Saturday, December 08, 2007 Editorials: Choosing the SK federation head
BUHISAN'S Rengelle Pelayo could still have won as president of the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation of Cebu City even without the intervention of outsiders.
And that’s the problem.
Members of the city’s SK federation didn’t even need to be told that Pelayo is the better candidate because of her leadership qualities and the drama surrounding her life.
She represents an ideal: a girl from a poor family who made good.
SK culture
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, his wife Margot, and even previous leaders of the SK federation, should therefore have trusted the good judgment of federation members and not aggressively campaigned for Pelayo at the expense of the other bets.
But then this seems to have become part of the SK culture cultivated by older politicians through the years: winning a higher post is not about merits but about backers.
Thus the pathetic sight of SK Cebu City federation bets submitting credentials to the mayor like it was a requirement and even visiting him to get his endorsement.
Other areas
To be fair to the city, this seems to have become the practice everywhere.
In other areas like Dumanjug, for example, the tug-of-war for the post of SK federation head also became a power struggle among the youth’s political elders.
Older politicians interfere in the SK federation and Association of Barangay Council elections so their anointed will sit as ex-officio members of their councils.
This is unfair to qualified bets like Pelayo who now has to battle perceptions they were elected not on their own merits and were thus not up to the task assigned to them.
Worse is the belief they will become puppets of the endorsing politicians.
Independence
This is why Pelayo’s statement after he won was about making a stand that will be “good for the youth” and independent of what the mayor says.
This was actually the same line mouthed by his predecessor in the SK federation, but nothing came much of it when political realities presented themselves later.
