Dr. John Kit Masigan, SPUP’s Grade School Student Activity Chair represented the Philippines as Ambassador of Goodwill in a 52-day diplomatic cultural exchange cruise through the 46th Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program (SSEAYP). Together with 26 of the country’s finest youth leaders from all the regions and 1 national leader, Dr. Masigan interacted with 300 Southeast Asian and Japanese youth ambassadors onboard the ship MS Nippon Maru while visiting Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and Malaysia on October 23 to December 13, 2019.
The Philippine delegation manifested their diplomacy skills onboard the ship through intensive discussion programs of social significance, intercultural presentations, and informal cultural narrative exchanges with other delegates and organizers from Japan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
During the port of call in selected countries, the youth ambassadors spent time interacting with local youth, paying courtesy calls on dignitaries, visiting local institutions and experiencing a distinct home stay program.
Continuously running for 46 years now, SSEAYP has been considered as one of the premier youth programs in the Philippines and has already produced a strong network of leaders in the country who are greatly influencing the country’s government, non-government, academic and private institutions. It is organized by the Cabinet Office of Japan and supported by the National Youth Commission which leads the selection of delegates and implementation of Philippine country program.
