The youth members of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) once again called on the lawmakers to push through with the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) scheduled on Dec. 5, 2022.
“Given that the last elections were held in 2018, hearing and heeding our choice, especially for us first-time SK voters, is overdue,” the election watchdog’s youth members said in a statement released Monday, August 8.
The Namfrel youth members said that electing new leaders is necessary for a democratic country to express the people’s choice and serve as check and balance to the government.
According to the group, putting off the 2022 polls would show that “the national government shows little to no significance with regard to the youth’s political participation.”
“It is time to allow a new set of young leaders, who have been bound to the walls of their home, to step out, learn from their elders, while also allowing the youth to put their ideas into practice,” the group said.
The statement was written by the youth members of Namfrel consisting of volunteers, and interns, many of them were first-time voters in the 2022 national and local elections.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada recently filed a bill seeking to move this year’s BSKE to December 2023.
At the lower house, Rep. Jaime Cojuangco (Tarlac 1st District) and Rep. Richard Gomez (Leyte 4th) also filed a bill seeking to postpone the BSKE to next year.
These proposals came after the BSKE has been postponed in 2018 and 2020.
