The 5th National Letter Writing Day was held simultaneously across the country on October 9. In Tarlac it was participated by 221 students fromTarlac National High School (TNHS) from which the perfect representative for the Universal Postal Union (UPU) International Letter Writing Competition for Young People (ILWC) in Switzerland might be chosen. The said event was held at the Lower Ground Level of SM City Tarlac.
Every year the Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) had been actively organizing the Letter Writing Contest and was greatly supported by the Department of Education. Also SM Supermalls is one with PHLPost’s advocacy in encouraging the young minds to speak out through their creativity, imagination and views on the world to envision a positive change in a form of a letter.
The event’s program commenced with an invocation followed by the singing of the Philippine National Anthem. Then Ms. Michelle Charlene Chua, SM City Tarlac assistant mall manager gave a welcome remarks followed by inspirational messages from Ms. Arlene Quiani, Head Teacher at Tarlac National High School and Mr. Bernardito V. Gonzales, PHLPost Northwest Luzon area director. After that Mr. Rizalino Robles, PHLPost Marketing Specialist III gave the mechanics for the letter writing competition with the theme,”If you will be a counselor of the new United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, which world issue would you help him tackle first and how would you advise him to solve it?” It should be composed in a form of a letter written in Filipino.
Then after an hour and a half of silence that was given to the participants for them to focus on composing their letters, the Lower Ground Level of SM City Tarlac became lively because of the performances of Mr. Orlando Alejo,Jr., Grade 10 Filipino Teacher at TNHS; A trio song number from Grade 7 students: Ms. Aliza Grace Aquino, Ms. Charmaine Ramos and Ms. Ma. Beatriz Quiambao and a cool performance from the Singing Kartero band.
Moreover, together with SM City Tarlac the letter writing event was concurrently held in other SM Malls like SM City Cabanatuan, SM City North Edsa, SM City San Pablo, SM Seaside City Cebu, SM City Iloilo, and SM City Davao.
There will be 3 winners who will receive certificates, medals and tokens. The winning entries will be chosen from the 221 participants,that will be announced after the screening of all the letters submitted. Then one of them could be the next representative of the Philippines to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) International Letter Writing Competition for Young People (ILWC) in Switzerland./Diosa M. Soriano