The Significance of Youth Participation in Policy Making in Cebu City, Philippines

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN POLICY-MAKING IN CEBU

CITY

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A Research Paper

Submitted to:

Prof. Weena Jade S. Gera Ph. D.

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In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for

Political Science 160

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Submitted by:

Kylien B. Abing

Cathy C. Oblianda

Imi Liza B. Espina

Mark Vincent J. Nogra

Avekhenn A. Bontuyan

Suzeyne Kim L. Garcia

BA – POLITICAL SCIENCE

I. INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The remarkable contributions of the youth in the Philippine

nation-building never go unnoticed. Every stage of the Philippine

history has produced youth leaders who led the youth in

participating in the civic and political arena of the country. In

the 1970s to 1980s, the oppressive Marcos regime gave rise for

the youth, especially the students, to mobilize. Schools and

youth organizations facilitated political discourses and

organized massive protests against the dictatorship. Young

political activists and leaders ignited the sense of freedom of

the youth. In the recent years, the continuing economic

stagnation of the Philippines has gravely affected the

participation of the youth. A study showed that the youth is not

unaware of the social problems and inequalities present in the

society. However, they find it difficult to be involved in

different political actions. Employed youths and students were

hesitant to participate because it might affect their performance

in their fields respectively.

The Philippine Constitution emphasizes the vital role of the

youth in nation-building and it also encourages their active

participation. To fully realize this declaration, the Sangguniang

Kabataan was established to address the need for youth

representation. It helped in local decision-making especially on

shaping municipal legislations and provided a training ground for

future leaders. It also organized welfare and entertainment

programs in barangays such as basketball tournaments, singing and

beauty contests, and tree planting activities. However, in 2013,

the scheduled election was restrained because of the suspicions

that the SK is a "breeding ground for political dynasty and

exposing the youth to corruption and the practice of traditional

politicians.” To this day, the status of SK remains to be

uncertain.

The increasing poverty rates resulting to a lack of

education and the temporary restrain of SK have become a

hindrance for youth participation and representation. This made

the youth unable to maximize its potential as a political force

in the society and optimize their level of political

participation. To provide an attempt to assess the current status

of youth engagement in a local level, this paper will delve on

the significance of the youth in policy-making process and it

will also evaluate the youth political participation in Cebu

City. As young citizens of this country, the proponents of this

study question the current status of the youth in the political

arena of the Philippines.

This study is geared towards applying the literature of

well-known sociologists in a local level. This will also look at

how the youth of Cebu City is able to participate in political

matters. In this study, the proponents hope that this will serve

as an outlet of information with regards to current status of the

political participation of the youth and the various ways as to

increase the youth’s political participation, as an aid to

further develop the current status of the youth with regards to

policy making, and as a reference if given the chance to conduct

or modify the same study.

Studies regarding the salience of the youth in decision-

making like that of Zeldin, etc. (2005) proved the vitality of

youth participation on an organizational level. However, there is

still no significant research on the political efficacy of youth-

based activities in other, bigger scales such as the local and

national level of governance. Qualitative researchers have

questioned the concepts and methods employed in traditional

studies of political participation, arguing that many young

people are in fact concerned about matters that are fundamentally

political in nature, but that such issues frequently fall outside

the boundaries of how politics is conventionally defined.

The attempt of this study to assess the current level of

youth participation in Cebu City would answer the questions of

the proponents whether the word “youth” still implies a strong

political force and what are the constraints why the youth has

not been able to make the most of its potential. The proponents

hope that this would encourage the youth to participate in any

civic or political matter.

Research Question

Is the youth of Cebu City still a significant factor in the

policy-making process of the City?

Objectives

This paper, titled “The Significance of Youth Participation

in Policy-Making in Cebu City”, is geared towards evaluating the

importance of the youth in shaping policies in Cebu City. It

specifically aims to:

examine the necessity of youth’s political participation;

answer whether the youth is needed to be represented;

find out if the youth is still represented in the

government;

determine the levels of youth political participation

achieved so far;

assess the contributions of youth participation in policy

making based on previous SK involvement and youth activities

in Cebu City

Framework for Analysis

In the current Philippine context, direct youth political

participation seems to be declining. There is an increase of

youth only engaged in politics through different discussions

present in the social media. Despite this, there is still a

significant number of the youth who remains to be politically

active. Based on the hierarchy of political participation made by

Rush, the proponents have observed that the present highest form

of participation of the youth is only through "active membership

in a political organization.” In this paper, the proponents

endeavor to determine the current level of political

participation of the youth. Knowing that the hierarchy varies

from one political system to another, the proponents would also

look into the circumstances present in the Philippines that gave

rise to why the youth is not able to optimize its participation.

As an example, the SK election, which is the youth's opportunity

to hold public office, was temporarily restrained and still under

debate.

In this effort, the proponents would also like to emphasize

the pluralist idea of having multiple competing elites, in which

the proponents think that the youth must be one of them, in the

policy-making process. Since policy-making process is an

interaction between the political system and its environment,

there are of course groups of people that compete in the ability

to shape decisions. Since the Philippine population is composed

of a significant number of the youth, their interests shall

compete with other sectors’ interests. With this, the proponents

would not only look into the youth in general but also to those

groups who represent the youth in shaping policies.

We would also examine the youth's participation using

Parry's aspects of political participation. Regarding this, we

would look into the different legislation, massive events, and

direct involvement done by different youth groups and sectors in

the Philippines whether the actions made really affected the

shaping of policies. This attempt would evaluate the

contributions that have been made by the youth. The proponents

would look into previous Sangguniang Kabataan’s involvement and

the actions done by the competing youth groups1.

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION (Parry)

1 Rush, M. (1971). Introduction to Political Sociology. Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd.

Political participation is the involvement of the individual

at various levels of political activity in the political system,

ranging from non-involvement to the holding of political office.

(Rush, 1992). Geraint Parry examines political participation in

three aspects: (1) mode of participation, (2) intensity, and its

(3) quality.

Mode of participation refers to what form the participation

takes. These modes make generally take on two forms: formal

(conventional) or informal (unconventional). Formal or

conventional mode of political participation, on one hand, refers

to those modes that a dominant political culture recognizes as

acceptable and that are related to institutionalized functions.

(Conway, 1991). Examples of formal political participation are

voting, working on campaigns, letter writing, serving in public

office and filing suits. Informal or unconventional mode of

political participation, on the other hand, refers to the modes

that fail short of laws and customary norms of a specific society

and relate to non-institutionalized functions frequently directed

against the system itself that at least aim to transform its

socio-political structure. (Kaase and March, 1979) Informal modes

take on the form of supporting boycotts, staging demonstrations

and protests, signing petitions among others. Parry notes that

the modes may vary according to factors such as opportunity,

levels of interest, resource available to individual as well as

prevailing attitudes towards participation in the society

concerned, notably whether it is encouraged or discouraged.

The intensity of political participation seeks to measure

how many individuals choose to participate in particular

political activities, and the frequency they choose to do so.

Intensity, of course, also varies depending upon factors such as

opportunities and resources. The intensity of political

participation is often used in assessing voters’ turnouts during

elections.

The third mode of political participation, quality, is

concerned with the political efficacy of the participation. It is

concerned with the degree in which individuals feel they are able

to exert influence over politics, more specifically the impact on

those wielding power and on policy-making. This too will vary

from society to society according to opportunities and resources

from case to case.

HIERARCHY OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

As a key concept to political behavior, political

participation is often of interest to researchers. Essentially,

the purpose of a hierarchy, according to Rush (1992), is to

delineate the different types of political participation linked

to the proposition that the higher the level of activity, the

lower the level of participation, as measured by the numbers

engaged in a particular activity. This notion is first implicitly

observed in Milbrath’s (1965) book, Political Participation,

where he posited a hierarchy of political participation that

ranged from non-involvement to holding public office, with the

lowest level of participation being the act of voting. He

classified political participation into three types: (1)

gladiators, (2) spectators and (3) apathetic. Gladiators, were

the least in number of the three, only composing about seven

percent of the American public. Gladiators are those who are

frequently involved in politics, like those who are in office, in

a political party, contributing in a political campaign or being

a candidate. The second classification, spectators composed a

good sixty percent of the public. Spectators composed the public

who were minimally involved in politics like attempting to talk

to other voters about politics, exposing oneself to political

stimuli, wearing a button or sticker on the car, and the most

basic, voting. Third are the apathetic, who in their very name,

are those who are totally uninvolved in politics. Apathetics were

about thirty-three percent of the American public. It is in

Milbrath’s statistics that is implicitly said that the higher the

level of political participation, the lesser the people involved

in it.

Other early literatures of political participation include

Verba and Nie (1972) who studied political participation in the

United States. In their version were six groups composed of

totally passive (22%), only voted (21%), “localists” (20%)or

those whose political activities were confined to the local

politics, “parochials” (4%) or those whose political activities

concerned them directly/personally, “campaigners” (15%) or those

whose political activity were only on those issues related to

their campaign, and the “total activists” (18%) or those who

involve themselves on the entirety of politics, regardless the

issue. Even in Verba and Nie’s political participation, the

proposition that the higher the level of participation the

smaller the number of people involved, still holds true.

A hierarchy supporting this idea attempts to show the whole

range of political participation that is applicable to all types

of political systems. However, the significance or the degree of

truth that this hierarchy may hold varies from one political

system to another.

Figure 1. A Hierarchy on Political Participation (Rush, 1992)

Topmost in the hierarchy is “holding political or

administrative office”, this includes various types of office

whether elected or appointed in the bureaucracy. Below those who

hold or seek office are those who are actively participating in

political or quasi-political organizations which include all

types of political parties and pressure/interest groups. These

said groups enable individuals in a society to participate in

certain types of political activity in the defense or promotion

of particular ideas, positions, situations, persons or groups

through the political system. Participation in parties or

pressure groups may take an active or passive from which ranges

from holding office in such an organization to the provision of

financial support through the payment of subscriptions or

membership dues. Individuals may, of course, be intermittently

passive or active depending on certain circumstances. However, a

basic commitment to being a member is the delineating factor of a

passive member of a political organization. This membership in

turn may strengthen the bargaining power of that organization and

influence the political behavior of the individual. Even if an

individual is not affiliated with any political organization, he

or she may still be persuaded to take part in some form of

political activity by means of a public meeting or demonstrations

which are usually still organized by political organizations.

Such activities are also intermittent since it does not have the

continuous nature of even the minimal commitment of membership of

a political or quasi-political organization. Political

discussions may also take place in informal settings such as the

workplace, families or among friends. Incidence of these

discussions, however, also varies among individuals and in

relation to events such as upcoming elections or times of

political crises. Whether an individual engages in discussion

about politics or not, it is still possible for an individual to

have some interest in politics through other channels such as the

mass media. The mass media keeps people informed about the status

quo and enable laymen to form opinions about the course of

events. It is more likely, however, that these people would limit

their participation to this and voting only. Least of the levels

of participation is voting. This is because voting requires the

minimum effort and commitment which ceases the moment the vote is

casted; and is restricted by the frequency of the elections.

The theory of political participation according to Parry and

hierarchy of political participation by Rush are the theories

that serves as the foundation of this research on youth political

participation. Parry’s political participation serves as a tool

to analyze the different political activities of the youth-based

organizations in Cebu City. By dissecting the mode of

participation used by the organizations, we will understand how

various government and non-government organizations’, specially

created to cater to the youth, approach policy-making and

decision-making in general. We can also analyze the depth of

their activities by looking at their intensity or the number of

youth that gains interest and takes part in their activities.

Lastly, we can perceive the level of efficacy of the numerous

activities that they have conducted by looking at the quality of

their political participation. We see if the desired output of

their political participation (through their activities)n have

been actualized. Using this type of analysis, we can place the

level of political participation of the youth with respect to the

hierarchy that Rush posits.

Scope and Methodology

This part of the study aims to describe the methods in which

the study is to be conducted. This study limits its research on

the three most prominent youth-based organizations in Cebu City,

(1) the National Youth Commission (NYC) – Cebu City Chapter, as

the institutionalized and government-sponsored youth-based

agency, the (2) Sangguniang Kabataaan, as the direct form of

youth political participation, and the (3) Kabataan Partylist, as

the only representative body of the youth in the legislative

branch, to assess the current levels of political participation

of the youth in Cebu. The proponents will collect information

from the said subjects through interviews, news and archives

regarding the mode, intensity and quality of the political

participation of each organization, basing on Parry’s Political

Participation as a model. Upon the collection of the said data,

the proponents are to analyze them through the lens of the

theories presented in the Framework of Analysis.

Review of Related Literature

YOUTH IN ORGANIZATIONAL DECISION-MAKING

On the study conducted by Shepherd Zeldin and etc.2 on the

impacts of youth on adult and organizations, they concluded that

the youth has a significant effect on organizations. It doesn’t

happen all the time because young people are sometimes not

prepared or motivated to influence others. Sometimes

organizations are also not ready to work with the youth.

According to them, "There is a good fit between their stage

of development and organizational needs." Usually, the youth is

the keepers of mission and visions in many organizations. Youth

also bring fresh perspective to the decision-making of any

organization. They also said that involving the youth in the

decision-making helps change the organizations for the better.

They summarized the positive outcomes that they identified. These

are the following:

2 Zeldin, S., et al. (2000). Youth in Decision-Making: A Study on the Impacts of Youth on Adults and Organizations. Innovation Center/Tides Center University of Wisconsin Extension. Accessed December 9, 2014. http://www.cpn.org/topics/youth/cyd/pdfs/youth_in_decision_making.pdf

1. The principles and practices of youth involvement became

embedded within the organizational culture.

2. Most organizations found that young people help clarify and

bring focus to the organization’s mission, and some organizations

made this a formal role of youth.

3. The adults and the organizations as a whole became more

connected and responsive to youth in the community. This

investment and energy led to programming improvements.

4. Organizations placed a greater value on inclusivity and

representation. They came to see that their programming benefits

when multiple and diverse community voices are included in

decision-making processes.

5. Having youth as decision-makers helped convince foundations

and other funding agencies that the organization was serious

about promoting youth development.

6. Including youth in decision-making led organizations to reach

out to the community in more diverse ways (e.g. community

advocacy, policy-making, and service.)

The researchers decided to make this study as one of the

related literature because it highlighted the role and the

impacts of youth participation in an organization. Since there

still no significant research on the political efficacy of youth-

based activities in other, bigger scales such as the local and

national level of governance, this paper will attempt to

integrate some of the ideas of the study into a larger scope –

Cebu City.

YOUTH POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN ALBANIA

Fjerzaet. al.3 (2014) studied the political participation of

youth in Albania, by comparing with the current structure of

youth mobilization in America. The study revealed that, in the

context of the new political environment, utilizing technology

and the social media to achieve political objectives and

awareness have significantly increased the youth political

participation. The study also revealed the problematic

implementation and finalization of projects by International and

National organizations, and non-partisan youth party, relaying

their impact is relative and has no coherence. The study

mentioned the “problem of the lack democracy in the process of

selecting the governing structures are observed in almost all of

the major parties” further implying the effort is commendable but

their impact is “relative and of no coherence.” The existing

study focuses on the impact of new technologies and social media,

comparing it with the existing methods of mobilization in youth

organizations and political parties. In meantime, this study

focuses on these youth organizations and party as a means to

discover the significance of youth participation in politics.3Orjona F., et al. (2014). Youth Political Participation in Albania, International Journal of Management Cases, pp. 4-16

YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA

The study4 is about focusing in the evolution in

participatory development and its implications for governance and

national planning in particular settings, since most of the

researchers doing research on participation only focuses on types

of participatory development, ways in which participation can be

effective, participation by women, and scaling up. It does so by

using a critical postcolonial narrative of the role of the youth

in development planning in Ghana from the 1620s to the present.

The focus on Ghana is justified because of its reputation as one

of Africa’s leading experiments in governance using the ‘youth’

as the unit of analysis is also justified because it has been

neglected in studies on development planning.

The paper argues that the institution of Western form of

governance has led to an obliteration of participatory

development – contrary to popular discourses that it is ‘good

governance’ which has gifted Africa with participatory

4 Ransford G. et al. (2013). Youth Participation in Local and National Development in Ghana: 1620-2013.Ebscohost. Accessed December 12, 2014.http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c9bff060-272c-4e17-81dd-2eb9e73ec15f%40sessionmgr4005&vid=1&hid=4104

development, it is because the youth do not have a formal

participatory role in the policy implementation process in modern

day Ghana. This experience with Western governance stands in

sharp contrast with the experiences of the youth during the pre-

colonial era during which the youth were effectively mobilized to

implement ‘government’ policies.

This paper has tried to reverse the narrative that it was

the West that brought participatory development to Africa using

the case study of the youth and participation in Ghana. Through

the use of a critical postcolonial narrative, it shows that

participatory development was the main moment of participation

until colonial expansion obliterated it and replaced it with

modern system. The attempt to remedy the Western system is still

unstable and youth conflict has become a common feature of

Ghanaian political economy.

The implication of this perspective on participation – an

evolutionary and postcolonial outlook –is that the total neglect

of youth of the youth in policy implementation has grave

implications for the youth and national development. It has the

tendency to create a cohort of dormant young people whose

potential for national development may go untapped. This tends to

destroy and undermine their initiative, zeal, enthusiasm and

self-confidence which are positive attributes required by every

developing nation in its quest to extricate itself from the

quagmires of poverty and under-development and also, it poses a

grave threat to the peace, tranquility and the democratic gains

of the country. Not engaging the youth in policy implementation

implies that they would tend to be idle, particularly when they

are not in school or when they are not in gainful employment.

The Ghana study shows how the youths affect policy making

during the pre-colonial era but currently are being marginalized

after colonial period while our study shows how the youth’sof

today are making their move in affecting policy making. Another

is the Ghana study shows how ineffective the institutions for the

youth while our study shows how the institutions help a lot of

youth to be active in participating different kinds of

activities.

POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND PARTICIPATION OF HONG KONG YOUTH

The Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the

Chinese University of Hong Kong conducted a study5 exploring the

views of the young people in Hong Kong regarding current socio

economic political developments, democratization, their political

aspirations, and their actual political behavior and makes a

comparison with earlier generations. The research paper showed

explanations for the recent phenomenon of increased political

engagement among Hong Kong youth through statistical analysis and

5 Zheng, V., Wan, San P., Wong, K. (2014). Political Attitudes and Political Participation of Hong Kong Youth. EBSCO Publishing. December 14, 2014. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/Legacy/Views/static/html/Error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer

ideas regarding the political ideals and the socio-political

environment of Hong Kong.

The study shows a clear similarity with the study since its

aim is to broaden our understanding of the youth’s political

ideals and the socio-political environment of Hong Kong though

ours is in the context of Cebu City.

The study suggested that the future researchers can start

from the in-depth personal interviews or focus group interviews

and other methods, from another dimension or angle , to

understand the thinking of young people and different political

attitudes .

The study concluded that as for the lack of political apathy

and political participation of young people for the part of the

problem, the government should strengthen the school and the

community at different levels of civic education, with a positive

message of civic participation, so that young people as soon as

possible to establish the right of citizenship and awareness.

In the proponents’ personal interview with the SK President

of Cebu City, he talked about the interest of the federation and

their attempt to negotiate with the academic institution in Cebu

City to encourage more youth to engage with their activities by

conducting researchers involving youth participations.

The researchers chose this study as one of the related

literature since it accentuated the youth’s political ideas and

the explanations for the sharp criticism of the level of

political participation of the youth today.

POLICY-MAKING PROCESS

The diagram above illustrates the five stages of the policy

making process: agenda-setting, policy formulation, policy

adaptation, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. Agenda-

setting constitutes focusing the public attention on a particular

problem or issue with frequent guidance from the words and

actions of public officials. In the legislature and the

bureaucracy, policy makers formulate legislative, regulatory, or

programmatic strategies that address the problem, in the policy

making process. Policy proposals move forward to the adaptation

of a solution through drafting them as laws or bureaucratic rules

in policy adaptation stage. Government agencies put these laws

and bureaucratic rules into action in policy implementation by

establishing procedures, write guidance documents, and issue

grants-in-aid, in line with the policy adopted, to other

government bodies. The policy is then evaluated by analysts in

the implementing agency, the legislature, and outside government

to decide whether it is efficient in serving its purpose, whether

revisions should be made, whether there changes should be made in

the implementation process, or whether there needs to be a whole

new policy.6

In almost every decision-making organization, experts -

people who know the public organizations inside out and have

detailed knowledge about the possibilities of the practicality of

various proposed solutions - have a decidedly bigger advantage

over the non-experts who at best have only a general, partial and

probably shaky technical knowledge7.

Basically, administrators spend years thinking fulltime the

dynamics of a few policy questions. This makes the career of the

administrators to have them as specialist on one subject;

military procurement contracts, issuing passports, or regulating

airline fares, unlike legislators and executives who necessary

deal with all subjects.

6 The Texas Politics Project. (n/a). A Diagram of the Policy-Making Process. Texas Politics Project Website. Accessed December 13, 2014. http://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/bur/features/0303_01/policy.html

7 Ranney, A. (2000). Governing: An Introduction to Political Science. Prentice Hall.

Administrators or civil servants have such long periods in

office which enables them to acquire the detailed knowledge and

“feel” that constitute expertise.

Also they understandably feel that it is their patriotic

duty as well as their professional obligation to express their

conclusions and to do their best to see that the government

follows wise rather than foolish policies.

That’s why, when administers are asked for advice, they can

hardly avoid making their views known, and as often happens,

“political” officials and their constituents have no strong views

of their own and civil servants preferences are likely to become

policy.

Policy recommendation of the different channels of the youth

is significant in policy making. NYC, Kabataan Partylist, and the

Sangguniang Kabataan Federation are some of these youth channels

which serve as the administrators or civil servants that are

significant bodies in policy-making since the ability of policy

recommendation is capsulated in these youth organizations’ power.

II. DATA

A. Definition of Youth and Youth Population

Youth- a person between the age where he/she may leave compulsory

education, and the age at which he/she finds his/her first

employment.

Definitions of youth sector across organizations, etc.

Organizations, etc DefinitionUnited Nations(UN) 15-24 yearsYouth in Nation-Building Act(1994) 15-30 yearsPresidential Decree 603 Below 21 years

World Health Organization(WHO) 15-24 yearsUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of the

Child(UNCRC)

Below 18 years

United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) Below 18 years

Definitions of youth sector across government agencies

Government Agency DefinitionNational Youth Commission(NYC) 15-30 yearsDepartment of Labor and Employment(DOLE) 15-24 yearsDepartment of Interior and Local Government(DILG) 15-21 yearsDepartment of Health(DOH) 10-24 yearsDepartment of Education, Culture and Sports(DECS) 7-18 yearsDepartment of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) 7-18 years8

Youth Population:

The population of the Philippines is estimated at

100,096,496 as of July 1 2014. The youth’s population as of

January 2014 is 18,487,000, youth’s population in the

Philippines, according to UN definition. On the other hand,

27,353,000 is the youth’s population according to Philippine’s

youth definition.

Youth Voters Population:

8National Youth Commission. (2009). National Framework for Youth Development.

In 2010, Philippines National election, 54 percent of the

total voting population comes from the youth bloc. In the same

year electoral turnout, out of the 2.6 million new voters, 80

percent are youth.

Total Population by Census Year - Cebu City, 1970-2010

Based on the 2010 Census of Population and Housing9 (CPH),

Cebu City, a highly urbanized city in the province of Cebu,

posted a total population of 866,171 persons as of May 1, 2010.

In 2010, the median age

of the population of the city

was 24.6 years, which means

that half of the population

was younger than 24.6 years.

This is higher than the median

age of 22.8 years that was

recorded in 2000. Almost three

in every 10 persons (29.4

percent) were under 15 years old. Persons aged 20 to 24 years

(10.9 percent) comprised the largest age group, followed closely

by those in the age groups 15 to 19 years (10.7 percent) and 0 to

4 years (10.2 percent).

Voters in Cebu City 2000-2010

9 National Statistics Authority. (2010). Population of Cebu City Increased by Almost 150 Thousand. Philippine Statistics Authority. Accessed December 9, 2014. http://web0.psa.gov.ph/content/population-cebu-city-increased-almost-150-thousand-results-2010-census-population-and

Nearly two thirds of the populations were of voting age. The

voting-age population (18 years and over) accounted for 64.5

percent of the household population of the city in 2010, up from

60.8 percent in 2000. There were more females (51.8 percent)

than males (48.2 percent) among the voting-age population.

B. Channels of Youth Participation in Cebu City

Kabataan Party-list (KPL)

Kabataan Party-list is the first and only youth party-list

group in Philippine Congress today. Kabataan is a large network

of energized and pro-active young people who are leaders in

various organizations, formations and barkadas. Our members from

across the regions represent diverse interests, backgrounds and

social status, tied by a common vision of a better future for the

youth and for the nation.

National Youth Commission (NYC)

The National Youth Commission10 (Philippines) is a

government agency concerned with issues surrounding the youth. It

was established on June 30, 1995, by virtue of the Republic Act

8044 or the Youth Nation-Building Act, and mandated by Article 2,

Section 13 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. The commission’s

core functions are research, policy formulation and advocacy,

monitoring and evaluation of youth programs, projects and10 YouthAdmin (2010). NYC Vision, Mission and Objectives. National Youth Commission (NYC) | Pambansang Komisyon ng Kabataan | Filipino Youth: Youth in Nation Building. Accessed December 4, 2014. http://nyc.gov.ph/about-national-youth-commission/vision-mission

activities, resource mobilization, networking, and partnership-

building, social marketing, public and media relations,

education, training/institution-building.

Sangguniang Kabataan (SK)

The Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) or Youth Council is the

governing body of the Youth Assembly or Katipunan ng Kabataan of

every barangay. The Katipunan ng Kabataan is an assembly of

youths in every Barangay whose primary objective is to enhance

the social, political, economic, cultural, intellectual, moral,

spiritual and physical development of the youth in the country.

Established by late President Ferdinand Marcos in 1975, this

council is based on the mandate of the 1987 Constitution, which

provides on Section 13, Article II states that the state

recognizes the vital role of the Youth in nation-building and

shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual,

intellectual and social well-being.

C. Programs, Legislations, and Activities of KPL, NYC, and SK

SK PROGRAMS

1. Drug Abuse Awareness: Black Parade

2. Administrative Wide Meeting: Gathering of the SK Chairmen all

over Cebu City for the Allocation of Annual Budget that happens

Every October November and December

3. Co-author of the LGBT Ordinance in Cebu City

4. Fight against SK Abolition: Benchmarking Activity

5. Maintains monthly meeting every last Sunday of the month

6. Opposed Amendments on SK Constitution

NYC PROGRAMS11

1. Draft policies or resolutions subject for endorsement to the

congress specifically the lower house.

2. Supported the Sin Tax Bill: Joined movements and organized

forums advocating for passage of the bill

KABATAAN PARTYLIST

1. Anti-Cybercrime cultural night

2. Participated on the National People’s Congress to Abolish

the Pork Barrel System

3. Organized a CultuRights which aims to uphold and promote

Human Rights!

Activities:

1. Kabataan Partylist voted in favor of the Reproductive Health

bill. It opposed Aquino’s K-12 and the proposal to lower the

minimum age of criminal responsibility.

11 Jig Joris Gadiano, Pres. Staff Officer, NYC, interview by Suzeyne Garcia and Imi Liza Espina, NYC Cebu Office, December 5, 2014.

2. Opposed the Cybercrime Prevention Act as one of the Supreme

Court petitioners which questioned the constitutionality of

the law. Aside from arguing for the repeal of the law

especially its controversial provisions, and also proposed

the passage of a Magna Carta forInternet Users to remind

policymakers and the public that internet legislation should

not only focus on cybercrime prevention12.

3. Filed a resolution inquiring whether there is a

comprehensive program to address the problem of e-waste in

the country and also co-authored the ‘People’s Mining Bill.’

Key Legislative Agenda in the 15th Congress13:

1.  House Bill 807:

            “An Act penalizing the imposition of a 'no permit, no

exam' policy or any such policy that prohibits students from

taking their periodic or final examinations due to unpaid tuition

and other school fees”

Re: (a) The ‘Anti No Permit No Exam’ bill was co-authored by

45 House members. It was adopted by the provincial council of

Palawan and the city councils of Zamboanga and Quezon City. (b)

This is their first legislative measure which was approved on

12 Palatino, Raymond. Mong Palatino. Accessed on December 10, 2014 http://mongpalatino.com/2013/03/kabataan-partylist-legislative-advocacies/

13 Misagal, Monch Mikko. Legislative Agenda. Accessed on December 10, 2014 http://legislativeagenda.weebly.com/kabataan-partylist--rep-raymond-palatino.html

third reading in the House of Representatives was the Anti ‘No

Permit, No Exam’ bill.

2. House Bill 808:

            “An Act amending Republic Act no. 7743, otherwise

known as 'an act providing for the establishment of

congressional, city and municipal libraries and barangay reading

centers throughout the Philippines,' and for other purposes”

3. House Bill 1962:

            “An Act effectively repealing the automatic

appropriation for debt service and institutionalizing the

automatic appropriation of six percent (6%) of the gross domestic

product to public education sector spending by amending Section

31 of Presidential Decree no. 292, otherwise known as the

'Administrative Code of 1987' which reiterates in toto Section 31

of Presidential Decree no. 1177”

4. House Bill 1963:

            “An Act to strengthen and reform the Sangguniang

Kabataan (SK), amending for that purpose certain provisions of

Republic Act no. 7160, otherwise known as 'The Local Government

Code of 1991,' and for other purposes.

5. House Bill 2676:

            “An Act prohibiting the use of polycarbon plastics,

styrofoam and other synthetic materials harmful to the

environment in all food service establishments in all educational

institutions and for other purposes”

MODE FORMAL Draft policies orresolutionssubject forendorsementto the congress

Supported the Sin TaxBill

voted in favor of the Reproductive Health bill

Opposed the CybercrimePreventionAct through passing a petition to the Supreme Court

Co-authored the ‘People’s

Drug awareness campaign

Administrative Wide Meeting

Co-author of the LGBTOrdinance in Cebu City

Monthly Meeting

Opposed Amendments on SK Constitution

Fight Against SK Abolition

Mining Bill.’

Filed a query resolutionon the e-waste problem ofthe country

Author of : HB 807 , HB 808, HB 1962,HB 1963HB 2676, HB 3601

INFORMAL

Anti-Cybercrimecultural night

Participated on the National People’s Congress to Abolishthe Pork Barrel System

Organized a CultuRights

INTENSITY

FREQUENCY 3-4 programs every month

Every month there are at least two programs

Meetings are held every last Sunday of the month/.

Children Summit every October

SK Assembly

Oct, Nov, and December

POPULATION

Most activitiesinvolve not only youth but also adults.

80-100 people, mostly students

300 participants in Black Parade, a drug awareness program

800 participants every Summer Camp, with 200 facilitators

QUALITY OUTCOME Policies

that are recommendedare still under debate in the Congress.

Integration of the youth withother sectors (to fully understandthe daily flight of each sectors and to give support ontheir campaigns)

HB 807 wasapproved on third reading inthe House of Representatives

Other bills are now on second reading.

(Non-Verbatim)“If only there was a body of the government that gives recognitionto the bestSK Federation,Cebu City Federation would probably receive themost of theawards.” – John Philipp Po II, former Cebu City SK Federation Chairman

The table above shows three major youth organizations active inCebu City; the National Youth Commission (NYC), Kabataan Partylist (KPL), and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK). Examined herein arethe three aspects of their political participation, namely, themode of participation, its intensity, and its quality.

III. ANALYSIS

As what the word “democracy” implies, it clearly involves

the will and consent of the governed. All democratic systems,

therefore, demand the political participation of its citizens.

Different sectors from the society have engaged in different

forms of participation in order to exercise their rights to

participate in a productive democracy, and one of these sectors

is the youth. United Nations stated that the youth “can be a

creative force, a dynamic source of innovations, and they have

undoubtedly, throughout history, participated, contributed, and

even catalyzed important changes in political systems, power

sharing dynamics and economic opportunities.”14

With the advancement of technology and the evolution of

ideas, youth activism is now practiced in different forms.

However, despite the leap of youth activism especially during the

Marcos regime, youth political participation remains to be an

insignificant force in Philippine politics. Majority of the youth

population is barred by the lack of education and unemployment

from participating. The 57.9% of the Philippine population, which

is considered as the youth, is a vast resource that remains to be

14 United Nations Youth. (2012). Youth, Political Participation and Decision-Making. United Nations Development Program. Accessed December 7, 2014. www.un.org/esa/.../fact.../youth-political-participation.pdf

untapped15. The 27 million of votes from the youth that can

change the course of Philippine history has been taken for

granted. Philippine politics never opened a way for a youth-led

and supported candidate and party; this also means that the youth

has never been a significant factor in swinging the votes of any

election. There is no single effective agenda or policy that

really helped the youth in addressing their problems. Even if the

youth has ways to participate in shaping the policies, it still

remains to be a salingpusa of the Philippine politics16.

Traditional politicians have failed to see the potential present

in the youth because it stands as a wobbly sector in the society

for they are overwhelmed by personal problems, especially

education and employment.

Youth political participation in the city of Cebu is mainly

exercised through youth-based political and quasi-political

organizations. Such are the organizations like the National Youth

Commission, Kabataan Party List and the Sangguniang Kabataan.

These organizations enable the youth sector to be better be

organized and informed about timely issues that may (or may not)

affect them, as well as conduct relevant activities that aim to

improve current conditions for the youth.

15 Cordero, L.J. (2012). Unleashing the Power of the Youth in the Philippines. Panorama: Insightsinto Asian and European Affairs. Accessed December 7, 2014. www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_32176-1522-2-30.pdf?120926051913

16 Tayo, O. (2002). An Adult’s Dilemma on Youth Participation. What Works in Youth Participation:Case Studies from Around the World. Accessed December 12, 2014. http://www.iyfnet.org/sites/default/files/WW_Youth_Participation.pdf

Prior to the suspension of the Sangguniang Kabataan, youth

political participation in Cebu City places itself in the highest

tier in the Hierarchy of Political Participation, “holding

political or administrative office”. This gives the youth

opportunity to actually be part of the policy-making process

where they have a chance to incorporate, revise and introduce

provisions in a bill or create a whole new bill altogether to

cater to the clamors of the youth. Upon the issuance of the

temporary restraining order of the Sangguniang Kabataan, the

youth sector no longer has a direct way for them to participate

in policy-making process even in a local level.

Using Parry’s Political Participation, there is a way to

analyze the youth political participation in Cebu City. The

analysis can be done by assessing the activities of the three

youth-based organizations that the study has focused on: NYC, KPL

and SK according to political participation’s three aspects of

mode, intensity and quality.

MODE

On one hand, both the National Youth Commission and the

Sangguniang Kabataan only employ formal modes of political

participation, which means that their approach to their

activities are all socially “acceptable and are related to

institutionalized functions,17” like drafting resolutions and

heading campaigns. This is because both of these institutions are

17 Conway, M. Margaret. 1981. "Political Participation in Midterm Congressional Elections: Attitudinal and Social Characteristics during the 1970s" American Politics Quarter

sponsored by the government - the NYC being an agency directly

under the office of the President and the SK, an electoral seat.

On the other hand, only the Kabataan Party List employs both

formal and informal modes of political participation which are

the modes that fail short of the laws and customary norms of a

specific society and relate to non-institutionalized functions

frequently directed against the system itself and transform its

socio-political structure .the reason behind this is because the

KPL is independent from the government, they are a political

organization that holds separate values and attitudes that is

anchored in youth welfare and development.

INTENSITY

The SK has the highest intensity, number of participants of

activities, among the three organizations. The SK owes its large

scope to the barangay wherein they are anchored to. Youth

belonging to a particular barangay needs not to be a member of a

particular organization to take part of their activities as long

as they are a constituent in that barangay. The KPL comes second

in intensity because they are limited by the actual number of the

members and supporters of the party and other like-minded people

(sympathizers). Intensity of the NYC is limited to students who

are already involved in politics, such as student leaders from

universities or college and youth volunteers. This is because

most of their activities are invitation-only, with exceptions in

their leadership training activities.

QUALITY

The SK, being a part of the legislative branch (Sangguniang

Panlalawigan or Sangguniang Panglungsod) is most effective in

policy-making, as the people who are directly involved in the

formulation of the bills. The KPL, being a political party and a

holder of seat in the lower house also has direct policy-making

abilities as seen in the bills that they have submitted (i..e. HB

807, HB 808, HB 1962, etc.). However, both of these institutions’

political efficacies is still constrained by the nature of the

legislative process of passing a law – often getting stuck in

either the lower or upper house or office of the president. This

is especially true for bills authored by minority political

parties such as the Kabataan party List, since most of the laws

they are pushing are against traditional political practices in

the Philippines. Their Students’ Rights and Welfare Bill for

example has been caught up in the process for almost a decade

already. The NYC’s policy-making capabilities are limited to

policy recommendations that they have consolidated from their

systematic consultation processes. This means that all of their

meaningful suggestions, whether bills or provisions of bills are

subject to debate and scrutiny by the office of the president,

who they work directly under. However, what all of the three

institutions have in common is that all can promote a particular

propaganda or campaign for a specific cause. For example, both

the NYC and SK are campaigning for the reformation of the SK and

against its abolition.

IV. CONCLUSION

Youth Participation is still present even after the TRO of

the SK. Different youth organizations and institutions serve as

channels for the youth to participate. Upon the TRO of the

Sangguniang Kabataan, the optimum level of political

participation of the youth had lowered from “holding

political/administrative office” to “active membership in a

political (quasi-political) organization”. With the proven

importance of youth participation in shaping policies and

society, the only way for the youth to achieve the highest level

of political participation is to find a way to incorporate the

youth sector itself in policy-making, though not necessarily

through SK. In Cebu City, youth remains to be a significant force

in the policy-making process of the City. According to former SK

Federation Chairman of Cebu City, – John Philip Po II, “If only

there was a body of the government that gives recognition to the

best SK Federation, Cebu City Federation would probably receive

the most of the awards.” and “the SK of Cebu City is the most

productive SK in the country.” He emphasized that there were

measures that were not followed by other federations and only

Cebu City’s Federation was able to follow it.

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