Young politicians: Can they make a difference?
MANY of the candidates elected to positions of power in Regions 11 and 12 (formerly called Southern Mindanao), are young, only in their thirties and forties.
While the oldies –politicians who are in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s – still dominate the scene, youthful power holders are slowly emerging. They are either second or third generation politicians of certain families usually referred to as “political dynasties”.
The young turks are led by Davao City’s mayor-elect Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio and congressman-elect Karlo B. Nograles; Sarangani’s congressman-elect Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, the international boxing icon, and Davao del Sur’s re-elected congressman Marc Douglas C. Cagas; congresswoman-elect Ma. Carmen Zamora-Apsay of Compostela Valley, re-elected Sarangani Gov. Rene Miguel A. Dominguez, General Santos City’s mayor-elect Darlene Antonino-Custodio, congressman-elect (first district) Antonio Rafael G. del Rosario and re-elected congressman (2nd district) Antonio Ernesto F. Lagdameo, congresswoman-elect (of Davao City’s second district) Mylene J. Garcia-Albano and re-elected Isidro T. Ungab (of the 3rd district).
Of the above-mentioned 12, only Manny Pacquaio does not belong to a family of politicians.
Will these rising young politicians make a difference or improve on the performance of their elders?
As better-educated and technologically more savvy, can they be expected to introduce innovations in governance? Learning from the mistakes of the past, will they redeem their older generations’ blunders in governance? Will they be more people-oriented? Will they be more honest and transparent? These are only some of the questions political dopesters and opinion-makers are asking.
In Davao City, eight winners, or about 33 percent of the 24 elected councilors, are either in their 20’s or 30’s.
They are Jo Anne M. Bonguyan, Leah Librado and Nilo M. Abellera Jr. in the First District; Alryan S. Alejandre, Louie John Bonguyan and April Marie C. Dayap in the Second District; and re-elected councilor Karlo S. Bello and Bernard E. Al-ag in the Third District.
Not to mention the appointed councilors who represent the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) of the city, and the Sangguniang Kabataan Federatiion (SKF)–Paolo Z. Duterte and Halila Sudagar.
Can they argue effectively and push for their advocacies in governance with the remaining two-thirds made up of grizzled pols? Will the oldies respect the arguments and opinions of their younger counterparts rather than ignore and, worse, “bully” them into “submission”? Will the young lawmakers form a bloc to push for their legislative agenda? All these bear watching, since this is the first time that one-third of the councilors are very young, two of them– Louie John Bonguyan and Karlo Bello—topnotchers.
