College of Health Sciences – Lone rangers out, shared efforts in. Let’s get it on!This was the tone of the one-day Regional Consultative Meeting cum Workshop held Feb. 27 at the University Training Center sponsored by the university through the Physical Therapy Department (PT), the Physical Education Department (PE), and the Physical Education, Sports, and Socio-cultural Development Office (PESSDO) in partnership with the Philippine Council for Human Movement Professionals (PhilCHuMPs).

With “Challenges, Directions, Networking” as theme, the activity was attended by 32 participants from all the provinces in Region I (except for Pangasinan) who represented diverse organizations such as local government units, hospitals and medical centers, private sectarian and non-sectarian academic institutions, and state universities.

Prof. Gilda L. Uy, Graduate School Department head of the University of the Philippines College of Human Kinetics (UP CHK) in Diliman, Quezon City and PhilCHuMPs founding president served as facilitator and resource speaker during the said workshop. She explained that the body she formed operates more like a Facebook account, which links all physical activity (PA) professionals in the Philippines in a collaborative manner towards a unified advocacy.

The activity was composed of three interactive workshops which dealt on the identification of issues and concerns related to PA professionals, strategies in response to local and global challenges, and networking schedules among PA professionals in the region.

Outputs of each workshop were reported via the small groups formed and was consolidated for presentation by Prof. Uy. She told the group that their output will be added and compared to those done by other PAs from Zamboanga City (representing Mindanao) and Cebu City (representing the Visayas) who attended the same workshop earlier. She extended her invitation for a national conference of this nature to be held in Zamboanga City in April and an international conference in November 2012.

Adapting the Iluko word for “movement,” the participants agreed to form the TIGNAY Coalition of Northern Luzon – a support group that will serve as prime advocate of physical activity with its hub of operations to be based in the university. Meanwhile, the workshop directory, which included all contact details of each participant, was distributed. The group also opened and launched the TGNAY@yahoogroups. com e-mail address and the TIGNAY webpage at Yahoo! Groups which will serve as venue for announcements, messages, and reports in the cyberspace. The schedule for formal meeting to elect officers of the said alliance is yet to be set and announced via the group e-mail.

“With this meeting, I was able to appreciate my line of work more and link with other professions,” commented Prof. Antonio Calicdan, PE program chairperson of DMMMSU-SLUC. Prof. Edna Rivad, PE coordinator of UNP, extended her gratitude to the event organizers and expressed full support to the group. Ms. Shelly Cortez, a physical therapist from the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in the City of San Fernando, La Union, said: “It is only now I realize that our discipline can spread far and wide if diverse professions can seek a common ground.”   

Prof. Ryan Dean T. Sucgang of the MMSU PT Department and Mr. Perry B. Dafun Jr. of the CAS PE Department served as lead organizers and conveners of the  event.