More than a thousand newly elected Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials take their oath of office before Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano at the provincial capitol on Saturday. Emano has pledged to extend financial aid to the youth officials in the province. (Jigger J. Jerusalem/davaotoday.com)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — More than a thousand newly elected officials of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in Misamis Oriental took their oath office before Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano on Saturday as he pledged to allocate funds to help them implement their programs and projects.
In his message to the 1,368 SK officials who came from different towns and cities of the province, Emano pledged to give an annual budget of P30,000 per year to each of the village youth councils in Misamis Oriental as part of his barangay-level empowerment program.
Since he assumed the governorship in 2013, Emano allocated P300,000 per year to the province’s 424 villages.
The governor said he will implement the same empowerment program to the recently-elected SK officials in the province to augment the meager funds they will be receiving out of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of the barangays.
The financial aid to the SK is a step for them to handle responsibility as elected youth leaders in their respective barangays, said Emano.
“They will be the ones to create their own projects, to make their program of work, to facilitate the bidding process, and they will be the implementers,” he added.
Emano said being victorious in the previous barangay and SK elections is only the beginning of the tasks that await them, the greater challenge is to fulfill the mandate that was given them as youth leaders in their community.
“Winning is only half the battle, and now the work starts after oath taking,” he said, adding that the SK officials will be instrumental in the implementation of the Duterte government’s anti-drug campaign.
Those who were sworn in by Emano came from the municipalities identified to be aligned with the Padayon Pilipino, a local political party founded by his Vicente Emano, the former governor of Misamis Oriental and erstwhile mayor of Cagayan de Oro. (davaotoday.com)
