A STUDY came out confirming the general perception that the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) has no positive contribution to society, a breeding ground for corrupt politicians and an outlet where funds are wasted and filched. The findings are contained in a paper released by the Policy Research Monitoring Division of the National Youth Commission (NYC).
The NYC criticized the ineffectiveness of SK leaders and their non-preparedness for public service. It also concluded that the SK is focused too much on sports and does not truly serve the interests of the youth. Worse, SK officials at their early age are already exposed to traditional politics and corruption.
“The SK did not serve its main functions such as to create resolution to carry out youth objectives, initiate programs for holistic development among the youth and to consult and coordination with youth organizations for policy formulation and program implementation …” the study said.
The national SK Federation admitted to its faults. In its own situational analysis, planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, it found truthfulness on the perception that the SK is not performing well as it should. This the SK attributed to vague policies and inadequate information dissemination.
Another interesting fact is the low participation of youths in SK activities. At present, there are only 293,615 young people aged 15-21 who are directly involved in SK activities. Most of them are officials of SK and Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK). This leads to low voter turnout during SK elections.
The findings has prompted NYC to come up with a reform bill on the SK amending certain provisions of the Local Government Code and amending RA 8044 or the Youth in Nation-Building Act. The reforms aim to strengthen SK by creating a National Youth Development Fund and increasing the SK ex officio NYC commissioners from one to four.
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