ILOILO CITY — The federation president of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in Iloilo has proposed the establishment of local youth development office in Iloilo and its municipalities as one of the keys that will answer the proliferation of illegal drugs and the rise in the number of teenage pregnancy in the province.
“Once established, this can ensure wide and multi-sectoral youth participation in local governance, as indicated in the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Law. This can also reach out to our troubled youth and provide them with the necessary support to get their lives together,” said Ma. Angelica Bianca Requinto during her privilege speech Tuesday afternoon as the newest member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
“Once they get their lives together, these young people can contribute to the well-being of the province, of the region, of the country,” she added.
Requinto then appealed for help among other local officials in the province for the establishment of the office for the youth.
Owing to drug abuse, Requinto enumerated that many lives were ruined, families separated, communities destroyed, people killed and properties stolen and damaged.
“All these got to stop. And it can only be stopped if we work together as one community and as one province. As the SK federation president, I will make it my personal mission to help end this drug problem and mitigate its effects,” she said.
Also, Requinto vowed to look into the problem of teenage pregnancy.
According to the data of the National Youth Commission, there were 206, 574 teenage pregnancies in 2010 nationwide. This is more than 70 percent increase compared to the 114,205 teenage mothers in 1999.
Of the more than 200,000 teenage mothers reported in 2010, more than half were below 14 years old, she said.
Requinto, 21 years old, is an Entrepreneurial Management graduate at the University of Asia and the Pacific. A native of Barangay Poblacion, Zone II in the town of Estancia, Requinto was elected SK provincial federation president to lead the youth sector from the province’s 42 municipalities and one component city. (PNA)
