What is Youth Vote?

YouthVotePhilippines or YVOTE is a consolidated force of progressive, reformminded youth groups and organizations working toward voters education and empowerment. It is also a call-to-action for Filipino youth to become engaged and involved in nation building. It aims to develop online and on-the-ground programs and events that will give young Filipinos the power of the vote and a clear voice for their collective aspirations. What do we do? Its four-point program agenda consists of: (1) voters registration; (2) on-theground voters education; (3) an online portal for comprehensive candidate information; and (4) the development of a youth agenda for policy-making and action. What do we want to achieve? What YouthVotePhilippines does is give Filipinos young and old the tools to make educated votes that each voter can stand for. We will not tell you whom to vote for, but we aim to give you enough information so that YOU will know WHY you made certain choices. As responsible adults, we cannot make decisions lightly and then not know why we did them. YOU have the right to discern for yourself who your leaders should be. YOU should be able to make that choice. And we will help you so that, whatever and whomever you choose, you know that you can stand up for those choices. Where are we now? YVote Manila, YVote Davao, YVote Cebu, YVote Cabanatuan, YVoteIlocos, YVoteBaguio, Pampanga, Mulanay, and Cotabato How can young Filipinos can help/join the campaign? Go online with your friends and family. Explore youthvotephilippines.com and leave your comments. Give us your numbers and email addresses so we can link you with other youth who are doing things that would interest you. Email us at yvotephilippines@gmail.com. And immediately, go register or contact us to help COMELEC bring registration to your schools. How to bring YVOTE in their respective communities in the province? We all have friends we like talking to. We belong to organizations and groups and barkadas. Our organizations work with other organizations. Organize a kwentuhan session for your org and invite friends and members of other orgs you've worked with. Start with the question "What do we love about (your province or city)?" and let the conversations take a life of their own. When we realize what it is we love about our communities and our nation, it becomes something we would want to sustain and nurture. It also becomes easier to see what we do not want to happen. Your group may feel very strongly that elections and voting are two things that the youth and young professionals in your area can become involved in and you may already have activities you are doing for youth empowerment. YVote will be more 1

than willing to connect with you and find ways we can partner. Contact us and we'll immediately link with your group, set up a meeting and see how we can help each other. It will be amazing to have YouthVote in all provinces and cities in the Philippines.

What to immediately look forward to? Aside from voter education workshops and registration activities, YouthVotePhilippines is also planning to stage a play on the importance of youth registration. The play, a light comedy from the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA), will tackle the registration process and the implications of voting. The play will be staged in different schools in Manila on February and will hopefully be filmed live and shown to schools outside Manila. Why should we vote? An election--especially one with a national scope--is a serious exercise in democratic participation, and it is something that we should not take lightly. When we sell our votes or write on the ballot names that we haven't fully considered and given much thought, it is like trashing our rights to be governed by good public servants; it is like agreeing to let the rotten status quo remain such. When we say "Kung ayaw mong bumoto, 'wag kang mag-reklamo," we also mean it to say, "Kung ibebenta mo ang boto mo, mas wala kang karapatang mag-reklamo." The right to choose our leaders is a hard-earned, hard-fought right and we must exercise it very well, especially in 2010 when there's so much at stake for our country and our own lives. What's the one message we want to convey? Kasama ako! Though the youth have their individual motivation to vote, they also take pride in belonging to a cause that is bigger than themselves. The Kasama ako sa pagunlad., Kasama ako sa bilang., Kasama ako sa pagbabago., Kasama ako, convey the thought that no matter how small or big your contribution is to nation building - even if it entails just lining up to register, casting your ONE vote, watching the polls, watching your government officials after the election - whats important is KASAMA KA.