Delivered on 3 November 2014 at the Asian Young Leaders Roundtable Discussion Speech, 9th Asia Economic Summit, Sunway Hotel Resort and Spa, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

=========================================================

I believe that my co-speakers are the more experienced and more established resource persons on the topic. I would like to think, therefore, that I was invited to speak for the very purpose of bringing to the table a more personal take on the topic, considering that I am still within the very definition of “youth” by international standards.

Let me start with an excerpt from the poem “To the Filipino Youth”, written by the Philippines’ National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. The poem says:

Lift up your radiant brow,
This day, Youth of my native strand!
Your abounding talents show
Resplendently and grand,
Fair hope of my Motherland!

For Rizal and for almost all of Filipinos since him, the Youth has always been referred to as the Hope of the Fatherland. In Philippine History, from the youth sprang valiant heroes who were monumental in the Philippine’s fight for freedom and independence. Rizal himself was only 26 when he published Noli Me Tangere in 1887, which to a certain extent became the bible of the revolution.

Aside from Rizal, many of our National Heroes were as young. Andres Bonifacio was only in his 20s when he led the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangan Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, most commonly known as the KKK or the “Supreme and Most Honorable Society of the Children of the Nation, a society formed by mostly the young Filipinos and was critical in propagating nationalistic ideals among the Filipinos. The other leader of the Philippine Revolution and the President of the 1st Philippine Republic, Emilio Aguinaldo was a victorious general at age 27 and President before he turned 29.

To this date, I would like to believe that the Filipino Youth is still at the forefront of development and fight for freedom. In fact, in 2014, the Mastercard Youth Confidence Index placed the Filipino youth as fourth among emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region. This only shows that despite the challenges and obstacles that had plagued the Filipino Youth throughout the years, they have remained steadfast in helping build a better future for the Philippines.

It is no secret that the Philippines, despite being tagged as the next Tiger of Asia, still has to shake remnants of being a Third World Country. The Philippines current state is brought about by a mixture of economic, social, geographical and political fiascos. Recent studies have shown, however, that even in the face of insurmountable difficulties, majority of the Philippines’ youth population chose to overcome apathy and helplessness. The Filipino Youth have always been a picture of resilience and robustness.

As written by Joseph Puyat of the University of the Philippines, “how well the country, (or Asia for that matter), will fare decades from now will depend on the performance of its future leaders and citizens – today’s youth. Whether they will turn out to be good and productive members of our society depends to a great extent on how competently they are managing their current affairs, the life-changing decisions they make now and will continue to make and the level of support society provides in this trying period of their lives.”

It is true. We can say that our youth, Filipinos and Asians in particular are most vibrant and intellectually gifted. You see in a lot of western TV series, Asian students being tagged as the industrious, intelligent and confident ones. They were always at the top of their class academically and they head student organizations or councils. This, to a certain extent, relates to what is perceived to be the innate strength of Asian Youth.

But as Asians, what have we done to nurture and develop our HOPES? Have we prepared them the right way to be our future leaders? Or have we neglected and abused them that our region and countries’ futures will go down the drain with them too?

In the Philippines, there has been enactments of numerous institutional reforms and initiatives to develop our youth. The K-12 Educational System was recently introduced, adding two more years to Secondary school in the aims of making our youth employment-ready even without a tertiary education. We also have a National Youth Commission (NYC) which serves as a policymaking and coordinating body of all youth programs and projects of the government. The Sangguniang Kabataan or the Youth Council was created for young Filipinos aged 15 to 21 to actively participate in affairs involving all levels of governance, from grassroots to the national level. In fact, young Filipinos are being elected in key government positions. The Vice-Governor of Quezon Province, Honorable Sam Nantes, is only 25 years old. The Lone District of Camiguin’s Representative, Hon. Xavier Jesus Romualdo, was elected to the Lower House of Congress at age 26.

Despite this, however, the state of the Filipino youth cannot be said to be most pleasing. Many times their vibrance and idealism had been subdued by the evils of the society, of corrupt politicians, discrimination and neglect. Their potentials are being tempered by challenges in education, employment and abuses.

While many young Filipinos enjoy the benefit of education and literacy, the quality of education continues to fall below standard. One begs to ask: Why am I not receiving quality education when the Philippine Government in 2014 allotted over PHP 300 Billion for Education? Why are there no sufficient schools in the country? Worse, why are there substandard facilities and insufficient text books?

Yes, there is free public elementary and high school education. There are State Universities and Colleges, as well as the Technical Educaion and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) which offers scholarships. And indeed, it can be said that the current Government is doing everything to alleviate the status of education and raise literacy in the country. But with the country’s battle for corruption, it is obvious that the government cannot do it alone. It is important that the private sector should step up and fill in the void created by corrupt officials while we fight for transparency and accountability in government.

It should be noted that when we say “private sector”, we do not only talk about business entities and corporations. We should go deeper and make the more fortunate members of our youth population realize that it is also their responsibility to lend a hand to those who are not as lucky as they are. This way, we help improve literacy rate among the poor and instil selflessness and altruism to the fortunate.

Take for instance the Thomasian Project 4 (TP4) of the University of Santo Tomas Central Student Council. It is a program close to my heart as I was part of it. We were students ourselves but we pool in our resources, with the help of the Council funds, to tutor abled but financially challenged public high school students every Saturday. We helped them prepare for class and eventually for college. TP4 provided them an opportunity to take free entrance exams in the University and upon admission, we help them acquire a full college scholarship. At present, the program has helped a good number of students finish school and land decent employment. The project did not only bring hope to the students we tutored but more importantly to their struggling families.

The program made us, student volunteers, aware of the hurdles that other members of the Filipino youth are going through. It gave us a bigger and deeper perspective of life and society. We recognized the undeniable fact that a huge percentage of our society is below poverty line because they cannot find employment considering their educational qualifications. The more we neglect the value of educating our youth, the closer we take our nations to doom.

This, however, does not take away the challenge for the government and the private sector to provide more employment opportunities in the country. It is highly important that more decent paying and career jobs are generated for our youth to avoid what we call the “brain drain”, where our youth choose to leave the country and work abroad for greener pastures. The solution is not only as simple as education = employment. The truth being that the equation should be quality education = fulfilling employment.

Another pressing concern the Filipino youth currently deals with are abuses from all sectors of the society.

In the Philippines, absolute criminal liability starts at age 15. In addition, those less than 18 but more than 15 years of age cannot be held criminally liable unless they have acted with discernment. The law was made that way for noble reasons. But it has also been the root of so many abuses, the most upsetting of which is the practice of criminals in using children to evade liability. Add to the fact neglect, lack of parental love and guidance, as well as poverty, it is not a surprise that the number of juvenile offenders in the Philippines is increasing by the year.

Also, while the Filipino Youth is given an opportunity to actively perform in governance especially from the grassroots through the SK or the Youth Council, a good number of them are being manipulated by crooked politicians, exposing them early to corruption. Turns out, some of them act as dummies to politicians who desires to take advantage of the youth council for their own personal thirst for power, money and influence. This practice has been existing in the Philippines for years, a practice that corrupts not only the government system of grassroots participation but also the youth, our future leaders.

Interestingly, the above mentioned abuses can also be avoided through education and youth empowerment. A well informed youth will not allow himself to be subjected to pressures to do wrong and be a dummy for somebody else. An empowered youth will stand for his or her own convictions and will be guided by knowing right from wrong. An enlightened youth will not find that collective goals are necessarily antithesis of individualistic goals and vice versa. Hence, will embrace the values of self-respect, generosity and hope.

Clearly, a better tomorrow will be guaranteed by a steering towards the direction of educating our youth not only in school but also in significant aspects of the society.  They should be taught not only to be future managers of companies but also to be society leaders who will fight for reform, freedom, progress and development. We should prepare our youth not only to be globally competitive but also to be socially sensitive. That way, our Youth remains to be the Hope of Our Fatherland and we can confidently say that our tomorrow is way brighter as we’ve prepared our future leaders well.

Thank you so much for listening and God bless us all.