HERE’S what I think.
The low number of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election candidates can be attributed directly to the operation of the anti-dynasty provision in the SK Reform Act of 2015.
Prior to the passage of the Reform Act, one of the most common—and almost universally agreed on—criticism of the SK system was that it was a nursery for dynasties. With very few exceptions, the kids who ran for SK chairman or kagawad were scions of local political families. They were either being groomed for higher office when they came of age, or they were installed simply to ensure that wealth and clout stayed well within the family. Over the years, this practice became a kind of norm that many people loudly and scathingly criticized, but which far too few did anything about. It became accepted as the immutable order, if you will, and the youths not fortunate enough to have been born within these
royal families simply ceded ground.
Is it any wonder then that with the sudden disqualification of dynasts, remarkably few youths stepped up to file their own certificates of candidacy? Having lived so long in the shadow of the dominant political families and their sons and daughters, the barangays seem to have not been conducive to the emergence of new youth leaders. Deprived of what has essentially become the de facto ruling class, the youth are most likely now coming to realize that they have to find leaders amongst themselves. So, the question raised by the lack of SK candidates now shouldn’t be whether or not these young people need more time to file their certificates of candidacy; the question should be: are they ready?
Or, more to the point, why aren’t they?
Leaving that question aside for the moment, it might also be asked if the low turnout of SK candidates should be considered the death knell of the SK experiment? I think not. In fact, I believe that this low number of candidates should have been expected; in hindsight, it seems pretty obvious.
What may not be so obvious in all the hand wringing being done at the moment by various quarters is the great likelihood that this will be self-correcting. By the time the next SK election comes rolling along—in two years, unless otherwise delayed yet again—the youth will have already realized that it truly is their turn; that, for better or worse, the big political families no longer have a monopoly on the SK and that the field is wide open for those who aspire to public office despite not being born to that world.
And that is the reason now is not the time to waver on the SK elections. In fact, now is the perfect time to double down on the SK. Where political families used to groom their young sons and daughters for political office, so too should the mechanisms put in place by the SK Reform Act now be used judiciously to foster the development of leadership skills, civic-mindedness and political mettle in regular kids.
The old SK was effectively abolished in 2013 and the SK Reform Act of 2015 was widely considered as the cure for all that plagued the old system. Now, with the low turnout of SK candidates for the 2018 SK elections, we are simply being reminded that—like any good remedy—the SK Reform Act and its anti-dynasty provisions will probably take some time.