Letter to the Editor - Youth Party-List urges candidates to ''Learn from Virginia Tech, listen to youths'' problems

The KABATAAN Party-List urged local and education sector leaders today to take measures to prevent a possible repeat of the Virginia shooting incident here in the Philippines. The shooting in Virginia Tech University last April 16 left 33 people dead, including the shooter who committed suicide.

"First, we express our utmost condolences to the relatives and friends of our fellow students whose futures were prematurely cut short by this dark incident."

"We also urge our fellow students, local leaders, the candidates in the elections, and our school administrators to learn from the said incident, and to take reforms to prevent the same from happening here," said Vencer Crisostomo, KABATAAN Party-List Spokesperson and League of Filipino Students (LFS) National Chairperson.

While he explained that there is little possibility of the same incident happening in the Philippines, we should still learn from what happened and implement reforms.

He explained that the massacre at Virginia Tech was an extreme display of the frustrations that today''s youth is experiencing.

"It is not that today''s youth are war freaks or violent individuals. What the incident shows is that today''s youth are rarely given an opportunity to express themselves. And that when the youth speaks, it is rarely heard and our grievances fall on deaf ears," added Crisostomo.

"First, we must listen to our young people. Not only those with awards or those who excel, but also to the ''pasaways''. We need to give the youth in general, avenues where they could express their grievances, their disappointments and involve them in policy making and governance," he said.

KABATAAN also called on school administrations to "allow free speech and respect civil rights inside campuses" and to refrain from imposing a "stressful and repressive atmosphere inside campuses."

"There are lots of cases, especially in private schools where measures, which are oftentimes violative of their human rights, are imposed for the students to follow."

"Overly strict and unreasonable haircut and uniform policies, curtailment of free speech, disallowing freedom of organization and affiliation, censorship of the campus papers, are some examples," he explained.

He said that free and quality education is the first service for the youth that must be ensured by our policy makers.

"We ask our leaders to come up with programs and projects that shall address the basic problems of the Filipino youth. Educating the youth gives hope for a better future for them and their family. Hopelessness and poverty are the foremost frustrations of the Filipino youth," said Crisostomo.

Crisostomo added that the government must also come up with programs to provide jobs and employment for the graduates of our universities and colleges.

Reference: Karlo Mikhail Mongaya
KABATAAN City Coordinator
E-mail: [email protected]

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