Children’s music summit vs drugs held
DAGUPAN CITY— Some 23,000 elementary and secondary public and private school children benefited from exciting and educational treats during the second Children’s Congress on Music as a way to fight illegal drugs.
The three-day summit from Feb. 27 to March 1 had as its theme “Musika Laban sa Droga” highlighting the city government’s support to President Duterte’s strong campaign against illegal drugs.
Mayor Belen Fernandez said, “Today, we make another history with 23,000 children joining this summit intended for them.”
The Children’s Summit is the city’s affirmation of love and care for the children of Dagupan, Fernandez said.
The Children’s Summit shows that it is not enough to build roads, bridges, schools and facilities for children.
“We need to help them build their skills, develop selfconfidence, build hopes and dreams for themselves and their city,” she added.
Cultural Center of the Philippines president Raul Sunico who was the keynote speaker congratulated the city government under Fernandez and the DepEd for the summit.
“It is heartening to note that the theme of this summit is on music and that both the city government of Dagupan and the DepEd recognize the importance of music in our daily lives,” he said.
One of the main components of this year’s summit is the participation of UST Conservatory of Music of which Sunico was its former dean.
The three- day summit is geared on enhancing further the children’s talent in music especially in singing and in playing musical instruments like guitar, among others.
The participants had the opportunity to be trained for free on choir and guitar. They altogether stage a concert featuring 5,000 voices and 1,000 guitar players.
The participants were joined in the concert by the Balon Dagupan Children’s Choir, Dagupan Kawayan Ensemble, the UST Symphonic Orchestra, Coro Tomasino and Liturgikon from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
On day one, the UST Symphonic Orchestra, UST Symphonic Band, Coro Tomasino, Liturgikon and Guitar Ensemble had a free concert at the city plaza.
The following day, the Coro Tomasino and Liturgikon was to be joined by the Balon Dagupan Children’s Choir and the Dagupan Kawayan Ensemble in another musical concert.
—