MANILA, Oct. 11, 2011— Episcopal Commission on Youth Executive Secretary, Fr. Conegundo Garganta confirmed that 99 percent of the Filipino delegates to the World Youth Day held in Spain have already made it home.
In a media forum held Tuesday, Garganta made it clear that 99 percent of the delegates are all accounted for.
“The sub-group leaders already reported and we in the national secretariat for youth apostolate has documented that 99 percent of our delegation to the latest World Youth Day celebration in Madrid is already home,” Garganta said.
Garganta added that the 1 percent will be back in the Philippines by Oct. 15, for those delegates were given visas that will expire until the said date.
ECY Philippines is the official delegation of the country every World Youth Day for it is the youth arm of the Bishops’ Conference. They sent a delegation of 425 young people during the WYD Madrid celebration.
World Youth Day celebration has become a portal for opportunists who have plans to work in a foreign land. It was reported that the WYD held in Rome in 2000 had the most cases of “tnt’s” while the 2008 WYD in Australia had all delegates returned 100 percent back to the country.
The said commission cannot yet confirm if there are so-called “tnt’s” for this year’s WYD, but for the ECY Philippines delegation, they returned home.
Aside from the official delegation under the ECY, there are other 1500 delegates who belonged to ‘other-groups’. Youth leaders from the said groups will report on Oct. 13 for their accountability. (Jandel Posion)
