Tanauan, Leyte (23 September) -- Mayor Roque A. Tiu of Tanauan, Leyte has been invited as a speaker in the panel interview entitled Face to Face with the Champions portion of the 5th Knowledge Exchange Conference on September 24, 2009.

In his letter, Dr. Angelo Ramos, the Conference Convenor, requested Mayor Tiu to talk about how Local Government Units can support the activities of the Philippine Community e-Centers Network (PhilCeCNet). After the speech, the session moderator will ask select questions to the panel.

The panel includes Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua of CICT and Mr. Ricky Banaag of Intel.

Tanauan has the distinction of being the first municipality in Eastern Visayas to set up a Community e-Center.

Tanauan is also the first municipality of the Philippines to implement the eSkuwela, a flagship project of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), that is envision to provide ICT-enhanced educational opportunities for Filipino out-of-school youth and adults.

In fact the 20-seater Tanauan eSkwela which is based at the Community e-Center, is the first LGU initiated eSkwela in the country.

The 5th Knowledge Exchange Conference for Community e-Centers scheduled on September 23-24, 2009 at the Seameo Innotech, Innotech Building, Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, has for its theme "Celebrating Learning, Moving Forward Together."

Dr. Ramos said that this year is a milestone for the Philippine Community e-Centers as they celebrate the past five years' accomplishments which can largely be attributed to the enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and diligence of the local government officials, CeC managers, and the community.

The Conference Convenor added that the Conference is also an opportune time for the stakeholders to look back at the feats of the Philippine CeC Network (PhilCeCNet) since it was established in 2007. (PIA 8)