MANILA—The search is on for the “Makabagong Rizal.”

The Philippine Center for Gifted Education (PCGE) will select 35 Filipino children and youth to commit their lives to the ideals of Dr. Jose Rizal. The event, dubbed as “Makabagong Rizal: Pag-asa ng Bayan”, is in celebration of the 150th birthday of Dr. Jose Rizal in June.

The nominees must excel in their areas of interest and skills represented by Gardner’s multiple intelligence in the linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal and naturalistic intelligence.

Those who will be chosen are from the following age groups: elementary grades 3-6; 1styear-4th year high school; tertiary or vocational technical program and out-of-school youth enrolled in short term courses.

Nominations start from March 21 to April 30 and the selected 35 youth leaders will be sworn in on June 17, 2011 at the CCP.

National and local institutions invited to nominate students and youth are the Regional Development Councils, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education Skills Development Authority, Philippine Sports Commission, Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas, Mathematical Society of the Philippines, Boy Scouts of the Philippines, Girl Scouts of the Philippines, National Commission for Indigenous Peoples, National Council on Disability Affairs and National Music Competitions for Young Artists.

The search is conducted in cooperation with the National Historical Commission, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Cultural Center of the Philippines , and Tanghalang Pilipino.

For more information, call the PCGE at (02) 544-0352.