UP Kalilayan launches ‘Tagisan 35’ to highlight youth’s role vs disinformation

This is a press release from the University of the Philippines (UP) Kalilayan Tagisan 35

The University of the Philippines (UP) Kalilayan will host the 35th installment of Tagisan, a a week-long competition for junior and senior high school students from Quezon and Aurora starting Monday, March 1 until Saturday, March 6 in various online platforms.

Tagisan, the flagship project of UP Kalilayan, is one of the country’s largest provincial interschool competitions. It is also an annual gathering of the brightest junior and senior high school students from Quezon and Aurora. 

This year’s theme for Tagisan is dubbed,“Lifelines and Headlines: Unmasking Gen Z’s Role in Flattening the Infodemic Curve” that focuses on the underlying pandemic in the age of “fake news” with the overabundance of information. 

“The 35th edition of Tagisan gave us a different challenge because of the pandemic where gatherings aren’t allowed, so our yearly setup had to be modified. We opted to conduct the event in an online setup. Still, it was accompanied with doubts and fears if we’re capable enough to prepare and execute such a prestigious event while being away from one another,” Tagisan 35 Project Head Ainjelou Arce said. 

Tagisan 35 highlights the youth’s role in fighting against disinformation that undermines the public health response affecting the country’s ability to stop the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is also an opportunity for rural schools in Quezon and Aurora to showcase their skills and talents as they usually can’t participate [in] the event in a face-to-face setup since the venue is usually far from their respective municipalities,” Arce said.

The competition includes impromptu speech and dagliang talumpati, essay writing and pagsulat ng sanaysay, short film making contest, quiz show, digital poster making, song making, and photography contest. 

As the competition transfers to an online setup, the organizers decided to make Tagisan 35 free of charge for those who are interested to join.

“The biggest driving force of our organization is the idea of providing a platform for the Quezonian and Auroran youth to speak up regarding the issues amidst the global pandemic and highlighting their vital role in disseminating reliable and accurate information” explains Arce.

Registration for Tagisan 35 is extended until Sunday, February 28.  You can check the registration process here.

Watch out for the participants’ entries from the asynchronous competitions on March 1-5. You can catch Tagisan 35’s main live event its official Facebook page of Tagisan on March 6. 

For more information, you can send an email to upktagisan@gmail.com. Connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Shopee. 

UP Kalilayan is a recognized socio-cultural organization of the University of the Philippines Diliman, with members hailing from both Quezon and Aurora provinces. – Rappler.com