Partido Lakas ng Masa presidential candidate Ka Leody de Guzman bared on Sunday a comprehensive agenda detailing his policy platforms for youth issues on his social media accounts.
The platform focuses heavily on education reform, but also contains proposals for issues faced by children, out-of-school youth, and government organs mandated for youth affairs such as the Sangguniang Kabataan and National Youth Commission.
“Young Filipinos are more than just the hope of the country in the future. Even now, they are already exhibiting the capacity to effect changes and contribute to society toward a progressive, free and developed society,” he said.
“As they will inherit the society that we are forging now, a big part of my platform focuses on labor, climate change, environment, and political reforms. We need to pave the way for the changes that our youth deserve,” De Guzman added.
One of the agenda’s major points is the Universal Students’ Magna Carta, which asserts 13 “unalienable rights that shall be the basis of state policy” with regards to on-campus life and activities.
Among the 13 rights in the Magna Carta are absolute and unconditional academic freedom; the right to organize and spaces for organizing, and access to free, quality, and accessible education; the right to SOGIE equality and anti-discrimination; and the right to be safe and secure from state security forces’ surveillance, harassment and violence
“Our colleges and universities must be more than just free and safe spaces but bulwarks for critical thinking,” the labor leader said.
The agenda also includes policies on the COVID-19 pandemic, including public funding of schools’ retrofitting costs for a safe return to face-to-face classes and subsidizing the required utilities for distance learning such as gadgets and internet connections.
It also includes sweeping reforms to school curricula to include sexual health education, labor rights, and climate science, as well as a general reorientation from global marketability to national development.
The out-of-school youth are also included in the agenda with policies such as improving the skill and capacity-building programs of TESDA.