Youth on Elections

The 2004 presidential election is only a few more months away. Already, there is a frenzy over who will run to become the next president of the country, with the candidates ranging from a famous action star to the incumbent president.

"Most likely none [of the candidates]. I'm not going to vote this time," Bryan Jay Bibat, 19, a senior BS Computer Science student from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, replied with a short laugh when asked whom he would vote in the coming elections.

"It's an exercise in futility," he adds.

Many of the youth seem to share his lack of enthusiasm for the coming elections. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that of the 5.263 million expected new voters, most of them youths age eighteen and above, only 2.942 million filed applications.

Though he filed an application, Bryan said he just registered to get his voter's or validation ID.

The youth sector is one of the biggest voting blocks in the country. According to John Paul 'J.Paul' Manzanilla, the University Student Council chairperson of U.P. Diliman, the youth plays an important role in the elections because of its population and its stake in the coming 2004 elections.

"The people we [the youth] will elect are the ones who will legislate laws for us or who will execute laws for us or the ones who will appoint the judges and the jurors of the laws that will be interpreted�must be interpreted�according to our needs."

These government officials, when elected, would play an influential role in youth development, since the government has "massive" institutions that have youth programs, like the Department of Education and the Philippine Sports Commission.

Manzanilla also said that with its size, the youth block would balance or twist the tie to favor its side if the youth votes as a homogenous or significant whole this coming election.

The youth will also be the future, if not current, voters. "In a few decades or so, those who are voting today will be dead. Then it will be us who will be voting," Jason de Guzman, 18, a third-year BA Political Science student in U.P. Diliman, said in Filipino.

Aside from voting on the day of the elections itself, the youth has other roles to fulfill. Manzanilla said the youth should actively intervene in the debate on politics, especially when it comes to the national elections this coming year. Debates would help not only the youth but also the people to know more about the candidates and their plans through how they answer their questions.

"The youth should analyze the programs and platforms of governance of every candidate to see which would suit well to their needs as youth�their needs on education, or their parent's employment or their own employment in the future after they graduate," he added in Filipino. "Elections should provide debates and discussions."

He also said the youth should actively speak on national issues, breaking through the barrier thrown at them by people who say that they are too young to grasp the important issues which was not true since whatever decided on the election involved their own futures.

Jason said the youth should learn to think things over. "Even if they don't think, whatever they're thinking about, they should express it so that they'd learn to become involved�to exchange ideas�."

In the recent years, the youth sector has been very active. During EDSA Anak ng Bayan, the youth Party List has�.

Not all youths are active in expressing their rights to vote. Nor do they feel thrilled about the coming 2004 presidential elections and its possible results. Patrich Jerome Leccio, 18, a BA student in UP Diliman said he's happy and excited at the elections, yet at the same time, he's also not excited and happy about it.

"I'm anticipating that FPJ (actor Fernando Poe Jr.) would win, but I'm hoping it won't be him." Patrich said he'd vote for the incumbent president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the elections.

Jason is also skeptical about the outcome of the election and whether having elections still has any merit. "It [the elections] has merit in the sense that what the people want would appear�since that is the purpose of elections [which is that] people will get their say on how they are governed. However, if you're taking about [it having] merit�that there will be positive changes for the better, I'm not that optimistic."

However, despite what seems to be a bleak election, there are still youths that are still willing to go through the elections�not only to vote, but also to ponder about their choices.

"I'm going to think [about my vote]," Jason said with a serious look on his face. "Because I know it's only one vote. It's my first time to vote. I'm in a critical stage in my life. I can do something good, so I'll really think about it. I'll make the most out of it."