Julius Rocas

This after­noon, I just came from the national con­ven­tion of the Kabataan party-​list as I was invited by Mong Palatino - the party's national pres­i­dent and amongst its nom­i­nees - at the San Juan Gym­na­sium. With me were my new friends and com­rades in pro­gres­sive youth activ­i­ties Kalai and Cyrus also from Cavite. We arrived there at 3pm and Rep. Peter Cayetano was already in the heat of his speech. We weren't able to hear and under­stand much of what he said partly because we were seated in the back-​most row and back there, it was noisy, rowdy and lots of youth were moving to and from their seats. Who could blame them? Not all the youth are that inter­ested in actively par­tic­i­pat­ing in pol­i­tics let alone listen to what politi­cians have to say.

Now that's where Kabataan party-​list steps in and changes things up. Mobi­liz­ing and edu­cat­ing the youth to become more aware and inspir­ing them to actively par­tic­i­pate in polit­i­cal life of the coun­try is as noble and worthy cause as any. Sure the teens at the back were noisy, rowdy and seemed to care less of what's going on stage but their pres­ence at the national con­ven­tion is a good start given the party's goals:

1. Isu­long ang mga batayang kara­p­atan ng Kabataan para sa edukasyon sa pama­m­ag­i­tan ng pagigiit ng dagdag na pondo sa edukasyon at kagyat na pag­pa­p­atigil ng tumitind­ing kom­er­sal­isyon ng edukasyon.
2. Itaguyod ang mak­abayan at maka-​masang edukasyon at pagya­manin ang siyen­tipikong edukasyon na malaya mula sa mga palasak na ideya.
3. Igiit ang kara­p­atan ng Kabataan at mama­mayan para sa dis­en­teng emp­leyo, pantay na opor­tu­nidad at makataong kondisyon ng pamumuhay.
4. Supor­ta­han ang mga batayang kara­p­atan ng bawat Pilipino na mamuhay sa isang lipunang malaya mula sa krimen, pagkalu­long sa droga, giyera, mil­i­tarisas­yon, peli­gro sa kapali­gi­ran, dekaden­teng kul­tura, pros­ti­tusyon, kagutu­man at diskrim­i­nasyon sa kasar­ian, edad, kapansanan at relihiyon.
5. Pagya­manin ang sports, cul­ture and arts para sa pagun­lad ng Kabataan.
6. Tiyakin ang parisi­pasyon ng Kabataan sa lahat ng aspeto ng pamu­muno ng gob­y­erno at pagdedesisyon ng mga kinatawan ng pamahalaan.
7. Mag-​ambag sa sis­tema ng pag­babago ng lipunan sa pama­m­ag­i­tan ng pagkakaisa ng dedikasyon ng Kabataan na paglingku­ran ang sam­bayanan at palakasin ang pakikipagkaisa sa sektor ng mang­ga­gawa, magsasaka, mar­al­i­tang taga-​lunsod, pam­bansang mino­rya at iba pang mar­gin­al­ized sec­tors sa lipunan.
8. Ipag­tang­gol at ban­tayan ang kalayaan, respeto sa pam­bansang pat­ri­monya, pag-​ibig at debosyon sa Inang Bayan.
9. Pagya­manin ang tunay na pam­bansang indus­triyal­isas­yon, repor­mang agraryo at maka­masang polisiya sa ekonomiya.
10. Payabun­gin ang pandaigdi­gang pagkakaisa ng Kabataan at mama­mayan sa mga bansang kahal­in­tu­lad ang prin­sipy­ong isi­nusu­long sa KABATAAN Partylist.

Need more rea­sons why to join Kabataan Partylist? The goals above is more than enough to con­vince any youth to join and give his voice and efforts to the col­lec­tive will of mem­bers of the party.

At the con­ven­tion, I met a few of the student-​leaders from the sea­soned and well respected youth orga­ni­za­tions in the coun­try; Lengua de Guzman of Anakbayan, (apolo­gies if I mis­pelled her first name) and National Union of Stu­dents of the Philip­pines' Secretary-​General Alvin Peters whom has asked me to make com­ments and help them in making a better web­site and web pres­ence for the NUSP. Talk about off line mar­ket­ing, net­work­ing and project oppor­tu­ni­ties. Any­ways, it was a suc­cess­ful day for the Kabataan partylist, they never expected that they would be able to almost fill the San Juan gym with youth mem­bers from almost all walks of life. They had Shara Sotto singing on stage and actu­ally sign­ing up to join the party. With these little achieve­ments will follow even more achieve­ments with the ulti­mate one in the near future, rep­re­sent­ing the youth in Congress.

I'm look­ing for­ward to join­ing more activ­i­ties in sup­port of the Kabataan party and its allies. Until then, Mabuhay ang KABATAAN!