Meet Barangay BF Homes SK Kagawad Jerry Dalmero

To be a youth engaged in public service aimed at the local community is not a joke. For starters, youth here in the Philippines have their academics to prioritize. They also have to spend time with their respective families and obey their parents. As if that was not had enough, youth public servants have to do a ton of research youon participating in the democratic exercise (note: running for office and convincing voters to trust them), the legislative procedures and actual participation in projects and events.

Those are just some of the things that Barangay BF Homes Sangguniang Kabataan (BFSK) Kagawad Jerry Dalmero went through. The 20-year-old has been serving in the SK (youth council in English) of what is the largest barangay in South Metro Manila since late June of 2018. He is in the same SK leadership with six other SK kagawads and SK chairperson Mariel Tumang.

This is my feature interview of him.

A guy named Jerry

Barangay BF Homes SK Kagawad Jerry Dalmero was born in 1999 in Masville which is a developing community within the said barangay in Parañaque City. He has yet to complete his academics. Apart from serving in the BFSK, he is also active as a coach in the Masville Elementary School Performing Arts Group where he teaches youth how to dance, sing, act and modeling.

Before even running for the BFSK, the Sangguniang Kabataan was reformed nationally through legislation in 2015. This made a series of changes on the SK system and as such the SK election (held per community nationwide) in May 2018 was the first of the reformed system. This makes Jerry Dalmero, his fellow SK kagawads and chairperson Tumang the pioneers of the reformed BFSK.

Dalmero ran in the May 2018 SK election of Barangay BF Homes as a member of the SK candidates team under the group of Barangay BF Homes captain Paolo Marquez. I asked him how he became a candidate in the first place.

“A teacher recommended me to ma’am Zeny Pascual who was working for Barangay BF Homes. I was asked if I were interested to run for a seat in the SK,” Dalmero recalled. “At first, I really did not want to run because I knew that politics is dirty. I also found disturbing the idea for running which requires a whole lot of resources such as funds, campaign materials, on-site campaigns and others. My teacher told me that my candidacy will be supported.”

Subsequently Dalmero agreed to run under the banner of Team Paolo Marquez in the 2018 election. To his surprise, he and his teammates received a whole of support, sponsors and other supporters.

During the campaign period in the summer of 2018, Dalmero and his teammates had to endure the challenges of physically campaigning around Barangay BF Homes which is known not only for its very high population but also for the high density of community population and vast physical locations.

“It was very hard for me to campaign. I really did not realize back then that Barangay BF Homes is very large and wide. We visited not only a lot of places but also the hard-to-reach spots where there turned out to be lots of residents. I had to learn a lot as the campaign went on. I even missed some meetings with my family,” he said.

Dalmero had to learn new ways in order to communicate effectively with the voters. His teammates also happen to be good looking and he even wondered if he was charismatic enough to attract the voters.

The election campaign engine of Team Paolo Marquez turned out to be efficient. Dalmero admitted that as he and his SK teammates struggled to reach out to voters, then candidate for Barangay captain Paolo Marquez took time out to convince voters to support their youth ticket. Marquez even raised the arm of Dalmero to the voters. Eventually Dalmero won.

Before winning, however, the stress and anxiety went really high as the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) counted the votes of the SK election in May 2018. Dalmero and his teammates were at the Team Paolo Marquez campaign headquarters waiting for whatever updates would come in. As he was already exhausted from the campaigning and lack of sleep during the night of vote counting, he left to go home to rest. That was until something happened.

“I was on my way back home when I decided to ask someone for updates regarding the election results. Shortly after, I received an update that the counting was finished and that several of us had to go to the Phase 1 gym (along Pilar Banzon street) for the proclamation. As I was riding going to the venue, I was in tears as I was happy and felt very relieved to have won,” Dalmero recalled.

Even though he and others got proclaimed, Dalmero still could hardly believe his victory was real. He remembered that before even becoming a candidate with the team of Chairperson Paolo Marquez, a lot of youth were asked if they were interested to run. Considering the odds and challenges he went through, Dalmero’s victory was a hard-earned one.

As member of the BFSK, Dalmero handles the Committee on Culture and Tourism. The committee is in charge of organizing or sponsoring events dealing with culture and history, and engage the local youth to participate. Along the way, he served as judge in varied contests or special events in different schools within the barangay.

For the near future, Dalmero announced that his committee will organize pageants called Little Miss Barangay BF Homes and Miss Barangay BF Homes. The latter will serve as the basis for Barangay BF Homes on selecting candidates to represent them in the annual Binibining Parañaque pageant which is held each time the City Government of Parañaque organizes its Cityhood Anniversary events. The final venue and schedules of the two said events will be determined soon.

Also coming is a talent workshop to be organized by BFSK designed to train participants to sing and dance. Also part of it is a recital concert. The committee is also involved in the cleanliness and beautification efforts of the BFSK.

Message to the Readers

“I express my thanks to the readers of this website and I hope that youth, both online and in the real world, will become inspired to be more productive and more meaningful people for they are the future of our nation. That being said, the youth who do well will eventually inspire many other people.”

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