BACKGROUND OF
THE PROJECT
The project partners—Newsbreak Online and the
National Democratic Institute (NDI)—believe that
voters, if given enough information about the
candidates and their platforms and advocacies, are
capable of choosing candidates intelligently. This
is especially true among young voters,
particularly those who will exercise their
electoral rights for the first
time.
So the youth
voters want to know: what do candidates, both
their age or older, think about issues affecting
the sector? Thus, this youth voters’ guide.
While the project
intends to encourage the older generations of
voters to decide responsibly in choosing
candidates, we see the voters’ guide having a
potentially greater impact on younger or first
time voters whose electoral and political values
can still be shaped and
strengthened.
This
youth voters’ guide has three components,
according to the positions that the candidates are
seeking: senatorial, congressional, and party
list.
CHOICE OF
RESPONDENTS
For the senatorial survey, we sent a uniform set
of questions to the 37 senatorial candidates
accredited by the Commission on
Elections.
For the
congressional survey, we chose, as case studies,
only three geo-political districts that met the
following the criteria:
· there is
increasing Internet access in the entire district
or in at least one city
or municipality in the
district;
· at
least two of the candidates are young, or between
25 and 35 years old;
· the seat is hotly
contested.
We picked
the following congressional districts and
candidates: Makati City, 2nd district (Mar-len
Abigail Binay, Erwin Genuino); Kalookan City, 2nd
district (Tino Bagus, Mitch Cajayon, Nilo Divina,
Edgar Erice, Albert Muñoz); and South Cotabato,
1st district (Darlena Custodio, Emmanuel
Pacquiao).
We asked
the congressional candidates the same questions we
sent to the senatorial candidates. In the case of
Kalookan City, where there are three other
candidates who are not young, we still included
them in the survey, so that young voters may
determine what candidates from various age
brackets think about youth
issues.
For the party
list survey, we set out to survey party-list
organizations solely representing the youth
sector. Only one has been accredited by the
elections commission—Kabataan. We did not consider
multi-sectoral organizations or political parties
that claim to have youth components.
CHOICE OF
QUESTIONS
Questions included in the Survey on Youth Issues
were identified through extensive consultations
with youth representatives from various political
persuasions and economic backgrounds.
With support from
NDI, the First Time Youth Voters Network and the
Center for Youth Advocacy and Networking conducted
island-wide workshops in Luzon, the Visayas, and
Mindanao in March to discuss the youth’s agenda
for the elections. Participants came from six
sub-sectors: youth wing of political parties,
university/college student councils, student
organizations, community-based and out-of-school
youth, Sangguniang Kabataan leaders, and
Church-based youth
organizations.
Participants in each sub-group collectively
determined the top concerns or agenda of their
sub-sector. Afterwards, each sub-group chose a
point person, who would sit with the point persons
of other sub-groups. This body of point-persons
determined the island’s youth and
first-time-voters agenda.
The 18 point-persons
(6 each from Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao)
later came together to present and further discuss
their respective island-wide agenda. From the
national-level discussions, they picked the three
(3) issues/questions that they would want
senatorial candidates to address in the 2007
elections. These are:
A. Access to Quality
Education
B. Sangguniang Kabataan
Reform
C. Job Opportunities for the Youth
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