8/7/2019 Pastoral letter urges SK abolition

1/1

Pastoral letter urges SK abolitionBy Manly M. Ugalde

LEGAZPI CITY --- The Diocese of Legazpi has issued a pastoral letter calling for the immediate abolition of

the Sangguniang Kabataan because it has become a useless institution.

Read in all churches in Albay on Sunday, the pastoral letter issued by Bishop Joel Baylon said the pastbarangay and SK elections only proved that the SK has already put its hands in the dirty game of politics.

The church noted that during the election last Oct. 25, 2010, in Legazpi City alone some candidates for SK

chairmanship had to bribe voters with as high as P1,500. In the barangay level, candidates reportedly settled toas high as P700.

The church officials said that parents have to trade the votes of their kids to a candidate with the highest

bid.

Some teachers who acted as election board of canvassers commented in jest that if only our great nationalhero Dr. Jose Rizal is alive today, he would be ashamed to refer to the youth as the hope of our fatherland,

facing this kind of orientation our government have for the children.

Church officials said that the barangay and SK elections which are being vaunted as non-partisan but onlyin words have been tainted with massive vote-buying with the government and its institutions appearing

helpless in shielding the SK and barangay elections from the dirty hands of politics.

They wondered why it takes more than two decades for some honorable members of Congress to say itsabout time to discard SK and barangay elections.

They said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Edgardo Angara who are veteran legislators

should know very well the sentiments of the Filipino people long time ago. Enrile and Angara had said onlyrecently that it is about time to abolish the SK to spare the young minds from political corruption.

Reports said barangay and SK leaders have become so decisive in fighting for their posts because of the

benefits they are getting from barangay projects and commissions from purchases of supplies. Public worksofficials also complained that barangay and SK leaders would not affix their signatures in the acceptance and

turn-over of completed barangay projects if no money is doled out for them as kickback.

A source from the Philippine National Police regional office here said the last barangay and SK electionwas a very frustrating occasion where every candidate had to use money to win votes.

A family of five voters claimed all candidates from barangay and SK chairmanship down to kagawad had

paid them visit with pamphlets or political stickers attached with cash, the minimum was P30.

http://www.bicolmail.com/issue/2010/nov4/xletter.html