Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Thursday called on The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) for 2022 to continue their advocacies and make the country a “land worth living in and loving.”
Bersamin was the guest of honor and speaker at the awarding ceremony for TOYM 2022 held at Malacañang.
“And so I raise a challenge not only to the 10 of you awardees, but as well to the countless others who had been so honored before you, to keep up the excellence you have shown,” Bersamin said.
“It is encouraging for me to note that many of you do not consider financial success as the ultimate measure of achievement. Because to you, it is rather the lives you have improved and positively affected that matter above all,” he added.
The Executive Secretary also said the awardees have subscribed to the enduring ideal of all humanity being objects of love and service.
“The world must be preserved through peace and harmony and kept safe for generations to come. Continue to be relevant. Continue to do more. Continue your advocacies and make our country a land worth living in and loving,” he said.
Bersamin told the awardees that the ceremony should not be the finish line of their hard work in their respective fields and advocacies.
“Our country desires you to continue individually in the fields [in which] you have been recognized today. Better still, I urge you to act as one group of inspiration and motivators for others,” he said.
The recipients of TOYM 2022 award were physician and medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Gideon Lasco and Rico Ancog for education and the academe; Kikomachine Komix creator Manix Abrera, and writer-filmmaker Kristian Cordero, and social enterprise Kandama for literature, culture and the arts; Department of Health assistant secretary and director of Public Health Services team for Health and Medicine Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho; Dr. Ramon Lorenzo Luis and Dr. Ronnie Baticulon for health and medicine; and Candon, Ilocos Sur councilor Joanne Ascencion Valdez and Shawntel Nicole Nieto: founder of One Cainta Program, for humanitarian, civil society or voluntary leadership.
TOYM is an annual recognition given to Filipinos aged 18 40, who have made significant contributions to their field or community.