President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Duterte Youth Movement national chairman Ronald Gian Cardema as the new chairman of the National Youth Commission.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque announced his appointment in a Palace press briefing Tuesday afternoon.
Cardema, who replaced Ice Seguerra, served as the NYC officer-in-charge when the singer and noontime host resigned last March, citing personal reasons as an explanation for the resignation.
Upon his stint as the OIC, Cardema cut the commission’s 15-year partnership with the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) Awards, co-organized by the office of Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV.
According to Cardema, the commission would rather spend the fund for the TAYO Awards to a new set of awards called as the “President Rodrigo Roa Duterte Youth Leadership Awards.”
The new NYC chief has already expressed his support for the return of the mandatory Reserved Officers Training Corps, mandatory Citizenship Advancement Training for high school students, and even mandatory scouting for elementary school students.
Cardema, a confessed military youth leader, pushes for the return of the military conscription as he eyes to strengthen the reserve force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
NYC shifted its focus from pushing for military-related activities than spreading awareness on HIV and AIDS which Seguerra previously tackled during her term.
Last April, Cardema said the commission would not put the same level of priority on issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
“We are the National Youth Commission, not an LGBT commission. We are here to serve the tens of millions of Filipino youth, not only a specific sector within that big youthful population,” the military youth leader said.
Cardema, the secretary general of the Tapang & Malasakit Alliance for Luzon, is a passionate supporter of Duterte during the 2016 presidential elections.
The new NYC chief made headlines during an encounter with the administration’s critic Jim Paredes in a protest commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution in February 2017.