Youth group turns ire on ‘trapo’ bets

At a picket in front of the historic Edsa Shrine, youth activists vowed yesterday to carry out a massive nationwide campaign against the politics of goons, guns and gold through a youth voters’ movement.

"The Supreme Court disappointed us but there’s no stopping our cause," said Jonas Bagas, who heads the youth arm of the party-list group Akbayan. "We’re saying here that the youth will not be cowed."

Akbayan had led a campaign for a special registration on behalf of an estimated four million first-time voters who failed to register during the regular registration period.

But the Supreme Court ruled against the party-list group’s petition to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to hold a special registration for the effectively disenfranchised voters.

Akbayan legal counsel Ruben Carranza said the group does not see any reason to ask the justices for a reconsideration of the majority decision. "It seems all too pointless now," he said. "It’s now time to carry out a campaign for good governance through the elections."

Yesterday, despite the harsh rays of the noonday sun, some 50 Akbayan-Youth activists trooped to the Edsa Shrine to launch the Youth Voters’ Movement (YVM).

Touting a large black plastic trash bag and oversized yellow ballot box, the activists demonstrated what they would want the youth to do with the so-called traditional politicians who run for public office in the name of their vested interests: throw them away like garbage. They pinned on the trash bag pictures of candidates belonging to disgraced former president Joseph Estrada’s Puwersa ng Masa party and printed on the ballot box the words "anti-trapo youth voters’ movement." In the presence of media, the activists, brooms in hand, swept away crumpled pictures of senatorial candidates like Edgardo Angara, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Gregorio Honasan, Juan Ponce Enrile, Ricardo Puno and Panfilo Lacson. – Romel Bagares