Mercado opens COPC 55th Foundation Day, Graduation Ceremony

MESSAGE

SEARSOLIN Module on Independent

& Responsible Journalism
Nov. 11, 2006, 7:00 P.M. SEARSOLIN

By ANSELMO B. MERCADO

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Our partners from the COPC, its officers and members, distinguished guests, SEARSOLIners, friends of SEARSOLIN and COPC, leaders and gentlemen – Maayong Gabii.

Three things I would like to do in my “Welcome Remarks.”

Firstly, in the name of SEARSOLIN and Xavier University, let me welcome all of you to our joint program and ceremonies this evening. What we are celebrating tonight are two milestones. For COPC, it’s a big milestone for having come this far - - 55 years and still going strong (more than 90 members now, I was told). The other milestone is the COPC-SEARSOLIN joint project, which is not as big, but a milestone nonetheless – the successful completion of the first training on “Independent & Responsible Journalism.”

We are happy to see all of you here. We are honored y your presence and we are very grateful to you for being here to celebrate these milestones with us tonight.

This brings me to the second thing I would like to do. Again, in the name of SERSOLIN and Xavier University, I would like to convey our heartfelt congratulations to COPC, to all its members and officers, past and present, for its 55 years of life and blessings. I am sure COPC’s presence and impact have been felt by our people and society.

One can only look back and say: “COPC has accomplished quite a lot! One can also further say: “There’s a lot more that COPC can do to make a positive contribution to society.” As we congratulate you tonight, we also offer our prayers and good wishes to COPC for more blessings and success in your future work and challenges.

Thirdly, let me say a few remarks about our joint COPC-SEARSOLIN project.

This project is really a product of our partnership which we forged sometime in the year 2004. The objective of our partnership was and still is (let me paraphrase it):
TO TRAIN, AND IN A SENSE CONSCIENTICIZE, OUR PEERS IN THE MEDIA WORLD TO BECOME GOOD, CREDIBLE, HONEST, CONSCIENTIOUS, COMPETENT PROFESSIONALS AND LEADERS, WHO WILL LOOK UPON THEIR PROFESSION AND MEDIA WORK NOT ONLY AS A MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD, BUT PERHAPS MORE SO TO BE INSTRUMENTS FOR POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGE IN OUR SOCIETY.

TO BE INSTRUMENTS OF PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT OF OUR PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES.

To help bring this about we have embarked in this joint project to offer a training program, consisting of ten related subject areas, that has a 2-pronged aim:
1. To promote the understanding of the role of media in civil society, and
2. To enhance the investigative journalistic skills of journalists in government, NGOs, schools and others especially in reporting on corruption and development issues.

During the past year, this joint undertaking has had its “trying moments” to recruit, to select and to conduct our first training course. It has not been an easy task.

However, even with some degree of disappointment, we are still pleased to be able to complete our first training course. Tonight, we are happy and proud to present our first two successful graduates and to award them with Certificates of Completion. We are also happy to note that others, like our

Searsoliners of this year’s batch, have been able to partially participate in our training course.

In the name of our joint partnership, COPC-SEARSOLIN, let me congratulate our two graduates of the

First COPC-SEARSOLIN course on “Responsible and Independent Journalism.”

In conclusion, let me offer our prayers and hope that our COPC-SEARSOLIN partnership will continue and strengthen, not for its own sake, but for our partnership to be of genuine service to our media professionals ultimately to benefit our people and society.

Daghang salamat ug maayong gabii!

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