TOPIC: ​Should Philippine Politics and Government be a Concern of the Youth?

Politics as a Way for the Youth to Create Change

The youth is the hope of our future​, as mentioned by Jose Rizal. They would be
the generation that can instill change and create progress towards a better nation. At
the end of the day, the young minds would be able to see the impurities of the system,
they would be the ones who will be left behind to cater to the needs of the people, since
the youth will be the future of the Philippines. The young people hold a critical role in
elections, since their votes would matter to the progress of the country. According to
statistics, the number of registered voters for the 2019 elections are aged 18-30
(Jiminez, 2019). Those born in the early 90s and 2000s are said to be 18,847,230 of the
61,843,750 voters across the country. The awareness of the youth to different social
issues take part in their growing interest in politics, since they believe that participating
in politics should not be limited to voting in elections. Now as shown by news reports
from the Inquirer and ABS-CBN, there are social movements such as boycotting
restaurants involved in contractualization such as Jollibee and Chowking, as well as
taking part in protests and even holding round table discussions about issues such as
the latest SONA Huddle wherein they discussed President Rodrigo Duterte’s 4th SONA
and the role the youth play in creating change for a more ideal government. The youth
also engage in volunteering to help communities in need. The youth are burdened by
great expectations to have the knowledge provided by social issues and research, to be
able to make the right choices for the future leaders of the country.

Globally, Filipinos are known to spend most of their time online or on social
media (Gonzales, 2019). It is apparently the 4th straight year of the Philippines to be
part of the top countries to frequently be online, even beating out Thailand. Gonzales
(2019), also states that the Philippines have an average of 5 hours and 4 minutes spent
on the internet or in front of a computer. 99% of internet users have at least 1 social
media platform, making social media usage a popular past-time among Filipinos, most
especially the youth. The number of social media users have risen from 67 million to 76
million, with 75 million of these users being on Facebook. It has now been a necessity
to have a social media account since it is a common way to interact with others and
have an outlet to share ideas with people online. Mobile phone use for social media
among Filipinos are at 67%, making social media an influential tool. Social media
serves as the avenue for people to make the right decisions based on the information
they receive online.

The youth now make use of digital media to extend involvement in political
engagement, with the use of online platforms as a method of expanding offline
participation among the youth. In the Twitter platform, the youth are extremely active
and tend to share their thoughts and insights regarding the elections, making it trending
for a few days. There was also the use of memes regarding Bong Revilla, which made
the need to vote a more pressing matter. Back in 2016, there was also an instance of an
online campaign called MovePH, held by Rappler which involved leaders talking about
elections, as well as social issues. Although most of the youth only engage in local
politics sporadically due to disappointment in the government and the system. This was
seen especially because of the results from the recent elections, since no candidates
from Otso Diretso was able to win since all came from President Duterte’s side, which
was PDP Laban. The youth was greatly disappointed by this, since most if not all was
hoping for Otso Diretso to win. Most of the youth chose to express their disappointment
in different social media platforms through the use of posts urging that there was a form
of cheating and vote-buying happening. The Filipino youth are not ignorant of social
issues, with the appearance of social movement campaigns to solve these; However
there are a few young people who are afraid to get involved or participate in politics,
instead using social media as a platform for political involvement.

The youth (15 to 20 year olds) are more likely to turn to the internet, while the
older members (26 to 30 year olds) are more inclined to offline political involvement
instead. The use of the internet would provide the youth with more information regarding
the elections, campaigns, and social issues that would heighten their interest. The youth
tend to find it safer and easier to be able to express their concerns regarding the
elections behind a computer screen, since there are factors such as the fear to get
involved in politics and not being a registered voter. The internet may cause the youth to
stray further from actual offline engagement, since they assume online activity would
suffice. The youth may become distracted due to various avenues the media has for
leisure, that would cause the youth to lose interest in politics. Although, the youth also
believe that there is more appeal to more specific forms of participation outside of voting
as mentioned by Wilhemina Cabo, such as volunteering and social work that opens the
minds of the youth to what they think is a better way to become involved with politics
since voting is not enough to help the country. Sociologist Jayeel Cornelio of Ateneo de
Manila University’s Development Studies program says that “The most important
variables affecting voting preferences are education, religion, and to a certain extent,
class. But even these variables also shift depending on issues of the day,” He further
explains that education is an important tool that helps the youth gain more insight from
educators regarding the state of the country. Their insight would strengthen the opinions
of the youth. More so, the youth’s attitude on voting would differ based on factors such
as family, peers, school, and media. Experiences of the youth matter, which include
unemployment and discrimination to their participation. There are some who are
privileged to tune out political noise (Lopez, 2019). Those who would choose not to
participate in political activities are usually labelled as “apathetic” by those who are
active participants as seen in Twitter. However, Ayen Lopez speaks of the more
privileged youth that are able to ignore the political buzz due to not being affected by
what the government is doing as compared to the lower classes that experience
hardship due to the corruption of the system.

Among the youth, there is a pattern of apathy and disengagement with politics
(Youniss, et al 2002). Cabo (2016) states that in the Philippines, there are studies
confirming that there are a number of the youth that prefer to stay uninvolved in politics.
According to a survey held by Sandoval, Mangahas, and Guerrero back in 1998, the
youth consider political involvement as the least important in their lives as compared to
marriage, education, having a steady job, and a good family life. The more privileged
youth prefer to worry about things that affect them, since they do not feel the effects of
the system such as contractualization and the law that was passed back in 2018, the
anti-tambay ​law. There are also cases wherein the upper class prefer the horrible
effects of the war on drugs, which became a war on the poor (Aldama, 2018).
Jacqueline De Guia from Human Rights states that ​“The higher classes are frustrated
with the justice system because it’s slow, so they think vigilantes and death squads
should be tolerated because they rid society of criminals.” ​The youth would rather do
activities that are more attuned to their lifestyle, such as donating and volunteering
which is a method the upper class does to increase political involvement. An example of
this would be how local celebrity Anne Curtis, a UNICEF celebrity advocate, uses her
fame to promote charitable causes such as building additional classrooms for General
Roxas Elementary School in Roxas District, Quezon City (Peña Cruz, 2018).
Meanwhile, the other side of the youth are more active when it comes to protests. “​In 
the  streets  you  will  find  these  youth  activists  rallying  with  utter  bombast  against  social 
injustices.  Waving  placards,  they  shout  vitriols  against  a  government that is never good 
enough for them.” (Bernal, 2013). Activism shows the anger that the youth have towards 
the  unfair  treatment  of  the  government,  given  the  statistics  and  occurrences  that  they 
see  online  and  offline.  These  instances  fuel  their  passion  to  bring  their  opinions  on the 
streets, offline. 

The involvement of the youth include other factors as well that influence their
participation, such as satisfaction with the current system, confidence in institutions and
pride (Sebastian, 2014). The writer states that among the three, the satisfaction of the
youth with the system pushes them to instill change through participation. Sebastian
(2014) further explains that “​For mobilization to occur, the belief in the ability to instigate
change must be greater than the level of dissatisfaction.” It can be inferred that the
misconduct in the government would be based on the morality of the youth to create a
better environment for Filipinos, especially the oppressed. Once the youth take notice of
the wrongdoings of the officials in terms of laws and rights, it would also be up to them
whether or not they would choose to do something about it or stay silent. Sebastian
(2014) analyzes that the youth are most dissatisfied with labor and employment, given
the average rate of 2.61%; Followed by public housing (2.73%), healthcare (2.80%).
The youth find themselves to be most influential in terms of healthcare, education
(3.41%), and policy formation (3.14%). Although, they also find themselves to be
influential in the labor and employment area given the viral boycotting and protests
against contractualization back in 2018 against the infamous NutriAsia company and
the violent rallies against the unfair treatment towards the workers (Tan, 2018). The
treatment of NutriAsia towards the contractual workers caused an outrage among the
youth, with some journalists even being arrested by the police due to fake evidence
being planted by the police themselves. Sebastian (2014) explains that given the
dissatisfaction of the youth towards the system would make them not feel as confident
towards the court (41.8%) and the law enforcement (40.0%). Although Bernadette (17)
states that working closely with the local government has made her realize that “When
problems arise, people are quick to judge. But being closer to these institutions, you get
to understand that it’s not as simple.” She also adds that “At the same time, knowing
how things work, you have more to observe, analyze, criticize and reflect because you
are more immersed.” With these insights, the youth feel most confident towards the
local government (46.3%). Thus, it can be said that barangay and city officials have the
most leverage when it comes to influencing the youth. An important factor to consider
would be the pride that the youth have when it comes to being a Filipino, since it would
determine the amount of awareness and care that the youth have for their fellow
countrymen and the state of the country. Sebastian (2014) observes that 91.3% of the
youth are proud to be Filipino, further stating that it is the love and pride that a Filipino
has for the country that would motivate them to get involved with politics.

The youth must be more active in terms of political participation, other than
social issue movements. Engagement would be necessary since the future politicians
and state of the country will depend on the youth. They are going to be the next
generation of workers and voters that will make the decisions for the betterment of the
country. Due to the majority of the youth wanting better leaders, they must make this
more plausible by actively being involved. Advocacies, though helpful, would not be
enough to sustain the state of the country. If of legal age, they must be able to vote in
order to solidify their hope of having better officials to run the country. Education,
especially voters education is one that needs to be given more awareness to. Having
media literacy is a factor of proper voter’s education, since most candidates need to
make use of the media (Baker, 2012). The candidates would be able to reach out to the
people through the use of advertisements, commercials, and social media posts.
Marketing is an important strategy, since the audience would be able to see how the
candidates plan on improving the country and what their campaigns would contain.
Since they need to maintain a good image through the use of social work and the likes,
it is a necessity for the audience to be able to determine whether or not they are truly fit
to run the country. As a student of Willhelmina Cabo mentioned, ​“​Awareness about the
kind of candidate that should be selected during election must be given a lot of
thinking.” Taking part in monitoring the elections, would also give voters the chance to
see which politician is in the lead and this would give them the leverage to check on
their campaigns and background information in order to be sure that they are fit to be in
charge.

Given the factor of experience being one of the most important in political
participation, the youth must also be able to become involved in offline participation
aside from purely relying on the internet. Although the internet is a good place to
become more aware of different issues and campaigns, it is not the proper way to gain
experience of what is truly happening around the society. The media does not even
begin to cover half the things that are going on outside of the internet, and the youth can
be able to achieve a more active democracy through social work. Aside from that, the
youth can also use their knowledge on the elections and candidates to be able to
influence their family members and friends to vote for the right people. The youth are
not as apathetic as some people claim they are, since they are more aware of what they
can do and what needs to be done in order to instigate change. They are slowly
becoming more and more open to volunteering in activities that involve politics, since
the system is genuinely affecting a lot of Filipinos especially the oppressed, and the
youth understands that there is power in participation, since it is evident especially in
social media how much the youth wants change. All they need to do is make that a
reality through voting and being more active.

The key to a good society would be a good government. It may be unavoidable

to have some sort of corruption in the government, but it can be lessened or even
eradicated with the right people in charge. The use of the internet is powerful in terms of
awareness. It has its benefits such as being able to enhance involvement and provide
platforms for the youth to be able to have discussions on social issues, be involved in
protests, and volunteer work. Given these benefits, the internet also has its cons such
as making the youth think that online participation is enough, and serving as a
distraction for the youth to not participate at all. The youth cannot be generalized
(Bautista, 2019). Experiences matter to young people, as well as socioeconomic factors
that involve the family, community, and status. There may be those who are more
privileged than the others that have the capability to not become involved in politics, but
nonetheless the need for media literacy and education is important to voting. At the end
of the day, if one does not have pride for his or her country, then there is no use voting
at all. It is the love for one’s country that truly inspires the youth to do something about
the state of the country. As Jose Rizal said, “​We young Filipinos are trying to make over
a nation and must not halt in our march, but from time to time turn our gaze upon our
elders. We shall wish to read in their countenances approval of our actions.​”
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Baker, F. (2012, October). Media Literacy, Politics, and Students. Retrieved from
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Peña Cruz, R. (2018, March). How these Filipinas Use their Fame for the Greater Good.
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Aldama, Z. (2018, January). How Philippines War on Drugs has become a War on the
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The Philippine Inquirer (2016, May). The Millenial Vote. Retrieved from
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Bernal, B. (2013, April). Youth Activism: More than just Organized Action. Retrieved
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