VICE President Jejomar Binay says he supports the revisiting of the Sangguniang Kabataan system.
This was his reaction to the suspension of four Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairpersons in Cebu City.
Last week, four SK chairpersons from Cebu City faced suspension without pay for two months for violating the provisions of the federation.
Earlier, SKF president and ex-officio City Councilor John Philip Po said the memorandum of suspension for Mary Jane Chua of Barangay Labangon, Orlane Quijada of Barangay Punta Princesa, Gracielle Therese Araw-araw of Barangay Poblacion Pardo and Jason Turno Jr. of Barangay Capitol Site will be served immediately.
Po said they are sanctioned because of their unauthorized absences for two consecutive regular or special meetings of the federation, failure to hold regular meeting for at least two consecutive months in their respective barangay, dishonesty, oppression, misconduct in office, gross negligence, or dereliction of duty and abuse of authority.
In an interview in Argao last week, he said there is a need to have a youth organization but Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) members are too young to join the elections and there were “unfortunate” events that involved SK chairpersons.
“Sa amin na lang sa Makati, may 14-year-old na nakasuhan ng falsification of documents. So too young naman para mapunta sa ganyan so it’s time to revisit (In Makati, there a 14-year-old who got gued for falsification of documents. Too young to be implicated in those cases,” he said.
“There must be data. Hindi naman basta-basta gagawa ng decision. Tingnan nating yung reason kung bakit sila kailangang ihalal. Yun lang naman ang issue doon. Yung kasama sila sa election (We have to look into the system. We’ll review why they have to be elected. That is the main issue),” the vice president added.
Binay said SK officials should be appointed instead of being elected. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus