YOUTH AND CITY-BUILDING

(My 2nd contribution to mark.com.ph)

Every time Barangay elections loom, so as the debate to abolish or reform the Sangguniang Kabataan.

In its bare design, the Sangguniang Kabataan is said to be a source of Filipino pride.  Other nations point to it as a lead example of a nation’s commitment to youth empowerment in public governance – an institutional innovation that is in the forefront of the world. However, this source of pride abroad has an all too familiar murky reputation at home which includes being tagged as the training ground of corruption or derided as merely an expensive unit of sports event organizers. But as all institutions are, there are the good and the bad practices. So as the nation debates on the direction of much needed reforms, there is no reason why in the local we cannot push through our own reforms.

The Youth Council

Several bills such as Senate Bill No. 131 authored by Senator Francis Pangilinan and House Bill No. 591 authored by our own Representative Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao Representative Maximo Rodriguez, Jr have been filed mandating local government units to create a youth development council. But up to this day, they have stayed as bills. But this did not stop several Local Government units to adopt the idea through a local ordinance. This policy-recommending body is an assembly of the varied sectors of the youth namely: (1) the out of school (2) student councils of colleges and high schools (3) faith based youth (4) community based youth (5) Sangguniang Kabataan and joined by senior city hall officials. The details on the number of representatives, accreditation and internal procedures are dealt with by the individual ordinances.

The proposed City Youth Council

Representation and Synergy

This design recognizes one vital fact – the youth naturally organize themselves be it in churches, schools or barangays. The council finds its strength in the inherent quality of the youth to socialize, organize and specialize. Harnessing this cohesion and elevating it into formal sources of governance ideas hold promising potential. In this approach, determining youth policy and its resource allocations is not left to the Sangguniang Kabataan alone but it is now shared by these varied sectors whose own unique and immersed perspective in their specific area of advocacies brings rich policy discussions. With this close proximity between the youth and the city leaders, s youth group specializing in indigenous craft-making can raise a point on needed market access while a youth group specializing in digital marketing can contribute in city tourism promotions. Aside from engaging with city leadership, this also opens an opportunity for youth groups to complement each other to add value to their efforts. In the example, the marketing group can help promote the craft-making group which will in turn help the city promote its youth livelihood program. The combination of talents to produce good fruits is endless if only such venue to meet and engage is provided. The council is a laboratory of youth synergy combining talents and bringing fresh ideas to city hall.

Mobilization and Integration

More than just recommending things on paper, the council also acts as the pivot for massive and integrated youth mobilization. Generally youth groups are organized to forward a social cause or set of ideals but most often than not, they are made manifest in sporadic and one-shot outreach activities. One example is a tree planting activity that is made without considering the city reforestation plan, or a tutorial program in a community that is better off if served with a feeding program. These are good efforts that could have made greater impact if such are well placed inline with a city strategic intervention plan. The council can craft a master plan that outlines the various needs of barangays such as tutorial services, sports clinics and the like. The youth groups, equipped with their specialization can then choose among these specific barangays their area of intervention. The council is designed to funnel and guide the scattered energies of organized youth groups into an integrated and strategic movement that hopes to yield greater impact.

Political Education

The natural consequence of youth involvement in governance is political education. Through the council, the youth base can push the tipping point in elevating our city’s level of political engagement. And more so, the bias towards this kind of participatory-democracy will hopefully produce political leaders whose experience in such a youth council made him or her see the value of collective owning and citizenship engagement in defining our city’s priorities and direction.

A Call for Reform

Our city is home to countless of youth organizations housed in schools, communities or places of worship. In recent years, we have seen STREAMS, an education support and scholarship program and DIRE HUSI, a youth formation and entrepreneurship organization rise to be one of the Top Ten Most Accomplished Youth Organizations in the whole nation. We see others station on parks teaching street kids basic math and others deliver health products to far flung communities. The energy of the youth in the city is powerful. Once given a formal mode to craft and push the city’s youth agenda, they are given a profound sense of communal ownership in the direction the city takes and a clear reason to commit in fulfilling the agenda’s goals.After all, the youth has led this nation before at its rearing. And it is youth that will lead the nation to its destiny.

(Ernesto Baconga Neri is a 3rd year Law Student of Xavier University. He is a volunteer of the Kagayanon Youth for Good Governance and resident intern of the Xavier University Center for Legal Assitance)

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