News Release
July 25, 2015
PM-Kabataan
High dropout rates due to high cost of education amid the prevailing
poverty in the country; unemployment; the prevalence of precarious working
conditions; and poor state of public services have condemned the youth to a
life of uncertainty despite the promises of tuwid na daan under the Aquino
administration.
This was the assertion of the youth wing of Partido Manggagawa,
PM-Kabataan (PMK), ahead of its pre-SONA “art attack” protest to be held
tomorrow at the Quezon Memorial Circle as it railed against the lack of
tangible legacy the youth sector has gained under the Aquino as well as the
past administrations, specifically, for their failure to eliminate established
roadblocks that limit opportunities for young people to secure a better future.
Youth is defined by the UN and ILO as those under 25 years of age.
The Philippine law (RA8044), however, prescribed the 15-30 age group to cover the
youth sector. There are 18.93 million Filipinos under the age group 15-24
and 27.84 million in age group 15-30 based on the 2012 census. Combined this
sector represents millions of young people who are in school, in actual work,
the idle and the unemployed.
According to PM-Kabataan, the youth’s pathway or transition to better
future - from schooling to actual work – remained impeded by age-old problems
such as high cost of education, unemployment, and precarious working
conditions.
Dropout rate, added the group, remained at 6-7% in elementary and high
school and much higher at the college level during the last five years.
“Those who cannot survive this transition end up as unskilled laborers which
now comprise 32% of employed persons in the country, or into the world of
unemployment which is highest, 52%, in age group 18-24,” said PM-Kabataan
spokesperson Ryan Bocacao.
He added that this kind of situation produces the countless Mary Jane
Velosos, full time and part time laborers in sweatshop enterprises, and the
phenomenal rise in the number of batang ina and young parents in the country.
To address this problem the youth group said the government should have
been decisive in formulating policies that would establish free education at
all levels, bring down the cost of other social services, and in stopping the
plague of contractualization in the workplace.
“Unfortunately we haven’t seen progress in policy levels both in
education and in the world of work. Lilipas na naman ang isang administrasyon,
nadagdagan na naman ang aming edad ng anim na taon, pero narito pa rin kami sa
dating sitwasyon na kinalalagyan namin noon,” lamented Bocacao.
PM-Kabataan members come from the ranks of students, out-of-school youth
and those who are at work. The “art attack” protest was their form of
expressing their sentiment against the prevailing system in the country and a
buildup activity before joining other groups for Monday’s Sona protests.
