HOW old were you when you helped make a difference for your country?

For Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, everyone, especially the youth, has the potential to do something great regardless of age or circumstance.

“Our culture today does not pay attention to the youth and I think that is something we have to reflect on as to what direction we are going,” he said.

In his speech during the City Government’s commemoration of the 155th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio on Friday, Nov. 30, Osmeña said that despite their young age, Bonifacio, Dr. Jose Rizal and his grandfather, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., led movements that helped changed the country.

“If you really think about it, the leaders that moved our country to the forefront were young people,” he added.

But it wasn’t only his young age that made Bonifacio remarkable, Osmeña said.

Although he came from a poor family and did not attend a prestigious school, Bonifacio led the Katipuneros in fighting hard for freedom from the hands of their Spanish colonizers.

“He, in life, was a nobody and yet he stood up and founded then led the movement to try to unite 7,000 islands. Who did he stand up for? He stood up for you and me. He stood up to see to it that where we are today would not be where he was, where he found himself 155 years ago,” Osmeña said.

After they mayor’s speech, city officials, the police and other attendees offered flowers at the hero’s monument at the Plaza Independencia. RTF