Where are they, indeed? (UPDATED)

In today’s Inquirer, one letter writer wondered: “where’s the youth?”

He said:

The youth constitute one of the biggest sectors of our voting population (7 million registered voters). That is why, it amazes that Kabataan is not leading the pack in the party-list race.

I’m not sure where the letter writer got that data (see this Inquirer report), but my answer to his question is simple: in that 7 million, how many of them chose NOT to vote? Then he should no longer wonder.

(How I wish we have the numbers.)

UPDATE:

The-Jester-in-Exile has a funny answer to the letter writer:

“Kasi nga, like, it’s so nakakainip to make pila in the precinct, with all those jologs people around. Tapos we have to spell the names of so many candidates correctly, kasi nga, like, di kasi puwede “sounds-like” kasi eh. And then, after all that hard work (it’s so hard kaya to think and make pili the candidates, noh?), we’ll get our nails stained, tapos it’s so kadiri, like, so bakya naman the indelible ink. Ewww! Yuck! We made pasyal to the beach so we can, like get that end-of-summer tan instead. O, di ba, mas cool?”

May 23rd, 2007

4 Comments

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  • http://chickenmafia.com joyfulchicken

    I think the right question to throw at the letter writer is: How many of the 7 million young people simply chose to vote for other parties? If there’s a memo requiring young people to vote for Kabataan just because they’re young, I sure didn’t see it.

    The letter writer’s not-so-subtle attempt to imply that not voting for Kabataan equals a loss of idealism is very insulting to young voters. The youth isn’t the INC for heaven’s sake. They don’t do bloc voting.

  • http://awbholdings.com Arbet

    Correct. I think it is more of a challenge to Kabataan party.

    Still, my question remains. My contention is that not a lot of them voted (although we really need numbers to figure this out).

  • http://jester-in-exile.blogspot.com the jester-in-exile

    i think the writer’s context is: first, that with the “youth vote”, it’s surprising that kabataan isn’t doing well; and second, that it’s surprising that many kids may have voted for other party-list organizations.

    or, okay, third: that many kids decided not to vote at all and enjoy the three-day holiday weekend.

    perhaps one answer to the second hypothesis might be that there may be kids who are leery of kabataan’s leftist affiliations and thus decided not to support the org? i know not a few kids who dislike leftist politics and would gravitate more to, say, A-Teacher or CIBAC instead.

  • http://awbholdings.com Arbet

    Josh’s comment above is the most logical answer to the question, re: it is wrong to assume that all youth voters would vote for Kabataan.

    Your explanation is logical, too.

    That’s why I wish we have the numbers. Some irrational part of my brain thinks the reason is the same with your third hypothesis.

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