Get our young people out of dirty politics
During my time in a small town in Bicol when the National College Entrance Examination was still administered, the passers would go to the nearby city or to Manila, to study in college and become professionals. The flunkers, with nothing much better to do, would run in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK). One of them won and even became a municipal federation chair, and thus became an ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Bayan. From there, he became the town’s traditional politician rising to higher posts although he was one of our class’ laughingstock. That is the narrative I can always think of when the debate regarding the abolition of SK comes into national attention.
The SK is too much for our youth at their tender age of 15 to 21. They belong only to school and not to politics. When I was teaching in a college in a city, I had many students from other towns who were SK chairs in their barangays and they had to go home every now and then to squeeze their barangay duties in between their school responsibilities. The worst students I had were SK municipal federation chairs who had to juggle between school and their duties in both the SK and the municipal council. In all cases, they failed in all their three duties. Worst of all, students, who were political leaders by virtue of the post they held, had to ask for consideration that the school standards be lowered for them.
As I mentioned above, the SK does not really get the best and the brightest among our youth. In most cases, the best and the brightest are scholars who had to prioritize their studies in order to become professionals. The mediocre ones may be those left to join the SK, and as much as they have the edge of SK as their platform, they dominate the local politics in their older years.
It is time for our national leaders to give the SK a second look. I, for one, am joining the call for its abolition and for its replacement with a meaningful program that will always get our young involved in school, instead of in the dirty world of politics.
—MAGNO SIBULAN,
