The Time to Take a Stand is Now: A Call for the Filipino Youth

As you open your social media accounts, various posts about the current state of the government and campaigns for the 2022 elections are shown on your feed. Oftentimes, you will see several social media users engaging in discourses to defend candidates and fight disinformation. To others, conversations about politics are exhausting and stressful since there is a never-ending debate about who is right. However, what we forget to ask is who are we really doing this for?

Your vote is for the recently unemployed breadwinners struggling to find a job to feed their families. It is also for the students with sleepless nights trying to cope with the difficulties of distance learning. Furthermore, it is for the farmers and fishermen who work day and night yet still earn less than what they work for. It is also for the OFWs who sacrifice time away from their families to provide for their needs. Most importantly, your vote is for every woman, child, and disadvantaged who are given unequal opportunities to make their living conditions better. Lastly, it is for you and your future. The result of the elections will definitely affect your life in certain ways, like how the current administration's decisions regarding the pandemic are disrupting your life right now. Whether you are a registered voter or not, your voice is needed by the people who are silenced and do not have the means to speak for themselves. Your vote may feed families, make quality education accessible, and provide a better pandemic response. However, we must remember that solving all these problems will not happen overnight. Our duty as Filipinos in a democratic country does not end after election day. We must keep a close watch on every decision the future election winners will make and take a stand whenever it oppresses our fellow Filipinos. Ideally, it does not have to be a long and tedious process, but we must take the first step now. Take a stand for your future and for the future of the children of this nation.

According to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), 56% of the registered voters are the youth. This is significant because it shows that the participation of young people is crucial to the future of our nation. Hence, we carry the responsibility and burden of the turnout of this election. With this, we must not let anyone tell us that we should not be involved in the affairs of the country because we are young. By looking at the statistics alone, we, the Filipino youth, have the power to create change. However, it is not enough that we vote alone. We must take the time to know each candidate and their platforms to make an informed decision of who to vote for. Furthermore, we must be cautious of the information that we see on social media as it is also widely used as a means to unethically campaign for and against certain candidates. Therefore, it is important to verify the content we see online so that we would not be victims of false information. With this, may we collectively prevent the mistakes of the past and have an open mind to learn from each other to create a brighter future for the youth and the next generations.