Youth Vote Philippines: Chicken Soup for the Apathetic Voter

MANILA, Philippines – You can shrug it off all you want, but let’s face it, we’ve got issues with government. We care about politicians siphoning the wealth of our nation, we care about how leaders deal with our country failing the WHO’s standards for HIV prevention, we care about the taxes that come out of our wallets, not to mention that dastardly book tax that takes away from our quest for enlightenment. But then more noble than just caring is always being able to do something about those issues.

Which brings us to the elections, which, if you didn’t know already (or most probably, didn’t care), we’re heading swiftly towards. The good news is that, we, the youth, can do something and it’s called voting.

www.youthvotephilippines.com

The people at Youth Vote Philippines, a nonpartisan group composed of reform-minded youth organizations and Young Public Servants (YPS), are all about steering the indifferent toward taking that one significant action rather than just bitching to nothingness. Apart from sifting random joints for could-care-less citizenry, asking them what their beef is, and educating them on voting as the solution, Youth Vote’s website provides everything the voter-to-be needs (comprehensive profiles, Millennium Development Goals as a checklist for candidates, polls, etc.) to making an informed decision come 2010. Supreme sits down with Youth Vote’s lead convenor Ching Jorge, to talk about how else the group plans to talk the unconverted vote into registering before October 31 (that’s the deadline, FYI) and showing how much they really care.

Towards what does the Youth Vote site steer the absolutely clueless before they vote?

So we have a system in place for monitoring the candidates even after they’ve won the election, to hold them accountable for their statements and actions. Hindi siya para pag may eleksyon lang. We base this on Millenium Development Goals (MDG). What is this presidentiable’s stand on health or what is he doing for health? There’s a search aggregator on the website, where if you click on Loren, it’ll give you all her statements, programs, policies. We want the students and the public to think more intelligently. Not just, ah, bagay siya maging president — cute kasi siya. Or magaling siya magsalita.

Who are the hardest to reach?

Wala masyadong problema sa students eh — they’re the ones who volunteer, who are very enthusiastic. It’s the young professionals na mahirap kasi they’re already earning, they don’t care about what’s happening in the country, the ones who think that they can just leave. It’s really time to stop the usual indifference. I mean, where do you live? Even naman for the out-of-school youth and those not working and cannot find jobs, this is a chance for them to right the wrongs and be able to change policies, and fight for their rights.

How much of a big deal is the youth vote?  

Here in our country, if everyone registers and votes, the youth vote will be 44 percent of the vote, so malaki talaga. Actually, we’re not even just looking at 2010, our end goal is 2016 and beyond. Hopefully by 2016, we’ll have a more organized youth, they’ll be more aware, they’ll be more involved…and hopefully all the politicians will know that they are being watched.

Get election-savvy at www.youthvotephilippines.com. Volunteer for Youth Vote Philippines or be a member and receive updates and info about the 2010 elections! E-mail yvotephilippines@gmail.com. Or visit youthvotephilippines on Facebook and social networking site youthvote-ph.ning.com.