The participants and the chopsticks.

PJ 1 in  U.P. Diliman 

The latest PJ1 Training held on September 1-2, 2007 at the University of the Philippines-Diliman gathered 13 M.A. students, a practicing journalist, an OPAPP employee, and a PECOJON staff in a weekend of peace and conflict journalism inputs and exercises, and some “fierce competition.”

During the games, that is.  “This is by far the most competitive batch,” said Ledrolen Manriquez, Chief of Operations, PECOJON National Secretariat, referring to how the participants behaved in the various games prepared as relevant and vital part of the training...

How the chopstick challenge took a little more time to get going is one, and the underlying tactics in the tug-of-war is yet another story.

But when it was time for work, work they did, prompting Facilitator and PECOJON International Coordinator Antonia Koop to appreciate the level of outputs and the quality of discussions during the sessions.  Of course, there were some unusual views and ideas running wild all throughout the course especially during the presentations.  However, as they say, it was all part of the learning experience.

Shirley Evidente, Assistant Professor 1 at the UP College of Mass Communications and a veteran herself of the PECOJON trainings having survived PJS 1 to 3 in just three months, organized the event.  It was initially tailored for her M.A. in Broadcast
Communications students.  But tossing in a practicing journalist who wanted to complete her PJ1 training having skipped second day in her first try, a government employee working on the peace process, and a new staff being baptized into the conflict-sensitive
realm of PECOJON was not a bad idea.  They added flavor and color to the otherwise academic atmosphere M.A. students usually find themselves in.

Oh, yes, another PJ training done. And the goal of transforming the media system seems nearer and more feasible each time.  To think, the next stop is the rest of Southeast Asia starting in East Timor and Indonesia later this year.