House leaders led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. have filed a resolution commending Rep. Mercedes Alvarez (Neg. Occ., 6th District) for having been elected as member of the first Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians in the Asia Pacific.

In House Resolution 1588, Belmonte said the election of Alvarez as member of the Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians in the Asia Pacific has brought pride and honor to Filipinos and deserves emulation and heartfelt congratulations of the Filipino people, a press release from the House of Representatives said.

“We welcome the news with pride that the young Alvarez, a lawyer-lawmaker, has made an imprint in the area of global youth leadership,” the Speaker said.

The Speaker said Alvarez was one of only two delegates from the Asia Pacific region who won the support of the majority of the members and were elected to sit in the Board of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians in the Asia Pacific, the press release said.

“I personally nominated Chedeng to represent the Philippines to the 1st Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians. Young as she is, only 32 years old and a lawyer, Chedeng will surely boost the quantitative and qualitative participation of young people in parliaments and in the IPU,” Belmonte said.
The Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland on October 10 to 11, aimed to find ways and means of stimulating youth engagement and help define the youth agenda in politics. Young parliamentarians from 61 countries have called for wide-ranging measures to be put in place to ensure the world’s youth are politically engaged and represented at the conclusion of the first global conference of its kind.
According to the IPU Secretariat, more than 180 young MPs, representing the youngest members of Parliaments, below 45 years old, youth leaders and experts at the IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians identified youth quotas for parliaments and political parties among several key actions to assure youth political representation and participation. Currently MPs under 30 years of age represent less than two per cent of parliamentarians.

The global youth leadership conference was organized by the IPU with the generous support of the Worldwide Support for Development. A second IPU Global Conference for Young MPs is slated for next year in Japan. The Geneva gathering was funded by the Japan-based organization, Worldwide Support for Development.

The Resolution was also authored by Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II (Mandaluyong City) and Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora (San Juan City), the press release added.*

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