President Rodrigo Duterte has signed Republic Act 10742 or the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act of 2015, which provides greater accountability and responsibilities to SK members in exchange for additional benefits.
Under the new law, SK members are now mandated to comply with the government’s accounting and auditing rules and regulations set by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (COA).
To facilitate their compliance with the said provision, SK will now be required to formulate internal rules and procedures, set the schedule of their regular meetings and appoint a secretary and treasurer 60 days from their assumption of office.
Both secretary and treasurer must be at least 18 years old not more than 30 years old on the day of appointment with an educational career background relating to business administration, accountancy, finance economics, or bookkeeping.
However, the SK chairperson is allowed to appoint “other suitable nominees” if none of its members have such educational background.
The SK secretary and treasurer will receive a monthly honorarium on top of the compensation they will receive under RA 11768 provided it will not exceed the honorarium received by the SK chair.
RA 11768 also prescribed the programs, which could be implemented by the SK, which include providing student stipends, food, and book and transportation to prevent incidence of out of youth; sports and wellness projects; skills training, summer employment, on-the-job employment, and livelihood assistance; promotion of agriculture, fishery, and forestry enterprises; environment protection; capacity building for grassroots organizations; and program to address “context-specific and intersectional vulnerabilities.”
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Commission on Election (Comelec), the National Youth Commission (NYC), will issue the implementing rules and regulation for RA 11768 within 60 days from its effectivity.
The new law will take effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in any newspaper of general circulation.
To note, there were several calls for the abolition of SK due to incidents of fund misuse by some of its members.