What’s the SK for?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

What happened in the recent registration for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan has further reinforced the stand of so many quarters in the country that the Sangguniang Kabataan should be abolished.

For several months now, calls have been coming from several directions pointing out the inanity of maintaining the youth group that has, so far, not lived up to the expectations of those who had initiated it.

What outstanding accomplishments have we noted, so far, from the SK in our local government units? What have they contributed to the welfare of their fellow young citizens?

And for this, the government has to shell out allowances for them, and even allow one of their members to sit at the Sangguniang body of their town or city, enjoying the privileges and perks of a regularly elected member.

Worse, time has shown that so many of those who become SK members only manage to absorb the bad habits, or practices of politicians who had served as their patrons and under whose wing they had managed to get voted into the SK.

In the recent registration, the Commission on Election itself had noted how politicized the youth has become, and how lacking in idealism many of them are now.

They have shown this by allowing themselves to be herded like sheep to the Comelec offices, in towns and cities other than their own, and, in some cases, as also noted by the Comelec, have even replicated their initial registration in order to vote in another barangay.

No less than the Chairman of the Comelec and the Speaker of the House of Representatives have spoken out against he continued maintenance of the SK. The country will not only save millions, maybe even billions, we will also be saving the souls of our youth who could get corrupted too early.*