By Bingo P. Dejaresco III
Bohol Chronicle
The Chronicle speaks with one voice with 92% of surveyed Boholanos in calling for the abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan. The entity has become as useless as a refrigerator in hell and has led the youth towards the Road of Perdition.
Infamously, the SK's performance in youth or community projects is as dismal as the Philippine sporting record in the Olympics - a few medals and far between. It is as inutile as Projects deemed "white elephants" - expensive to create and maintain but neglectful of the youth concerns like drug addiction, youth gangsterism and violence, premarital sex and unwed mothers and scores of drop-outs roaming the streets armed with bad intentions.
The SK's constituency (youth) are in a state of neglect while the leaders concoct the equivalent of "Inner Circle" social clubs married to the proposition of advancing their narrow self-interests. Meantime, the SK chairmen collect the equivalent salaries of barangay captains and kagawads, the citified ones getting P 7,000 a month and the poorer cousins in the towns at P1,000- P5,000 a month. Collectively, that translates to millions in useless Government Expenditure.
We thought Imee Marcos in her KB (Kabataang Barangay) time was a political opportunist. But at least the elected youth leaders were required to make professional monthly reports and had leadership training programs. Our SK today is a worse one -and decadent,too.
Decadent - because it corrupted the morals of the Youth so early in their life by prostituting the electoral process that we just witnessed so clearly last Monday during the SK Polls. Supposed to be non-partisan, the SK polls instead brought out the worst elements of politics and made the SK candidates the "interns" to perfect the art of corrupting elections.
It was an ageless political Kingmaker who astutely said "In the Philippines, all politics is local." Having confirmed that hypothesis into theory , the SK became the battleground of older politicians who want to retain or wrest the political levers at the barangay level. Thus like their older folks who "corrupt by example" - they drowned the community with money (P300 per voter) plus (leader and entertainment expenses) and completed the sham of elections whose results are determined by money and patronage politics.
They expect these barangay leaders to be the road runners in the next local and national elections -and return the favor of those who had financed their campaign by getting them elected likewise by hook or by crook - usually by crook.
Aside from the politicians, unfortunately, it is also the parents themselves and relatives with dollars abroad who also contribute to the financing scheme to "buy their children into positions of power." Return on investment? Or just the pride to be have kins called as elected officials?
The Chronicle had rightly postulated that expensive elections is one of the glaring reasons why corruption exists in this country (as in the worst in Asia) because recouping time (for election expenses) means corrupting the dispersal of public funds and projects.
This whole corrupt cycle stinks - both the deserving (but penniless) candidates lose elections. Meritorious projects are set aside in favor of less useful ones but which will benefit the financial and political supporters of the winning candidates.
The SK and the mode the officials get elected stink to high heavens. Shame, shame, shame, Our National Hero Dr Jose Rizal who hoped the youth would be the hope of the Motherland is now squirming in his grave – wanting to rise from his grave on All Souls Day and lecture us about nationalism and public service.
Let's do ourselves a favor -abolish the SK now. By legislation if possible. Calling our Honorable solons.
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=6274.0
Topic: Call For the Abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) (Read 940 times)