Sangguniang Kabataan - History

History

The youth have been highly encouraged to participate in politics and governance, and the Philippine government is the only nation in the world who has a mechanism of involving the youth sector in governance. This is in response to the United Nations’ Convention on the rights of children to create an avenue wherein they can engage and represent their sector towards active participation in the affairs of the government and in the country as a whole.

It was in 1975 when the first youth council was established. Former President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree (PD) 684 to announce the formal creation of the Kabataang Barangay (KB) to give the youth a chance to be involved in community affairs and provide the government means to inform the youth of its (government's) development efforts. The KB had accomplished numerous projects and programs for livelihood, sports, and culture, including the Youth Development Training program which aims to develop values of service, nationalism, and leadership among the youth to make them more productive leaders.

However, controversies and criticisms have surrounded the KB during those times, like the enforcement of authoritarian rule among the youth, opposition of militant youth activity, and the KB's failure to develop the youth as a responsive collective. Since then, the KB grew less popular among the youth and instead student activism became the trend in youth participation in the country.

In June 1986, a study was conducted on the KB and came up with the following recommendations:

• Abolish the KB;
• Create a National Youth Commission (NYC);
• Establish a National Youth Assembly; and
• Set up genuine youth representation in government.

Youth consultations were held, and the KB was at once abolished by the government and created resolutions which affirmed the suggestions by the above study. However, then-president Corazon Aquino have already established the Presidential Council for Youth Affairs (PCYA) instead of NYC, which was successful in coordinating with the youth federations to develop future national leaders, but lacked the powers the Filipino youth envisions for the NYC because PCYA merely coordinated with youth groups. A proposal was then crafted by the Congress youth representatives and PCYA's technical committee in 1989 to 1990.

The proposal that created the Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK) and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) that we know today was incorporated into the 1991 Local Government Code (known as Local Autonomy Law or Republic Act 7160). It formally abolished the KB and provided the youth with a new opportunity to involve themselves in government affairs through the KK and SK. The KK includes all Filipino citizens, age 15 to 18 years, residing in each barangay for at least six months and are registered in the official barangay list. The SK is the governing body of the KK, a set of youth leaders elected by the KK members to represent them and deliver youth-focused services in the barangay.

So far, there were only three SK election that have been held since 1992 because of the repeated amendments to the regular three-year term of the officials. Currently, the age range of the youth eligible for the KK and SK was reduced to 15 to below 18 due to the change in Republic Act 9164 in 2002.