𝐖𝐈𝐓-𝐒𝐇𝐒 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐕𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

by Knit Nicole Ivan Capina

To educate and encourage the students of the Western Institute of Technology (WIT) - Senior High School (SHS), the Student Council hosted a two-session webinar tackling the significance of exercising right to suffrage.

The program began with an opening remarks from the President of WIT-SHS Student Council SY 2021-2022, Ms. Princess Ann Calise. She highlighted, "In order for democracy to succeed, everyone's voice must be heard." The President, again, warmly welcomed the participants in her ending statement.

"Suffrage is the right to vote. Every legally aged citizen regardless of social status and physiological state is given right to vote unless disqualified upon by the state," Mr. Joy Jonathan Pescadera, Vice President of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation - Iloilo City and the resource speaker of the said activity uttered as he kicks off his discussion.

#MasMadamiTayo: Mr. Pescadera emphasized the importance of the Youth Vote in the upcoming elections. Fifty-two percent or 31.41 million out of 60.46 million registered voters are young Filipinos. While these numbers are large, there are still a lot of those who don't register and vote. According to the speaker, there are four reasons why: Young people do not feel they have much of a stake in society; They don't think voting is an effective way to change the society; Less information about politics and how the government works; and, They encounter registration problems such as lack of ID's, low knowledge about the process.

Following that, Mr. Pescadera proceeded to the main agenda of the dialogue which are the Costs of Not Exercising Right to Suffrage. There are eight consequences: Your record will be deactivated. You lose one of the most significant features of citizenship. We do not believe in the power of our votes. Someone will decide for your future. We will allow candidates to win whom we think don't deserve to win. We will not allow our chosen candidates to win. We do not care about the country. And, we allow bad candidates to win and good candidates to lose.

To conclude his talk, Mr. Pescadera shared a quote, "In a democratic government, the people elect their leaders. If one doesn't vote, he loses the right to choose good leaders and bad leaders will be elected. All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing." He then urged the participants to register and vote.

An open forum followed wherein he answered the questions of the participants subject to what he discussed. The morning session concluded with the handing out of the certificate of appreciation to the resource speaker.