Project Saysay, TOSP R3ACH, Project Captured to Feature Great Filipinos from Central Luzon

“#Bayaniforever: Hindi Natapos Kahapon ang Kabayanihan” (“#Heroforever: Heroism Did Not Last Yesterday”) is the theme of this year’s 8th Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines Regional Week in Central Luzon. The theme was officially unveiled by The Outstanding Students of the Philippines Region 3 Alumni Community Heroes (TOSP R3ACH) on 1 April 2015 which signals the kick-off for the regional week which will take place from 23-27 April 2015 in Bataan.

TOSP R3ACH has collaborated with Project Saysay and Project Captured, two advocacy projects of TOSP alumni, to come up with inspiring stories to serve as countdown to regional week. Dubbed as “Sa Loob ng Bayan” (“Inside the Nation”), the collaborative project is anchored in this year’s theme which will feature 20 great Filipinos from Central Luzon who have inspired and have mattered to the nation. The feature stories all written by Project Saysay. Project Captured also features the works of Jairo Felerino, artist of The Guilds, Bataan Peninsula State University’s official student publication, who was chosen to artistically interpret the featured men and women.

“Loob” (“inner self”) which has profound meaning in Filipino culture, is a word chosen in response to the question “mayroon nga bang forever?” (“is there really a forever?”) posted by TOSP R3ACH as teaser for the launching of the theme. It is inspired by the concept of “loob” by Dr. Virgilio Enriquez, a native of Balagtas, Bulacan and regarded as “Ama ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino” (“Father of Filipino Psychology”). The title itself “Sa Loob ng Bayan” is inspired by a line in Florante at Laura, authored by Francisco Balagtas, also a native of Balagtas (formerly Bigaa), “Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong sawi, kaliluha'y siyang nanyayaring hari” (“Within and outside my deplorable land, deception is reigning”). It is in this same line from which the concept of “bayan” in reference to the Philippines is said to have originated and popularized later by the Katipunan. Likewise, the “loob” concept in reading the lives of great Filipinos is inspired by the book Pasyon and the Revoolution, authored by historian Reynaldo Ileto, a native of San Ildefonso, Bulacan.

“Sa Loob ng Bayan” will run its 20-part series on 2 April 2015 on psaysay.tumblr.com and www.facebook.com/TOSP.R3ACH. It is also being conceptualized to be compiled into a book, to include 20 other great Central Luzon men and women in its first volume.