Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said education is a powerful tool to make the youth enablers of transformation and turn the country into an economic powerhouse where jobs abound and social services are accessible to all.
Data from the United Nations Development Programme as of 2018 showed that the Philippines has the third youngest people among the 700-million youth in the Asia Pacific region, of which about 30 percent are below 15 years old. The median age in the country is 26.
“By sheer number, the youth sector is a potent force to effect change in the Philippines,” said Angara, who was first elected into office in 2004 as representative of the lone district of Aurora province at the age of 32, the youngest lawmaker during the 13th Congress.
“And with education, the Filipino youth can deliver this country to progress and bring an end to the cycle of poverty,” said the lawmaker, who is running under the platform “Alagang Angara.”
Angara has been pushing students to take their studies seriously and work toward becoming productive citizens.
“As students, your responsibility is to study hard because that’s your passport to employment and good life,” Angara said. “Education is a great socioeconomic equalizer and a stepping stone to something higher and brighter.”
Free education—from kindergarten to college—is one of Angara’s advocacies, as he co-authored the Free College Education Law and the Free Kindergarten Law. His father, the late Senate President Edgardo Angara, was the author of the Free High School Act that ensured secondary education even for the poorest.
