Situation of the Filipino Youth

The Filipino Youth

The Filipino youth are those ages 15-30 as defined by the “Youth Nation Building Act (RA 8044) which was enacted in 1995 leading to the establishment of the National Youth Commission and the National Comprehensive and Coordinated Program of the Youth. The Act mandates a national study on the youth in the Philippines to identify priority needs, prevailing attitudes and values, existing services and gaps in the delivery of the basic needs of the youth.

The National Statistical Office estimated the number of the youth in the Philippines at 20.7 million equivalently one –third of the total population. This ballooned to 85.2 million in 10 years comprising 40 percent of the total population in 2005. Of this, 21 percent are in-school-youth, 22 percent as farm-workers, 21 percent contractual workers, 36 percent are out-of-school youth and are unemployed, while 4 percent are working students. In 2010, the National Statistical Coordination Board projected the number of women at 3.99 million as opposed to 4.02 million men for ages 15-19 years old; and an estimated 3.55 million women as compared to 3.52 men for ages 20-24 years old, thus approximating a 1-to-1 male to female ratio.

The study of Sandoval, Mangahas and Guerero used a representative survey to evaluate the attitudes, needs and aspirations of the Filipino youth. It revealed that most of the Philippine youth belong to class D (69 percent), followed by class E (20 percent) while a marginal number of the youth belongs to class A (10 percent). Though they considered themselves as being poor yet they are generally happy as observed by the youth’s measure of optimism indicated by expectations of improvement in the quality of life in the coming year. It was revealed that the young members of the society do not involve themselves in organizational activities showing passive attitude of the significant number of the youth. One in eight Filipino youth is an active member of organizations like sports/recreational organization, in the church or religious organization and in a youth organization. They are instead mostly involve in listening to radio and watching TV while only a third of the youth population read books, magazines and newspapers as part of their daily activities. This translates to 15 percent exposure rate to reading. The mass media remained the biggest influencer of the values, beliefs and attitudes of the youth.

Family relations and values remained most important to the Filipino youth as nine in ten youth signified love and respect without considering the qualities and faults of the parents. The study of Stella Go on the Filipino families described that the unquestioning obedience is perceived as an expression of gratitude for having been given life by the parents. Generally, the youth are likely to be good family individuals as shown by their perception on the parents’ role to do the best for their children even at personal expense. Also, they perceive the following as important in their lives: good marriage and family life; being able to study to find steady work; having good education; successful in work; finding meaning and purpose in life; and being religious; having strong friendships and making contributions to the society. However, it is alarming to note that the Filipino family configuration will decline in the proportion of intact family households in the future with female – single headed household likely to increase in 20 years as predicted by Cruz, Laguna and Raymundo on their study on the influences on the lifestyle of the youth.

Some studies revealed that the male youth population is a potential risk of violence and conflict as taking arms be the likely mode of expression of resentment. According to studies on conflict made by Rajendran, an estimated male youth population in Mindanao comprised 3.7 million which is 24 percent of the total youth population in 2000 and 5 percent of the country’s total population. Contrary to expectations, most of the male youth stayed out of the cycle of violence and revenge, the youth were found to be courageous and resilient in face of threats, and they yearn for access to education and skills improvement being receptive to new ideas and are very eager and waiting to rebuild their communities.

Prospects for the Youth

Recent developments in the field of economic research showed that the age structure significantly correlates with the growth performance of the country. The opportunity for an increased economic performance of this country can be associated with the demographic transition which is defined as the change from a situation of high fertility and high mortality to one of low fertility and low mortality. This low mortality rate and low fertility rate causes a lump in the age structure that will move over time from young people to prime age for productive work. This demographic transition is composed of three phases: phase one composed of high youth dependency (0-14 years old) which likely impede economic growth; phase two which is 20 years later where the young members of the population enter the labor market which can now contribute to production and economic growth; and, phase three is the elderly cohorts which is not a burden to the economy as the old will spend their savings and pensions for their own benefit. In 2000, Philippines entered the first phase of demographic transition which burdens the economic growth of the country. The benefit of the productive effort will be experienced in the next 20 years when this country enters the second phase of the transition.

Meanwhile, it is necessary for the government to engage in the cultural planning as imperative of the social structure of the country. Cultural planning is a process of inclusive community consultation and decision – making that helps government identify cultural resources and think strategically about how these resources can help a community to achieve its civic goals. This is an approach in understanding the culture of the nations of this country and its cultural activities taken as inputs than products for human resource development for community development resulting into integration of the community into the development framework of the government to achieve a sustainable development. Through this method the economy can strike balance between growth, equity and sustainability as Philippines enters the second phase of the demographic transition where the greater number of youth takes the helm of the economic engine.

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by Adrian Tamayo

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Adrian Tamayo is a 29 – year old economics professor at the University of Mindanao, Davao City and the concurrent head of the Business Economics and Entrepreneurship program. He is a fellow of Philippine Young Leaders in Governance which was sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDEF). He is a federalism advocate and had worked as an Assistant Program Manager of TACDRUP, an NGO in Mindanao. He is currently taking PhD in Research.