‘Young can be taught politics, but… ’

MANILA, Philippines — While politics can be taught to the young, it should not be inculcated in them, said the national president of the Boy Scout of the Philippines (BSP).

“I’d like to believe that politics is something we do not inculcate in the minds of the young people,” BSP national president Wendel Avisado said at a press briefing yesterday. “We can let them understand how politics works, but not inculcate it in them.”

He admitted that scouting itself is a form of politics, where “competition is rampant among local councils who get the most number of members and eventually influence those who make decisions.”

He also emphasized that the BSP would never be involved in any political organization and that Filipino Boy Scouts would always be apolitical.

“We will never be in conflict with the law… we know that we are the messengers of peace,” he also pointed out.

The BSP hosts the 26th Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Conference at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City. The event, themed “Growth and stability,” runs until Saturday.

World Scout Committee chairman Craig Turpie said the Boy Scout movement is steadily growing, with currently 50 million members from 224 countries and territories.

With its growing membership, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), said its secretary-general Ahmad Alhendawi, aims to “activate the global movement to reach out to more people and deliver more opportunities… and to tackle some of the pressing challenges in the world today.” 

The organization has pledged to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations, with focus on peace and security, climate change and employment, among others, he added.

The BSP, for its part, has been helping the government implement measures to improve the lives of Filipinos and make them better citizens, conscious of their civic duties and safe from threats of terrorism and criminality, especially drug-related.

He said the BSP’s “battlecry” is in support of the Duterte administration’s tough anti-drug campaign: “Yes to scouting, no to drugs.”

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has also issued orders encouraging local government units to support local Boy Scout chapters and to help establish community-based Boy Scout groups, he said.

“Through these measures, we make sure young people will be guided and that they will be assets rather than liabilities,” he said.