Challenging the extremes of the Bicol weather this month are 698 delegates from all over the six provinces of the region who will come together once again for PADUNUNGAN 2025, the annual Battle of Intellects.
Maybe it’s easy for you to scream “resilience” because you are not the one drowning. As the rain continues to pour non-stop all over the Bicol region this early January, it is high time not just to amplify already existing discussions on genuine disaster mitigation but to have the youth participate in such calls for change.
PADUNUNGAN 2025, spearheaded by UP Ibalon, a sociocultural organization of Bicolano students from the University of the Philippines Diliman, commences this January 18-19, 2025, at the Sta. Cruz National High School in Naga City with the theme, “Debunking Resilience: Intensifying the Youth’s Call for Genuine Disaster Mitigation.” The much-awaited event features a combination of valuable educational discussions and competitions that allow participants to showcase their talents, wit, and skills in various categories as they interpret the call for debunking the resiliency narrative.
On the Oragon Branding
PADUNUNGAN 2025 intends to shed light on the current state of disaster risk reduction and management in Bicol, specifically how the youth may aid in debunking the traditional resiliency narrative and replacing it with a demand for accountability. Even more highlighted through Padunungan are the sectoral communities such as agriculture and fisheries who feel the effects of disasters thrice as intensely as the common individual. Through discussions among these sectors and the student participants, the event takes pride in promoting alternative narratives in the hopes of calling for a collective change in regional and national policies concerning disaster mitigation.
Fleshed out in this resilience narrative would be the very branding of Bicolanos as “Oragons” rooted from the strength to endure setbacks. However, this branding should not be used as an excuse to turn a blind eye on the real roots of disasters–inefficient management, insufficient funding, failed flood control and waste management projects, rapid industrialization, and the like. This narrative therefore, is what Padunungan 2025 targets to dissect forwarding the idea that resiliency is but an aftermath-centered concept that the youth should discuss in their own terms.
Transcending Friendly Competition
While the competitive spirit remains alive in every high school competition, Padunungan provides a platform for Bicolano students to engage in educational discussions. This 2025, the discussions recognize that there is nothing natural about its man-made intensity and that systemic failures to protect natural biodiversity and the inefficient management of the climate crisis all contribute to its adverse effects. Moreover, Padunungan also strives to strengthen the already-empowered youth’s call for change in the hope of providing them with a future that may not be disaster-free but disaster-ready.
Staying true to its cause of providing the youth with an avenue to show their ability to dissect societal crises, UP Ibalon’s 38th installment of Padunungan explores a variety of competitions. Individual events include Tigsik Writing, On-the-spot Essay Writing, Impromptu Speech, and Editorial Cartooning. A new category emerged in its recent installments and the prevalence of digital media with the Infographic Design competition. Meanwhile, group event also dominate the annual participant count with Debate, Quiz Bee, Short-Form Video Making, and Cultural Presentations.
Since the event’s conception in 1981, it has only begun to reach high participation after the pandemic. The increasing turnout for Padunungan underscores not only the organization’s perseverance in debunking narratives and forwarding public consciousness but also the Bicolano youth’s eagerness to understand and engage with these issues affecting them at diverse levels. Beyond the competition, this is a collective pursuit of social action. The true triumph lies not in its rankings but in the awakening of a student’s mind toward societal discourse.