Mindanaotoday.com | One of every 3 voters in Oro 30 years under
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Thirty-two percent of close to 380 thousand registered voters in Cagayan de Oro City who would cast their ballots in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) Monday next week, October 30, are under 30 years old, based from the Commission on Elections Cagayan de Oro data.
Some 122,929 residents, who would turn 15 years old but not over 30 years old on election day, compose the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) membership. Roughly 94% of them, or 115,164 under the 18-to- 30-year-old age bracket, would vote twice—for the punong barangay and barangay council, and for the SK chairperson and SK council.
Lawyer Ramil Acol, Comelec’s City Election Officer for District 2 in Cagayan de Oro, in a forum weeks ago, said those 18 years old up to 30 years old will be given two ballots; one for the barangay election, and the other for the SK election.
But Acol clarified that candidates in the SK elections are only those from the 18-to-24-year-old age bracket and would serve for a three-year term once elected and proclaimed winner.
Most, if not all, who seek electoral mandates in the SK, either as chairperson or as one of the seven members of the SK council, are running for the first time, so with the rest of the SK members. Those whose ages range from 15 to 30 years old are qualified to choose their leaders.
On Friday, October 20, the Central Student Government (CSG) of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro announced in its official Facebook the launch of its “Pag-ila 2023: Kabataan Pag-asa ng Bayan.”
Pag-ila 2023 is a political education project of CSG’s Department of Mission and Social Involvement which is under the XU-ADC Student Social Involvement and Advocacy Program (SSCIP).
In the last three local and national elections, Pag-ila has been organized with the National Movement for Free Election (Namfrel) Misamis Oriental chapter, the coordinator of which is Nestor M. Banuag Jr., XU-ADC director of SSIAP.
This time, Barangay and SK candidates will be featured in fora where thought-provoking questions will be raised for them to respond to on the spot. There were 3,396 who filed their certificates of candidacies for the 1,280 elective posts in 80 barangays in Cagayan de Oro before the local Comelec office.
“We believe that it’s not enough to be registered voters; we must also be educated voters,” a portion of the XU-ADC CSG announcement on its Facebook wall.
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