to aim for their dreams with the song’s powerful lyrics – “You can be a hero, you can be a professor…if I can do it then you can do it…”
“It’ll also be launched on Oct. 25 in collaboration with the NCAF but the main focus is the backlog of classrooms and learning centers across the country,” apl.de.ap said.
The “We Can Be Anything” education advocacy campaign will be launched during the concert of the Black Eyed Peas in Manila on Oct. 25.
The multi-awarded and best-selling American hip-hop group, he said, is also helping him in his education advocacy campaign.
“There are millions of kids there not able to go to school and really cram in a small space. When it was brought up to me by Rapa and the Foundation, we want to provide classrooms for 10,000 schools in the country,” he said.
Apl.de.ap said his education advocacy campaign is his answer to his calling.
As special ambassador for education of NCAF’s iamninoy-iamcory movement, apl.de.ap is boosting programs like the Bayanihang Pampaaralan program of the 57-75 Education Reform Alliance.
By consolidating the efforts of various companies and non-government organizations (NGOs), Bayanihang Pampaaralan seeks to build 10,000 new classrooms within two years.
“I myself as a kid in the Philippines adopted in the US and given the opportunity, I know the situation so it’s really important for me to give back and never forget where I came from. It’s a privilege to be in school and make the best of it,” apl.de.ap said.
“I would not have gotten this far were it not for an education, and I’d like to be able to help the young ones out there to achieve their dreams,” he added.
In buying the song “We Can Be Anything” and downloading them on mobile phones, the proceeds will go to the campaign, he said.
“And we’ll do campaigning in the US targeting Filipino-Americans,” he added.
On his birthday on Nov. 28, apl.de.ap said he would be in San Francisco for his education advocacy campaign among the Filipino-Americans.
“We’re gonna partner with Google to tell the world about this campaign. The purpose of it hopefully will reach the Fil-Ams,” he said.
For his part, Lopa said the apl.de.ap Foundation and the NCAF said the music video of “We Can Be Anything” will resonate among the youth.
“Launching ‘We Can Be Anything’ is towards helping education reform in this country. He (apl.de.ap) said I want to use my talent in reforming education in the Philippines. He has a soft heart for education,” Lopa said.
“I want to give back to my country is close to the advocacy of Ninoy (the martyred former senator Benigno Aquino Jr.) and Cory (the late former President Corazon Aquino) and he agreed to be special ambassador,” he said.
Education Undersecretary Rizalino Rivera said it would take P40-53 billion to fill the current backlog of 66,800 classrooms, as of school year 2009-2010.
“In spite of the best efforts of government to augment the budget for education, we would still need to work with the private sector to fill the gap,” Rivera said.
“Inadequacy or congestion of classrooms in some areas needs to be addressed urgently to uplift the quality of education nationwide,” he said.