Raymond Palatino is set to make history in a matter of days when we expect him to take his oath as the first elected youth representative in Congress where he will carry the colors of Kabataan Party.

Mong, as he is more popularly and fondly known, invites everyone to an afternoon of coffee and conversation tomorrow, April 25, 3:00 pm at Kape Tasyo, Anonas, Quezon City. (Kape Tasyo is Freedom Bar at daytime. It is a stone’s throw away from LRT2 Anonas Station.)

This is an opportunity to make our concerns known to Mong and to pick his brains too about issues.

There will be free coffee for everyone and WIFI too for those who wish to blog or plurk or tweet during the event.

More about Mong:

Mong is regional editor for Southeast Asia of Global Voices Online.

He is also a columnist for UPI Asia.

He blogs at mongster’s nest.

He is also at Facebook, Twitter and Plurk.

He is also a convenor and board member of TXTPower.

His official profile from Kabataan Partylist:

29-year-old Raymond “Mong” Palatino is considered as one of the most brilliant youth leaders in the country. He was chair of the University Student Council of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in 2000 and president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), the largest alliance of tertiary student councils nationwide from 2001 to 2003. He is also one of the leading youth veterans of EDSA Dos.

An education graduate of UP, Palatino has been a prominent figure in various campaigns and issues concerning youth and students. He was convenor to several youth alliances such as the Education for All (e4all) Movement, Abolish ROTC, Tuition Refund, Youth Action Network against electoral fraud and violence, Youth Demanding Arroyo’s Removal (Youth DARE), Youth against Charter Change and Tyranny (Y-CHAT), Youth for Accountability and Truth Now (Youth ACT Now), and TxtPower, a consumer rights advocacy group, among others.

In 2004, Palatino was recognized by the Quezon City government for exemplary youth leadership and was awarded by the United Nations Association of the Philippines as an Outstanding Youth Leader for Advocacy on National Concerns.

Palatino also writes for several online publications, aside from maintaining his own web blog. He is a web columnist for tinig.com, former news editor of yehey.com, a contributing editor for Global Voices Online, and one of the leading members of Bloggers’ Kapihan, an online network of young bloggers. He has also been a regular resource speaker of both Houses of Congress on youth and education issues.

Palatino is also a proud father to his new son Neil Esmond, born a day after the issuance of the SC Resolution, and daughter Renee Elle, 4 years old.