The Party List and ANAKBAYAN

The Party List election come this 11 of May 1998 will be the first implementation of RA 7941 which is also known as the Party List System Act. The Party List system intends to represent the marginalized and underrepresented sector (youth, labor, women, fisherfolk, farmers, urban poor) in society by affording them participation in the legitimate policy making process.

ANAKBAYAN is a progressive national sectoral youth party aiming to represent the youth sector in Congress. We intend to advance our youth’s interest and welfare by introducing laws critical to our development and advancement as future leaders and citizens of this country.

What is it for you?

Through the Party List Law, our youth will now have direct representation in governance thru the legislative process. Through the Party List system, we can now assert and work for ourselves issues and policies which are critical to our interests and welfare. Unlike before where we have to resort to para-legal activities just to be heard, we can now introduce policies and program of government by ourselves.

 WHAT WE AIM TO ACHIEVE IN CONGRESS

Shift government’s priority towards education.

Push for the passage of the Magna Carta of Students.

Work for the reinvigoration and strengthening of youth’s participation in governance.

Work for the budgetary allocation for the conduct of capability building programs and activities.

Actively advocate for new authentic politics based on issues and programs.

ANAKBAYAN: Our Beginnings

ANAKBAYAN was borne out of youth’s idealism and impatience to take upon ourselves concrete actions to address our own pressing concerns.

ANAKBAYAN’s beginnings can be traced back by the alliance of its founding organizations (USDY and DSU) under the common objective of advancing our youth rights and welfare. Upon its inception in 1990, the group was preoccupied with advocacy activities educating the youths at grassroots level on issues which are critical to their well-being. Leadership and speakership training’s were also provided by the alliance as it extended assistance to school leaders in winning governance in the repective council elections.

After years of participation in advocacy activities, ANAKBAYAN realized that indeed, the youth’s concern need more than just advocacy activities to be addressed. Thus, during a pre-congress attended by its ally organization all over the country in the early 1995, ANAKBAYAN unanimously decided to enlist itself in the Party-List system. Believing that our youth’s welfare and interest can only be best addressed by gaining direct representation for its own legislative agenda, specifically in the policy making process.

ANAKBAYAN: What’s the Catch

ANAKBAYAN commits itself towards the attainment of an empowered youth sector.

Concretely, we stand for:

Empowerment – Our youth’s rights and well-being must not only be recognize but we should also be given the responsibility to our self-determination. Assertion of our self-determination must go beyond lobbying/mobilization/pressuring; moreover, the youth’s sector must be represented and given the right to assert themselves in the legislative process specially on issues which affects our welfare

Democracy – Our belief in democracy is not only predicated on our assertion of our political rights but transcends to the assertion of our self-determination, liberty and free expression of all Filipino youths.

Equality – ANAKBAYAN firmly believes on the expression of equal value of all human beings. Thus, it abrogate any discrimination among and between individuals.

Access to education, social services, i.e. should be made universal that social barriers should not be a hindrance to the utility to such opportune.

Peace – It is within the environment of peace upon which the youth pursue their dreams. Thus, peace is the precondition of all our hopes and must be preserved. War and chaos do not only end human life but also destroy and distort the basis of social and individual development. ANAKBAYAN recognizes that peace is priceless and must at all times be preserved.

Work for the government’s provision of Regional Development Center in all regions in the country to adequate the youth’s technical skills along with academic excellence.

Push for the provision of employment and/or cooperative livelihood projects towards the economic self reliance of our youth both in the rural and urban areas