i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
(top and bottom) YOUTH FOR MARCOS.<br />
In the 1970s, presidential daughter Imee<br />
Marcos led the Kabataang Barangay, the<br />
precursor of today’s Sangguniang Kabataan.<br />
just 15, the minimum age<br />
requirement <strong>for</strong> an SK aspirant.<br />
Carlo had wanted to make<br />
a difference, noting that his<br />
predecessor spent six years in<br />
the SK without any project to<br />
show afterward. Carlo planned<br />
to put up a library <strong>for</strong> the<br />
youth and have a computer in<br />
the SK office. But the barangay<br />
captain said no. “Ayoko (I just<br />
don’t want to), ” was the kapi-<br />
tan’s<br />
explanation.<br />
The kapitan, however, had<br />
more to say after Carlo posted<br />
a “Walang Ku-Corrupt” advocacy<br />
sticker used during the Edsa<br />
2 revolution on the SK office’s<br />
door. That night, the kapitan<br />
called an emergency meeting<br />
with the whole council and<br />
several people present. Carlo<br />
was being accused of, of all<br />
things, vandalism. “Pinapar-<br />
inggan mo ba kami<br />
(Are you<br />
implying something)?” the enraged<br />
barangay chief asked. After<br />
that incident, all of Carlo’s<br />
proposals were rejected. Had it<br />
not been <strong>for</strong> the barangay accountant<br />
who helped him push<br />
<strong>for</strong> the release of his funds,<br />
he would not have even been<br />
able to implement his projects.<br />
“The SK needs protection,”<br />
says the Institute <strong>for</strong> Popular<br />
Democracy’s Francis Isaac,<br />
who was elected SK councilor<br />
in Pasay in 1992. “The first protection<br />
it needs is protection<br />
from the barangay chair.”<br />
The barangay, in fact, is just<br />
the first and lowest level of the<br />
power hierarchy. SK officials<br />
have to deal with mayors,<br />
governors, and congressmen as<br />
well. But with the SK’s influence<br />
over a large number of wouldbe<br />
voters, politicians have keen<br />
interest in SK affairs. There are<br />
even those who go to the extent<br />
of having key people—preferably<br />
a close relative— become<br />
part of the SK.<br />
Crucial SK posts invite<br />
rather heavy-handed ways.<br />
Posadas, <strong>for</strong> instance, recalls<br />
how no one dared to nominate<br />
another candidate as SK<br />
federation president apart from<br />
the mayor’s daughter. Posadas<br />
was himself eyeing the seat,<br />
but everyone fell silent when<br />
the nomination was closed<br />
immediately after the name of<br />
the mayor’s hija<br />
was entered.<br />
In Zambales, meanwhile,<br />
SK chairs each received<br />
P3,000, a 3310 <strong>No</strong>kia phone,<br />
and an SK jacket from the<br />
mayor’s nephew be<strong>for</strong>e one<br />
particular SK poll. “He was just<br />
15 years old,” says one of the<br />
recipients. “Three days be<strong>for</strong>e<br />
the election he and his father<br />
came to our homes and offered<br />
us the ‘gifts.’ Of course,<br />
most accepted the offer since<br />
they couldn’t af<strong>for</strong>d a phone. I<br />
only got the jacket since it had<br />
my name on it. Bigay daw ni<br />
mayor<br />
(They said the mayor<br />
gave it). It was at that point<br />
that I lost all hope.”<br />
Some say the “bargaining”<br />
is even worse during the election<br />
of the provincial SK federation<br />
head in some areas. Gari<br />
Lazaro, president of the <strong>Center</strong><br />
<strong>for</strong> Youth Advocacy and Networking,<br />
has worked with the<br />
youth sector long enough to<br />
know that even the “kingmakers”<br />
who put the youngsters in<br />
power have vested interests.<br />
“Whatever their motives,” he<br />
says, “it will surely affect the<br />
per<strong>for</strong>mance (of the SK).”<br />
“Our culture is subversive,”<br />
he adds. “The no.1 rule is<br />
obedience. And if you can’t<br />
assert yourself, you won’t win<br />
in the battle.”<br />
In a barangay in Manila, a<br />
20-year-old SK chair can barely<br />
concentrate on her work. “I<br />
think I won only because my<br />
aunt (the barangay captain)<br />
wanted me there,” she says.<br />
“She makes me sign papers I<br />
never get to read. Employees<br />
at the city hall kept telling me,<br />
‘Makukulong ka na lang ‘di mo<br />
pa alam<br />
(You’re headed <strong>for</strong> jail<br />
and you don’t even know it).’”<br />
These days the city government’s<br />
Youth Bureau is waiting<br />
<strong>for</strong> her to file a complaint<br />
against her aunt, who apparently<br />
made it appear on paper<br />
that several donated medals<br />
and trophies had been purchased.<br />
This is just the latest<br />
among the accusations hurled<br />
her aunt’s way. The SK chair<br />
fears that she, too, might soon<br />
be implicated in one of her<br />
aunt’s alleged shenanigans.<br />
Iloilo Rep. Janette Loreto-<br />
Garin, who used to be Leyte’s<br />
SK federation head, says it’s<br />
not easy <strong>for</strong> an SK official to<br />
have relatives in government.<br />
Herself part of a political clan,<br />
Loreto-Garin says, “You have<br />
to consider your relatives so<br />
that they won’t be offended.”<br />
But Richard Alvin Nalupta,<br />
commissioner-at-large of the<br />
National Youth Commission<br />
(NYC), says this isn’t necessarily<br />
true. Another scion of a<br />
political family, Nalupta was<br />
provincial SK head in Ilocos<br />
<strong>No</strong>rte while his father was<br />
the vice governor. He says his<br />
father never attempted to influence<br />
his stand on issues. “He<br />
didn’t impose,” says Nalupta.<br />
“In fact, we even debated (during<br />
sessions).”<br />
Former Pasay SK member<br />
Isaac, however, wants a clean<br />
break from the old order, which<br />
includes political dynasties. “SK<br />
is an arena of struggle between<br />
the kind of trapo politics<br />
that we have and the kind of<br />
politics we want to emerge,”<br />
he stresses. The clamor <strong>for</strong> new<br />
politics, he says, comes with<br />
the need <strong>for</strong> autonomy. “It has<br />
no dynamism of its own,” says<br />
Isaac. “The older people have<br />
no real appreciation of the SK<br />
as an institution <strong>for</strong> good governance<br />
and democratization.<br />
To them, it’s all about politics.”<br />
THE CALL<br />
<strong>for</strong> re<strong>for</strong>ms in the<br />
sector came as early as 1996,<br />
when there was news that the<br />
first batch of SK was not per<strong>for</strong>ming<br />
and had been taken<br />
over by trapolitos<br />
or young<br />
traditional politicians.<br />
“Walang pingakaiba ‘yan<br />
sa gusto mong maging artista<br />
at pipila ka sa<br />
Starstruck (They<br />
were chosen in the same way<br />
votes are garnered by contestants<br />
in Starstruck),” Lazaro<br />
POLITICAL INITIATION.<br />
Mikee Cojuangco,<br />
<strong>for</strong>mer movie star and<br />
member of a political<br />
clan, was introduced<br />
to politics through the<br />
Sangguniang Kabataan.<br />
38 PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM I REPORT