Friday, November 30, 2007 ‘Teach us to be good, not corrupt’
TEACH us to be good citizens, not corrupt people, a youth leader urged local officials.
With Mayor Tomas Osmeña in the audience, a 21-year-old youth sector representative threw this challenge to the Cebu City Government officials and, at the same time, criticized city and barangay officials for the bad example some of them set.
Mel Yan expressed his sector’s dismay over the poor leadership in the barangays, poor garbage collection system and the widespread cheating in the last elections.
These are just some of their concerns, which they said hinder Cebu City from becoming a model city that is truly child friendly and prevent the youth from becoming empowered citizens.
At the “Cebu City Plus 10” Multi-Sectoral Development Strategy summit yesterday, the youth sector said they will campaign for zero percent vote-buying by 2017.
They also called on Cebu City officials to set a good example for the youth so they can become good and productive citizens.
“Corruption continues to be a problem. We still have corrupt government leaders and officials. Sila ang maguna-una ug buhat ug dautan atubangan sa mga kabatanonan,” one of the youth representatives lamented.
Another child said the City Government is too lazy to collect the garbage in their neighborhood.
Their comments drew laughter and applause from the crowd of some 1,000 sectoral representatives who attended the summit, including Osmeña, Vice Mayor Michael Rama and other officials who were seated at the presidential table.
The city councilors were also seated in front.
The children, though, did not single out any city official during their presentation.
“When we said we want zero vote-buying, you all laughed at us. Why? Who are teaching the youth about vote-buying? It’s the old people in the barangays. We call on our officials to teach us to be the hope of the fatherland, not to be corrupt officials later on,” Yan told the crowd.
Yan is from the Bright Minds Academy of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi).
Because of their courage to speak up, Osmeña said he will prioritize the agenda of the children and youth sector in terms of policy making and implementation.
“We will prioritize the children. They gave the best presentation and they were very good and outspoken. They can see the problems at a very young age and they identified the problem better and conveyed them clearer than other sectors,” the mayor said.
In an interview after the youth sector’s presentation, Osmeña said he was impressed with the children and he did not expect such presentation would come from them.
The youth sector also pushed for the reduction of the number of out-of-school youth by 50 percent in 10 years’ time, solution of the problem on fraternity-related violence and reforms in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK).
They challenged the SK to create and implement an agenda on good governance.
Yan said it was the need for change and progress of their sector that made him speak out his thoughts at the summit.
“I believe that if we really want to work for development, we shouldn’t be scared to say what the problem really is. The officials themselves know corruption is a problem, even the mayor knows that and I believe change should start from them,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
It was not the first time a young individual spoke about their concerns to the mayor.
In February 2004, then high school student Matet Balili confronted the mayor about the state of their dilapidated school building, which prompted Osmeña to have it fixed right away. (LCR)
