A majority of the sitting Sangguniang Kabataan(SK) members in the country's 14,943 barangays nationwide are older than the 15-21 age bracket for membership in the Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK) or the youth assembly in the barangays.
Their terms were extended during the tenure of President Fidel Ramos. And in 1999, the SK election was postponed to 2002.
Now, it looks like another postponement is in the air. There are moves in the House of Representatives to postpone the SK elections next year to 2004 ostensibly due to the financial crisis.
President Macapagal has endorsed the postponement of the barangay election from May 2002 and hold it simultaneously with the presidential election in 2004. SK elections are held two months after the barangay polls.
The national government appears to have an indifferent attitude to an issue now dividing the youth.
“The first time the SK elections were postponed, there was one generation of the youth who missed the opportunity to be SK members,” said Mabel Villarica-Mamba, presidential adviser on youth affairs and chair of the National Youth Commission (NYC).
Mamba said most of the six NYC commissioners personally favor the holding of SK elections as scheduled next year.
NYC Commissioner-at-large Paolo Benigno Aquino confirms that the “average age” of incumbent SKs is now 24, most of them married and concerned with their own careers and livelihood.
“The election should push through because the current batch has already been extended in 1999 and is now overaged,” Aquino said.
Rep. Ace Barbers, chair of the House committee on accounts, said probably about 90 percent of the SK members are over the age limit set forth in Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991.
RA 7160 mandated that every barangay should have an SK, elected by an assembly of youth living in the barangay, 15 to 21 years of age, and registered in the barangay list.
A youth who is 21 years old on the day of the election is allowed to run and serve his or her full term unless removed for cause.
Aquino said that during the Pambansang Ugong ng Kabataan, a national youth consultative assembly convened by the NYC and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the SK emerged as the “top concern of the youth.”
“Many see the need for reforms in the SK,” Aquino said.
Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra, who had expressed concern about the uncertainty of the SK elections being held next year, also noted the need for elections.
“Many SK leaders have matured in their positions, their ages no longer qualify them for membership in the body. In many areas, clearly a changing of the guards is needed,” Mitra said in a recent statement.
Richard Alvin Nalupta, SK National Federation president, said that during its convention last October, a majority of the SK federation heads voted in a straw ballot to extend the elections.
Nalupta said he did not participate in the straw ballot so as not to preempt the results, but said that he personally believes the elections should push through.
“Personally, I'm pushing for elections next year so that there will be new blood in the SK. We (incumbents) should now graduate. There's life after SK,” said Nalupta, who sacrificed two years of his law study in UP for the SK.
Elected in 1996, Nalupta is now 25 years old. He has been able to institute reforms in the management and utilization of SK funds and come up with the KK and SK constitution and by-laws.
Raymund Fernandez, SK chair of Barangay Highway Hills in Mandaluyong City who is hailed as one of the best SKs in the country, also pushes for the elections next year.
“Our projects may be good but the mandate belongs to the youth,” said Fernandez, who founded a physical rehabilitation clinic that gives charity treatments to disabled clients in the community and referrals from big hospitals.
North Cotabato Rep. Lala Santos, who sprang from the SK ranks, also bats for elections next year.
“We should have the elections next year not because the present SK members are not good but they are over 21 now. The SK could also use some fresh ideas,” Santos said.
Camillia Trinidad-Orense, SK chair of Barangay San Lorenzo in Makati City, echoes the sentiment of the majority of SK members who want to remain in office.
“To proceed with the elections is OK but it would be better for us (to postpone it) to fully realize our plans for our respective communities,” Orense said.
Orense said some SK members are still in the midst of important projects that they would want to leave behind as their legacy to the youth.
Orense said she and some like-minded SKs have no problem juggling time between their studies, families or careers and the SK.
“This is the life that I want,” said Orense, whose family has been in public service. Sen. Joker Arroyo is a maternal grandfather.
Nalupta said those who voted for postponement of the elections during the SK straw balloting cited the lack of funds and the absence of a Commission on Elections resolution necessary to prepare for the campaign.
“But there is also a majority who did not make a stand because for them, it's only Congress which can determine that,” Nalupta said.
Three bills are pending in the House seeking to postpone the barangay and/or SK elections from May 2002 to May 2005.
Rep. Manuel Ortega cites the “serious financial and economic difficulties buffeting our country.” He said that the barangay and SK elections would cost two billion pesos.
Ortega further proposed that this fund instead be used for the Comelec's computerization program “thus ensuring fair and accurate voting and speedy counting in the elections of our national and local officials.”
Rep. Herminio Teves made the same proposal in his bill. He said the budget for the barangay and SK elections, which he said would cost 1.8 billion pesos, should be used for the Comelec computerization which he said needs 3.5 billion pesos.
Teves noted that those who clamor for a change in leadership in the barangay should resort to the system of recall.
Rep. Isidoro Real said holding the barangay and SK elections next year would be “ill-timed'' because the country has just been through the May 14 elections this year.
He said postponing the elections would “provide all of us the much-needed space and time to concentrate on working to resolve the multifarious problems the country is facing today.”
Critics of the bills see a political reason for proposals to hold the elections in 2005.
Nalupta however thinks that the funding issue is not a valid reason for seeking postponement of the SK elections.
“I think that is moot and academic because there is a DBM (Department of Budget and Management) opinion that the funds for the SK elections would not come from the general appropriations but from the funds of the SK,” he said.
He said this was the opinion given him by Eduardo Opida, director of the DBM Legal and Legislative Service.
Nalupta even offered to go to the Comelec to point this out so that it could already issue the resolution giving the go-signal for the elections.
Carlos Tan Derecho, director of the National Barangay Operations Office of the Department of Interior and Local Government, supports Nalupta's view.
“There is a provision that the funds for the election of the SK would also come from their own funds,” Derecho said.
Derecho said the department supports the pronouncement made recently by President Macapagal to leave to Congress the decision on whether the SK elections would be deferred.
“But personally, I believe it's better for us to have the elections as scheduled. They (SK members) should have a mandate from the people,” Derecho said.
NYC's Aquino issued a call for the youth to participate in the elections, either as members of the KK in every barangay or as SK candidates.
“All of those who are there now (SK) would have to go. We're looking at a whole new generation of SK members,” Aquino said.
But for that to happen, the national government should make its position clear and exert the political will to comply with the constitutionally-mandated elections for its youth government.
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