Senator Francis Pangilinan. RICHARD A. REYES/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan is pushing for the passage of a bill mandating voter education for junior and senior high school students.
Pangilinan said Senate Bill 964 known as The Compulsory Voter Education Act, which he filed, seeks to include voter education in junior and senior high school curricula.
Under the bill, junior and senior high school students will be provided information on the right to suffrage, its importance, and the proper exercise.
The students, he said, will also be educated on the mechanics of elections and informed about who is eligible to vote; where and how to register; how electors can check the voter lists to ensure they have been duly included; what type of elections are being held; where, when and how to vote; who the candidates are; and how to file complaints.
“Having well-informed and responsible voters and citizens would change the country’s political landscape for a better future for all of us,” the senator said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Our youth should have a deeper understanding not only of the process of choosing our leaders but moreso the wider and more strategic process of nation-building,” he added.
Pangilinan said the Department of Education (DepEd) will be tasked to implement the measure. With the help of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), teachers of both junior and senior high schools should attend seminars and trainings on the electoral system and process. Teachers qualified to teach the subject, he said, should be certified by Comelec.
This political and electoral reform, he said, would also ensure the “broadest, significant, and effective participation of Filipino citizens in the electoral and political processes.”
“Having voter education in the school curriculum, our youth will be well-prepared, well-informed, and become politically mature and responsible voters and citizens,” he said.
“Our national hero Jose Rizal once said: The youth are the hope of the motherland. Time will come, they will choose the mayors, lawmakers, and even the president. And they themselves would be the mayors, lawmakers, and the president,” said Pangilinan. IDL
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