Friday, November 02, 2007 Roperos: No hope for the SK By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
WHAT happened last Monday should be gravely disappointing for those who felt that the future of this republic lies, to a greater extent, on the shoulders of its young people.
Concerned right-thinking citizenry felt no little frustration in the way the candidates for the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) comported themselves in the elections. While there were some of them who stood by their political principles, others succumbed to demeaning politics.
In the course of the week-long campaign, a group of SK candidates visited us in our house because we had two members of the household who were registered SK voters. I thought they had a measure of idealism in their desire to be elected leaders.
But listening to them talk, I had my reservations.
The law has established requirements for those who want to be elected SK officers. They have to be between the ages of 15 and 17, have to be a resident of the barangay where they vote, and must be a true blue Filipino.
I am not sure whether the requirements for SK candidacy are good enough. I would have wished that, with the constantly changing global environment and the need for the country to keep abreast with the continuing advances in science and technology, a leader should possess a higher level of education.
One should be equipped enough to enable him or her to keep up with the advances of a fast modernizing society.
In any case, when the elections were over, reports began to trickle in that even the SK candidates had resorted to vote buying, attaching cash to the leaflets they were giving to the young voters trooping to the precinct. The amount ranged from P20 to P50. In economically affluent barangays, the amount went up to a P100.
I was pained by the reports. I thought the SK elections this time around would have a measure of insulation from the stained traditional practices of our regular elections. But I was wrong.
Reports from the other regions of the country showed that the same vote buying, electoral fraud and threats of violence were also perpetrated.
There seems to be no hope really for our young, novice politicians to develop into young leaders of the nation with a different orientation, with new political values, and a new and higher sense of morality and integrity. It appears to be a condition without hope at all.
