Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday called on the Senate to start floor debate and approve  the bill seeking to phase out of the Sangguniang Kabataan that he has drafted a long time ago, a press release from his office said.

Pimentel said there is a strong public sentiment that the SK should be abolished because it has not lived up to the people’s expectations as a training ground for future leaders, and as an instrumentality for promoting the welfare of the youth.

He said the purpose of creating SK is being defeated because youth officials have not only neglected their mandated duties but have also succumbed to dishonest practices.

“The SK officials are being criticized, and maybe for good reasons, for acting like traditional politicians who use money, patronage and sometimes, intimidation, to get elected,” said Pimentel, acknowledged Father of the Local Government Code (Republic Act 7160).

Citing one of the main reasons why the SK has become an ineffective but costly adjunct of local government, Pimentel observed that in most instances the elected chairman and other SK officials have to leave their barangays, stay in the poblacion (town proper) or transfer to faraway urban centers to pursue their college education, the press release said.

In effect, they become absentee officials, but somehow find a way to collect their regular allowances from the SK, which is highly irregular, Pimentel said.

The senator from Mindanao, however, pointed out that his proposal does not mean that the youth will be left unrepresented in the local government, the press release added.*

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