Iloilo youth leaders to launch voter empowerment campaigns

Youth leaders from all legislative districts of Iloilo expressed their commitment on Sunday (May 9) to lead local voter empowerment initiatives in their respective localities.

During the day-long incubation workshop conducted by Kamara PH in Iloilo City, Ilonggo youth leaders presented proposals for local campaigns to promote voter registration, education, and mobilization in the province.

“These past few days, our young Ilonggos were trained and guided in designing grassroots-oriented campaigns that will reflect the concerns of their communities,” Kamara PH coordinator Carmela Francesca Adelantar said.

Young leaders from Iloilo’s 1st District will work on projects that aim to make sexual and reproductive health an election issue in 2022. Representatives from the 2nd District proposed a campaign that will focus on empowering voters to assert their rights and demand accountability from their public officials. Those from the 3rd District will devise an incentive system to increase voter turnout among indigenous peoples’ groups.

Participants from the 4th and 5th Districts will initiate voter registration drives for young people.

Representatives from Iloilo City will launch a campaign that aims to teach children about their rights and the importance of asserting their voice before policymakers.

“Young people are now working towards the change we’ve always wanted, the change that we want to see in 2022 and beyond,” Adelantar said.

The workshop was part of Kamara PH’s Advocacy Lab, a campaign and policy incubation initiative that aims to support community-based voter empowerment initiatives in key areas across the Philippines.

Last weekend, participants underwent training from the Commission on Elections, Legal Network for Truthful Elections, Initiative for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services, and Young Filipino Advocates of Critical Thinking.

Kamara PH is the flagship youth development program of the National Society of Parliamentarians, a network of parliamentarians and policy advocates devoted to the enrichment of parliamentary practice, legislative research, and policy advocacy.

National Society of Parliamentarians president Bryan Ezra Gonzales said young people are in the best position to lead voter empowerment efforts at the local level because younger generations have a lot at stake in the 2022 national and local elections.

“The youth is around 30 percent of the current population and the electorate, but we are 100 percent of the future,” Gonzales said.

“Given the stake of the current generation in the upcoming elections, we must work with young people at the community level to secure our electoral process,” he added. “It cannot be a top-down approach.”

Co-organized with local voter rights movement Tiyempo Nation, the project’s Iloilo leg was supported by the United States Embassy in Manila, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, United States Government Alumni Panay and Guimaras Chapter, Human Rights and People Empowerment Center, YouthLed, National Movement of Young Legislators, Office of Iloilo City Councilor Love Baronda, and Estrawngheroes.