WITH the abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK or Youth Council) looking more and more like a long shot, and the Commission on Elections’s (Comelec) request for a second postponement of the SK elections not yet getting a lot of traction, it would seem that we are stuck with bringing back an SK system that is still weighed down by all the problems that led to its suspension in 2013.
Dynastic tendencies, corruption, irrelevance—these are the major sins that the SK system stands accused of to this day. Assuming that the SK elections do push through as scheduled, these are the problems that must be addressed by the hopefuls. If they do so while working within the existing system, there might be a chance that those asking for the SK’s demise will back off.
I have a few suggestions.
To address the issue of dynastic tendencies, the new batch of SK officials should work to ensure that potential leaders in their community are identified, nurtured and given the opportunity to compete fairly in the next SK elections, without preferential treatment to friends and family.
The best way to achieve that is to set up some sort of youth-leadership training program in partnership with a professional training organization, one that is open to everyone who is willing to commit to running in the next SK elections. In this way, the field of candidates for the next SK elections is broadened beyond just the sons and daughters of a few families.
To address the problem of corruption, I would recommend that the first hiree of the new SK be a fund management and transparency consultant, either a certified public accountant or an auditing firm who agrees to do the work for a token salary. This way, those who have complained about corruption in the SK gets the chance to put their money where their mouths are.
As far as money management is concerned, the biggest problem with the SK is that it is often poorly advised when it comes to using its budget allocation. Under the current setup, these SK officials have no one to turn to other than the barangay chairman, who is, most likely, not a trained money manager, anyway. Even worse, the barangay chairman might not even have the purest of motives. With professional money managers advising the SK, things have a better-than-average chance of improving.
And, finally, to address the issue of the SK’s diminishing relevance, SK officials must learn to look beyond the obvious “projects;” they must acknowledge that they do not have to work in a vacuum and they must exert the effort to undertake projects that are strategic and bring immediate benefit.
By obvious projects, I mean those things that all SKs have always done: sports leagues, rock concerts and the like. While these projects may look good—primarily because they’re so easy to insert into the “Projects Accomplished” column—they are essentially nothing more than entertainment. How about a project to provide food and shelter for homeless kids in their community? Or how about starting a small-scale recycling center? How about a project that benefits unemployed elderly in the community?
SK officials must also realize that they don’t have to do everything by themselves. Partnerships with non-governmental organizations are an excellent way of bringing in private-sector expertise into a project. This is a tack taken by most government agencies nowadays, and the SK is the perfect environment for future leaders to learn how such partnerships work.
Most important, SK officials must strive for a balance of projects. Alongside projects that build goodwill for themselves, SK officials must also undertake projects that are strategic in nature, i.e., designed to deliver long-term benefits to the community, even after their terms have ended. You see, at the end of the day, the SK has only itself to blame for its loss of relevance. But, on the upside, the SK also has the best means of regaining that relevance: the energy and vitality of youth.
In other words, only the SK can save the SK.
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James Jimenez is the spokesman of the Commission on Elections.