RDC-7 endorses proposed law to reform SK

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — A new law that would elevate representation of the youth in development councils and reform the Sangguniang Kabataan has been pushed in Congress.

The Regional Development Council-Region 7, as requested by the National Youth Commission-Visayas, approved a resolution endorsing the passage in Congress of the Local Youth Development Empowerment Act, or a law creating mechanism for “meaningful participation of the youth in nation building.”

The RDC-7 resolution, as recommended by the Council’s social development committee, urged the passage of the LYDEA that “will institutionalize Local Development Councils and reform the SK, which in the end will strengthen accountability and transparency in governance through youth elections.”

The resolution said the move was “in connection with the issues and concerns” besetting the SK and that LYDEA will “ultimately encourage active and meaningful participation of young Filipinos in local governance,” while promoting their “physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being, inculcating patriotism, nationalism and other desirable values.”

Panfilo Asares of Bohol, the private sector representative to the RDC-7, expounded on two provisions of the LYDEA, one of which is the “creation of the Local Youth Development Council to be composed of representatives from the different accredited youth organizations in a locality.”

As such, the SK will just be one of these youth groups to be represented in the LYDC, and that the election of its officers will be within such Council and not barangay-wide. Whoever will be the LYDC president, who may not be an SK officer, will then sit as youth representative in the municipal or city council.

The second provision in the LYDEA states that “an SK member cannot run for a post in the SK if he or she is related with any elected official within the fourth degree of consanguinity,” added Asares. —(FREEMAN)