By Vian Clinch Leybag
April 9, 2021 - These 2 Filipino exchange students inspire a new generation of youths after their old 1950’s debate video became an internet sensation.
Raul Contreras | screen grab from ArchiveMC
A 15-year-old exchange student named Raul Contreras became viral in his outstanding statements about justice and prejudice.
“In the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, it mentions something about ‘I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible under God, with liberty and justice for all," Contreras answered when asked about justice and prejudice.
Well, the last phrase just doesn’t solve everything, I mean, with this segregation problem here and the discrimination against colored people, how in the world could you have liberty and justice for all?,” he added.
Raul Contreras represents the Philippines in a debate, alongside students from Indonesia, United Kingdom, and Japan.
As stated from the GMA article, development worker Kate Contreras said her father was eloquent in speaking.
“Dad was always studying and reading (up) on everything. He was always curious and outspoken, maybe because he was also encouraged to be such in his family,” she said.
At 15, Raul became the Philippine representative to the New York Herald Tribune Forum and he later worked as an advertising and public relations specialist in New York before setting up his firm Public Communications Associates Inc.
Contreras was once named media bureau director under the presidency of former President Corazon Aquino and later he received the Bedan of the Year Award.
He then passed away in April 2012 from kidney failure due to lupus.
One of the exchange students in a 1950’s debate video named Jonny Antillon also gets viral in his message of hope that is still relevant today.
“Usually when I discuss with people the kind of world we want, they astonish me by describing a Utopia without care. They tell me of a world where a man can lounge around with a pipe in one hand and a book in the other. As for me, I like this world,” he said.
He also added that he like the striving and the plans of this particular century because it makes him feel like he is being a part of a wonderful and exciting experiment.
Juan "Johnny" Blanco Antillon was an orphan to a Cuban father who died in World War II and to sustain his studies, he sold fish door-to-door, traveling on foot back and forth between Cavite and Manila.
He graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman and went on to pursue law but didn't finish.
After a trending video of Antillon gets a lot of attention, his grandson Daniel Buenaventura introduced himself and shares how proud he is in his “Popo” – as they call him.
"For someone like him who has endured so much in his life, coming from a poor country that was battered and destroyed by a world war, seeing how grand everything was in New York, how people were able to live normal lives—it did signify hope for him, " Buenaventura said.
"With such a world of such challenge and scope, our lives may never be complacent, but they shall certainly be worth living," Antillion said from a video uploaded by ArchiveMC on youtube, standing up in his speech at the UN.
The viral 1950’s debate videos got much attention on social media that leads some netizens to compare these youths to today's generation.
While some are proud and take up a strong pride in our fellow Filipino youths, saying this could be an inspiration to today's generation of youth.
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