"AM I TO BE BLAMED?

"
(Declamation)

They're chasing me, they're chasing, no they must not catch me, I have
enough money now, yes enough for my starving mother and brothers.
Please let me go, let me go home before you imprisoned me.
Very well, officers? take me to your headquarters. Good morning
captain! no captain, you are mistaken, I was once a good girl, just like
the rest of you here. Just like any of your daughters. But time was, when
I was reared in slums. But we lived honestly, we lived honestly in life. My,
father, mother, brothers, sisters and I. But then, poverty enters the
portals of our home. My father became jobless, my mother got ill. The
small savings that my mother had kept for our expenses were spent. All
for our daily needs and her needed medicine.
One night, my father went out, telling us that he would come back in a
few minutes with plenty of foods and money, but that was the last time I
saw him. He went with another woman. If only I could lay my hands on
his neck I would wring it without pain until he breaths no more. If you
were in my place, you'll do it, won't you Captain? What? you won't still
believe in me?. Come and I'll show you a dilapidated shanty by a railroad.
Mother, mother I'm home, mother? mother?!. There Captain, see my
dead mother. Captain? There are tears in your eyes? Now pack this
stolen money and return it to the owner. What good would this do to my
mother now? She's already gone! Do you hear me? She's already gone.
Am I to be blamed for the things I have done?
 Bad Girl
(Declamation)

Hey! Everybody seems to be staring at me..

You! You! All of you!
How dare you to stare at me?
Why? Is it because I’m a bad girl?
A bad girl I am, A good for nothing teen ager, a problem child?
That’s what you call me!
I smoke. I drink. I gamble at my young tender age.
I lie. I cheat, and I could even kill, If I have too.
Yes, I’m a bad girl, but where are my parents?
You! You! You are my good parents?
My good elder brother and sister in this society where I live?
Look…look at me…What have you done to me?
You have pampered and spoiled me, neglected me when I needed you

most!
Entrusted me to a yaya, whose intelligence was much lower than mine!
While you go about your parties, your meetings and gambling session…
Thus… I drifted away from you!
Longing for a father’s love, yearning for a mother’s care!
As I grew up, everything changed!
You too have changed!
You spent more time in your poker, majong tables, bars and night clubs.
You even landed on the headlines of the newspaper as crooks, pedlars and

racketeers.
Now, you call me names, accuse me of everything I do to myself?
Tell me! How good are you?
If you really wish to ensure my future…
Then hurry….hurry back home! Where I await you, because I need you…
Protect me from all evil influences that will threathen at my very own

understanding…
But if I am bad, really bad…then, you’ve got to help me!
Help me! Oh please…Help me!
 I AM THE YOUTH OF TODAY – ORATION PIECE
Standard
By: Lovella Chris L. Palma

I am the youth of today. I am a descendant of the brave Katipuneros and the strong-willed leaders of the revolution. I
wear the red banner and carry the torch of my guerrilla forefathers. The blood of my ancestors runs through my
veins. I was not delivered into this world in defeat. The resilience of the past centuries nourishes my will but I am
still fighting for my freedom, justice, and peace.

To our distinguished members of the board of judges, to my fellow contenders, friends, visitors, ladies and
gentlemen, good afternoon.

I stand before you to speak for democracy, that our heroes died for, the unfortunate and unjust strived for, and the
present and even the future generation’s endeavour. Honor and dignity flow in my blood and my heart beats for
freedom.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Filipino heroism is our legacy. It is found in the determination that made it possible for
our Banganhon brothers to fight for freedom. It is in the courage that sustained them to seek justice for the brutal
Banga massacre many years ago. Let the blood of the courageous Katipuneros run through the veins of our children.
Let their cries be echoed to our youth. Let us revel in the victory and peace that our forefathers gave their life for.

But where is our freedom? Through the agony of the three hundreds of years under the Spanish colonization, several
years under the Japanese and American occupation, I should think we are liberated from foreign forces… but a
fellow Filipino dictator once again threatened our peace. When victory became ours, the seed of democracy in our
country began to take root and sprouted to grow. I should rejoice, and shout. However, ladies and gentlemen, I can
see pictures of our Mother Land in reality at the present and she is chained. Her shackles are those of poverty and
inequality. Her chains are those of injustices, human rights violations, corruption, and treason. Her eyes are blinded
by media, and social networking. But her heart breaks as she sees her sons point their guns at each other. She sees
her daughters slaving their way in foreign lands to earn money to buy food for their families. Is this what freedom
has cost her?

I am the youth of today, I am free to do what I want without prejudice. I am free to say what I want without fear of
incrimination. I have grown fond of TV shows, love teams and teleserye, and fight over them in social media. If
only my fellow youths can defend our land from domestic terrorist groups, like how we defend AlDub or Pastillas
girl. If only we can protect our West Philippine Sea from foreign invaders like how we protect our love teams from
rumors. Then I can say that our forefathers’ heroism is not in vain.

Fellow Banganhons, I am the Filipino Youth of today. I enjoy social networking like facebook and instagram. I like
taking selfies and posting it online. But what I do online does not define me. It is my thoughts – thoughts that will
always contain memories of the meaningful virtues our ancestors passed down to us. It is my words – in the stories
that I will tell my future children and grandchildren of how Aeaw-aeaw came to be. It is in my actions that embody
the true nature of Saguibin – helping one another.

As Dr. Jose Rizal once quoted, “He, who doesn’t know how to look back where he came from, will never reach his
destiny.” The only way to reach our dreams for the future is to have a clear understanding of the past. What has
already happened can never be changed but they can be lessons we can learn from.

I am the YOUTH of today. I am a descendant of the brave Katipuneros and the strong-willed leaders of the
revolution. I wear the red banner and carry the torch of my guerrilla forefathers. The blood of my ancestors runs
through my veins. I was not delivered into this world in defeat. The resilience of the past century nourishes my will
but I am still fighting for my freedom, justice, and peace. Ladies and gentlemen, where is YOUR freedom? Once
again, good afternoon.
 Oratorical Piece : Because Of What We Are, Of What We Believe

For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For this generation, the choice must
be our own.
Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the changed character of our people and on their faith.
In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty.
In a land rich in harvest, children must not be hungry.
In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die untended.
In a great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read and write.
How incredible it is that in this fragile existence, we should hate and destroy one another. There are
possibilities enough for all who will abandon mastery; others to pursue mastery over nature. There is
world enough for all to seek their happiness in their own way.

We have discovered that every child who learns, and every man who finds work, and every sick body that
is made whole – like a candle added to an altar – brightens the hope of all the faithful.

So let us reject any among us, who seek to reopen old wounds, and rekindle old hatreds. They stand in
the way of a seeking nation.

Let us join reason to faith and action to experience, to transform our unity of interest into a unity of
purpose. To achieve change without hatred; not without difference of opinion but without the deep and
abiding divisions which scar the union for generations.

Under the covenant of justice, liberty and union, we have become a nation. And we have kept our
freedom.
It is the excitement of becoming – always becoming, trying, probing, resting, and trying again but always
gaining.

If we fail now, then we will have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship; that democracy
rests on faith, that freedom asks more that it gives.

If we succeeded, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are; not
because of what we own, but rather because of what we believe.

For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of buildings and the rush of our day’s pursuits,
we are the believers in justice and liberty and union. And in our own union we believe that every man
must some day be free. And we believe in ourselves.

For this is what our country is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed bridge. It is the star
that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground.

Is our world gone? We say farewell, is a new world coming? We welcome it – and we will bend it to the
hopes of man.
But you must look within your own hearts to the old promises and to the old dreams. They will lead you
the best of all.