DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 09 Sept) — Three Mindanawons are among19 delegates chosen by the National Youth Commission and Embassy of Japan in the Philippines to participate in the eight-day Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths Program (JENESYS2017) – Young Journalists Exchange in Tokyo and Kanto Koshinetsu, Japan from September 12 to 19, 2017.
Of the three, two are journalists based in Davao City — reporters Antonio L. Colina IV of MindaNews and and Kristianne M. Fusilero of Mindanao Time — while Alican M. Pandapatan, is a teacher at Dalipuga National High School in Iligan, Lanao del Norte.
Fusilero, 27 joined the Mindanao Times in 2009 and had been assigned to governance and general beat, later business and economic, and presently covering the defense beat.
Colina, 26, joined MindaNews in 2015 and has been covering business, the peace process, defense and politics. He is also correspondent of the Manila Bulletin and had earlier worked for Sun.Star Davao.
Antonio L. Colina IV of MindaNewa nd Kristianne M. Fusilero of Mindanao Times are among 19 delegates to the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths Program (JENESYS2017) on September 12 to 19, 2017. Another Mindanawon, teacher Alican M. Pandapatan from Dalipuga in Iligan City, is also a delegate.
Early this year, Colina was among 10 Filipino journalists invited by the US Embassy to the Foreign Press Reporting Tour on PH-US Bilateral Relationship in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Hawaii from January 28 to February 9.
Fusilero and Colina were chosen as Reporter of the Year in different categories during the Globe Media Excellence Awards in 2012. In 2015, Fusilero won Sun Life’s Sinag Financial Literacy Journalism Awards.
The two are currently completing their Graduate Diploma in Economics at the University of Southeastern Philippines here, in a bid to gain deeper understanding of the Philippine and world economy.
The JENESYS is a program of the Japanese Government, through Japan International Cooperation Center and the Japan Information and Cultural Center of the Japanese Embassy in Manila.
The program aims to promote “mutual trust and understanding among the peoples of Japan and the Asia-Pacific region and building a basis for future friendship and cooperation,” and provide “a global understanding of Japan’s economics, society, politics, and foreign policy” to delegates coming from partner nations.
The Japanese government brings approximately 6,000 delegates to Japan every year from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar), India, China, Mongolia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation member countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Afghanistan).
The JENESYS2017 is the Asian and Oceanian regional component of the exchange program implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to promote people-to-people exchanges between Japan and the various nations in other parts of the world, including Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean regions.
Since it was established in 1977, the JICE has been involved in various international cooperation activities mainly for developing countries. It hopes to contribute to the upliftment not only of the developing countries but also of the international community through the implementation of activities for strengthening mutually beneficial partnership between foreign countries and Japan. (MindaNews)
