SK is unique but all messed up

The Philippines is one of only six countries with a system for involving the youth in national and local government. But as with most anything else uniquely Filipino, that system isn’t working. And judging from this week’s low turnout in the special voter registration for the Sangguniang Kabataan election, the youth have lost interest in it.

Several theories have been presented to explain the malady. The youth are distracted by other concerns, some say, such as the Internet or summer vacation fun. Others blame a flawed education that fails to teach the value of community service. Still others aver that life’s too hard that even teenagers are preoccupied with making an early living. Few have ventured to state the obvious: the SK system is itself all messed up not by the youth but because of adult politicians.

To begin with, the July 15 SK election is long overdue. Ballotings are supposed to be held every three years. The last one was scheduled for 2000, but Congress postponed it for two years due to lack of funds. The lesson given to the youth is that money buys everything, and lack of it postpones democracy, so who cares.

The 2002 election was first set for September. But again there was no money. Absorbed with infighting, the Commission on Election forgot last year to ask for P900 million for the exercise. Malacañang’s budget planners also overlooked it in their desire to cut deficit spending. And Congress as usual couldn’t care less.

Only when the national budget was passed did everyone in adult government remember the SK election. Bills were hurried in Congress to synchronize it with the May 6 barangay election, also long delayed by five years. But the old pols who wanted to influence the nonpartisan barangay polls realized they would have no personal funds by that month. Their pork barrel would be out only in the second half of the year. A consensus first arose to set the two elections for November 2002. The final agreement in April was for synchonized balloting on July 15. By then, Comelec schedules were all messed up. The poll body had held a registration of barangay and SK voters last Dec. 10-26. It was largely ignored. Those who did register at their city or town halls had a confusing time. Barangay voters had to be 18 years or older; SK voters consisted of those who will be at least 15 by the original election day of May 6, but not older than 21.

The process was a mess too. Information on the voter registration was scant. Comelec offices ran out of forms. Central officials authorized the use of photocopies. Only 1.5 to 2 million of an estimated five million youths registered. Then, the election law passed by Congress in April overturned the Comelec ruling and called for new registration of youths who filed on photocopied forms.

Too, Congress suddenly changed the voting and candidate age for the SK. Ostensibly to simplify synchronization, SK balloting would be for 15- to 17-year-olds; that for barangays would be for 18 years and older. That decision was made not in separate floor debates at the Senate and House of Representatives, but in the bicameral committee conference to reconcile the two versions into a final law.

Interested youth leaders were dismayed. Many of them would be over 18 but still under 21 by July 15, and thus eligible to vote and run in the SK election under the Omnibus Election Code. But the synchonization law suddenly disqualified them.

Not only that, the mere moving of the SK election from the promised May 6 to the final July 15 disenfranchised at least 30,000 voters, Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra laments. These are those who would have turned 18 but could thus still vote and run in May 6, but who were considered ineligible by the new law that sets a new age limit of 17 for voters and candidates on July 15. Outgoing SK national president Richard Nalupta insists that more than 50,000 were disenfranchised by the new law. The difference in Borra’s and Nalupta’s estimates does not matter. The right to suffrage - to vote and be voted upon - is the highest expression of democracy. To disenfranchise even just one voter is to disregard the Constitution itself.

And so the Comelec sought to reconcile the conflicts between the old and new laws with a special registration last May 20-21. This again, only after bitter squabbling among the seven commissioners about the dates and rules. Nalupta’s SK national council had to give Comelec P160 million for it, and promise a bigger amount for the election itself. By then, the youth had seen enough of the SK mess. Only a handful of the expected 3 million registrants filed the forms, even if these were made available in more accessible barangay halls and no longer in city or town halls. Borra notes with characteristic sarcasm: "It’s not true that only teachers deputized by Comelec were there on registration day. There were two or five youths too."

A youth leader has petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the new law that changes the SK voting age. Nalupta worries that the age factor would prevent incoming SK officials - mere minors aged 15 to 17 - from performing their duties. More so since laws on obligations and contracts prefer signatories to be of legal age, that is, 18 or older. "Those laws do state that whenever a contract favors a minor, it can be valid," Nalupta explains, "but contractors would now shy away from SK councils to avoid the gray areas."

Nalupta is referring to contractors who could supply the needs of SK councils. A council, composed of seven members elected by the Katipunan ng Kabataan (registered youth voters in the barangay), is a training ground for youth leaders. It runs on ten percent of the barangay’s fund, or roughly P50,000 or more per year. With it, a council can organize projects it deems best for the Katipunan constituents: sports or talent competitions, antidrug or leadership seminars – anything that can make the youth more productive members of the community. The SK also involves the youth in government. An SK chairman automatically sits as member of the barangay council. The chairmen elect among themselves a town or city president, who sits in the town or city council. They choose a provincial head, who sits in the provincial board; and a national president, who sits in the National Youth Commission. At each stage, the youth leaders get to see how ordinances are passed and budgets allocated.

In the wake of the dismal registration turnout, two congressmen have called for the abolition of the SK. One of them says that the system only exposes the youth to government wrongdoings. "It could land the Philippines in the Guinness Book of World Records for the earliest training in corruption," he says.

It very well could, not because of the youth themselves but because of their adult mentors. A former SK leader who now sits in Congress says that some barangay or higher officials do corrupt the SK representatives to go along with their evil schemes, such as overpriced or ghost purchases. Once exposed to how it works, the representative then brings the dirty skill to his chapter for sharing and sharpening. But the source says that youth leaders do not initiate corruption by themselves; there’s always an older devil behind it.

Borra adds that SK elections can also be corrupted by old pols. The law calls for nonpartisan balloting. But politician-parents use their influence to get their children elected. While these children have the right to vote and run like any other eligible citizen, the meddling of their parents mar the outcome. Borra narrates several incidents in which politicians fund their children’s campaigns to the point of overspending and breaking laws such as buying votes through banquets and beer. One notable case had a politician inviting his son’s rival ticket to a dinner on election eve, then exposing them to be so drunk when there was a liquor ban.

Nalupta acknowledges the flaws and abuses in the SK system. But he calls not for abolition but reforms. And he says such reforms should come from the SK leaders themselves, who are mostly still idealistic and innocent in the ways of old pols. National and local leaders would do well to listen to the youth. After all, the youth constitute the biggest voting segment. And unlike in EDSA-1, the youth comprised 80 percent of those who marched to EDSA-2.

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