By Freddie G. Lazaro

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union (21 February) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed DepEd Region I Director Vilma L. Labrador to the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) National Commission of the Philippines.

Labrador will sit in the Commission as the Member of the Committee on Education, representing the Government Organization.

The UNESCO National Commissions are national cooperating bodies set up by the Members States, which number 192 to-date. The UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM-Phils.) was created in 1951.

UNACOM-Phils is an attached agency to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and is chaired by the DFA Secretary. Mrs. Preciosa Soliven is its present Secretary-General.

The UNACOM advises the government on matters relating to UNESCO and on the appropriate ways and means by which educational, scientific and cultural developments could best benefit the country. It’s also serves as a liaison body between the government and UNESCO.

In the area of education, UNESCO’s major thrust for the decade is Towards Lifelong Education For All, with basic education as priority. “I see this as an extension or what I’m doing,” the Director said of her last appointment, adding, “it affords me a wider terrain for pursuing my life passion or helping the youth”.

Director Labrador is the National Chairperson of the people’s Advocates for Values Education (PAVE). She sees her PAVE involvement as coinciding with UNESCO,s over-all aim of “creating conditions for genuine dialogue based upon respect for shared values and dignity of each civilization and culture.”