Kabataan Partylist

Students call for moratorium on tuition and other fee increases

Student leaders from different private schools in Metro Manila led by the Kabataan Partylist and the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) today stormed the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) main office to protest the hasty suspension of the CHED Memorandum Order 14 (CMO 14) or the guidelines for tuition and other fee increases proposals few days before the end of consultations for school fee hike proposals. (more…)

Gets young celebrities on bandwagon
By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 01:36pm (Mla time) 02/26/2007
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=51677

MANILA, Philippines — You’re young. You’re committed. You’re seeking public office. And you’re practically penniless.

How do you mount a campaign without the millions of pesos needed for television and radio ads to reach your hoped-for constituency?

Kabataan (Youth), which is seeking House seats in the May elections for party-list groups, seems to have found the answer, wooing the youth and educated voters on the Internet.

The group’s slick campaign video clip featuring celebrities Angel Locsin and Dennis Trillo and other artists endorsing the group is now making the rounds of YouTube, an Internet-based video hosting service, and local blogs. (more…)

Raymond Palatino, Kabataan Partylist president and 1st nominee

I’ve been trying to write this article for many weeks but I could only think of reasons why the youth should not vote. I could always imagine young voters questioning the worthiness of participating in the elections. Why vote if ‘Garcis’ of this world will count the ballots? Why encourage my family and friends to be active in politics if election campaigning is doomed to be violent? Why support a candidate if he/she will turn out to be a monster in the future anyway?

These are valid questions. These are legitimate apprehensions. These may be reasons why many young people refuse to be involved in the elections. I also have these misgivings about the coming elections.

Ditching a dirty political exercise is justifiable. It is also an easy decision to make. But I need not surrender to cynicism everyday.

If elections is filthy, let’s make it less filthy. If elections is dominated by the elite, let’s make the elite listen to our problems. If elections is a popularity contest, let’s demand a concrete platform from all candidates. (more…)

First posted 03:52:15 (Mla time) 2007-01-13
Inquirer

http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/theenvironmentreport/view.php?db=1&story_id=43173
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view_article.php?article_id=43173

IN 2004, all candidates were required to undergo a drug test before the Commission on Elections would approve their petition to run in the elections. I think not one candidate was found guilty of using illegal drugs. (They were not drug dependents, just drug lords).

For the 2007 elections, why not require candidates — from senatorial “wannabes” down to would-be local chieftains — to plant a tree in their respective “barangay” [villages or neighborhood districts]. Before approving a petition for candidacy, the Comelec should require a candidate to submit a certificate, signed by a barangay chairman, that he/she has planted a tree this year. Imagine the thousands of trees which will be planted in 79 provinces, 115 cities and 1,500 municipalities. This undertaking will complement the Green Philippines Highways project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Luntiang Pilipinas [Green Philippines] of former Sen. Loren Legarda and the one-billion-trees program of Speaker Jose De Venecia. (more…)

“Before, we had no choice but to keep quiet and listen to the president.”
“This is a development for democracy.” - Raymond Palatino, Kabataan Partylist president

By Mary Jordan
THE WASHINGTON POST
August 25, 2006
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060825/news_1n25cell.html

MANILA, Philippines – Raymond Palatino’s cell phone pinged loudly and a text message lit up the display: “Other students are already marching. Where are you?”

Palatino and hundreds of others – nearly all carrying cell phones – were on their way to Manila’s gated presidential palace for a protest rally. He and what people here call a “text brigade” were still a couple of miles away, about to board buses in the steamy midday heat. (more…)

Kabataan Partylist national president and first nominee Raymond Palatino is making waves in the blogosphere.

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 00:15am (Mla time) 01/21/2007
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=44601

ANOTHER Filipino is making waves in the blogosphere.

Mong Palatino, 27, is an activist, writer, editor, aspiring educator, and now a blogger who has been tapped by Global Voices to be the Philippines’ eyes and ears in this global network of bloggers. (more…)

“We in this Senate found the soul, the true spirit of this nation because we mustered the courage and will to declare the end of foreign military presence in the Philippines. I vote NO to this Treaty and vote Yes to the Resolution of Non-Concurrence.”

This was the speech of Senate President Jovito Salonga on September 16, 1991 when he affirmed the Philippine Senate’s decision to reject the bases agreement with the United States by approving Resolution No. 1259 of Non-Concurrence to “A Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security.” (more…)

5 February 2007

Speech delivered by Raymond Palatino, Kabataan Partylist national president and 1st nominee in a forum on Charter Change sponsored by the Association of Political Science Organizations in the Philippines (APSOP)

Any proposal to amend the constitution has the potential to arouse the interest of the youth. After all, we do want changes in the system. We want to end corruption. We want a more responsive government. We want to end the seemingly endless cycle of poverty and hopelessness in the country. (more…)

First posted 00:30am (Mla time) Feb 21, 2006
Inquirer
http://beta.inquirer.net/opinion/index.php?index=1&story_id=66872

Editor’s Note: Published on page A12 of the February 21, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily inquirer

“THE YOUTH IS THE HOPE OF THE motherland,” Jose Rizal said. But this would no longer be true should our pro-amendment advocates, and the opportunists behind them, succeed in changing our present Constitution. (more…)

Introducing Isko, KABATAAN Partylist’s official mascot