E-Season: Crucial role of youth in 2013 elections cited

An official of the National Youth Commission (NYC) cited the need to strengthen the voters’ education among the youth for them to choose good leaders will deliver good governance to the country after the midterm elections.
NYC Assistant Secretary Earl Saavedra said the participation of the youth in the elections is crucial since they comprise the majority of the country’s population.
He said the youth must shun away from choosing candidates because of name recall out of their popularity.
“We want them to have the right discernment in choosing the leaders.   It means, the youth ought to be proactive especially in the social transformation, where choosing good leaders is very important,” Saavedra said.
He said that the NYC as a government-youth-coordinating agency links with their contact youth-leaders in the government offices, to help increase the awareness of young people especially in their role in exercising the right to vote.
Saavedra said they also tag along with non-government organizations in conducting provincial sorties to campaign for honest, orderly and peaceful elections.
He said the NYC also uses the social media to reach out to a larger number of audiences who might also spread the word about the call to participate in the May 2013 elections especially to the duty to protect the sanctity of the ballot.
“We course our advocacy to the platforms like the social media, radio and television in order to reach out to them,” Saavedra said.
Records from the National Statistics survey as of 2010 showed that the youth comprised 60 percent out of the total 92,337,852 Filipinos nationwide and even to the projected population at 97,496,493 as of March 26, 2013. [RGA/JSD/PIA 11]