09/12/2025
MULA SK HANGGANG MALACAรANG, WAKASAN ANG KATIWALIAN
Solidarity Youth Statement on International Anti-Corruption Day 2025
Corruption kills. It kills when hospitals lack the resources to provide accessible and quality care to their patients. It kills when infrastructure projects fail to prevent floods and other natural disasters. These dangers are the realities that every Filipino lies through, as revealed by recent scandals including โblank-spaceโ insertions and questionable amendments to the 2025 GAA, flood-control project controversies, overpriced procurement in offices like the OVP, and SK officials misusing public funds for personal gain or junkets abroad. These are cases of corruption at both national and grassroots levels, with numbers confirming the depth of the crisis.
As Filipino youth, we recognize that corruption is deeply embedded in our system, so our response must be systemic. Democracy without accountability is a farce. Laws mean little if corruption goes unchecked, and rights exist only on paper. True democracy requires both enforceable rules and a vigilant, informed public holding governance accountable at every level.
Our rallying call, โMula SK hanggang Malacaรฑang, wakasan ang katiwalian,โ is an appeal to everyone that integrity must be sought at every level. Corruption is not merely found at the top. Rather, it festers where small abuses go unchecked. Reform must therefore be comprehensive, long-term, and rooted in community participation.
Central to this fight are the youth. Globally, especially in recent years, young people have been catalysts for civic action, accountability, and democratic renewal. Yet, in the Philippines, they remain vulnerable to state abuses and intimidation. We have seen this clearly in the aftermath of the September 21, 2025 protests, where many of those apprehended and subpoenaed were young people simply exercising their right to voice out. This is our reality: while demanding justice and accountability, the youth face real risks for speaking truth to power.
Guided by the International Anti-Corruption Day 2025 theme, โUniting with Youth Against Corruption: Shaping Tomorrowโs Integrity,โ we, the Filipino youth, put forward the following youth-centered reforms:
1. Establish Youth Advisory Councils under National Anti-Corruption Agencies, such as the Office of the Ombudsmanโa formal space for young Filipinos to participate in developing, reviewing, monitoring, and recommending reforms to anti-corruption policies.
2. Include integrity, anti-corruption, and good governance education in educational curricula spanning basic, secondary, and higher education, to equip young Filipinos with the knowledge, skills, and values to recognize, challenge, and prevent corruption.
3. Institutionalize youth-led monitoring and reporting mechanisms, empowering young people to be grassroots watchdogs of local projects and programs. This includes the creation of a dedicated SK Helpdesk to make accountability mechanisms more accessible to their youth constituents through the National Youth Commission (NYC), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and other relevant agencies.
4. Enact the Peopleโs Participation in the National Budget Process Bill, which will institutionalize the participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the annual national budget process and enhance accountability in the use of taxpayersโ money.
5. Enact the Freedom of Information Bill, which will provide citizens with the legal tools to access public data and hold officials in all branches of government accountable.
6. Strengthen, not abolish, our Youth Governance Institutions by:
a. Empowering Local Youth Development Councils (LYDCs) to act as independent accountability and checks-and-balance mechanisms over the SK
b. Ensuring integrity and full transparency in SK Federation elections;
c. Vesting the power to remove elected SK officials exclusively in the courts, and not in political bodies such as the Sangguniang Panlungsod/Pambayan, to minimize politicking.
The fight against corruption cannot be left to the government and the older generations alone. It must be driven by youth movements that refuse to inherit a broken system. From our schools, barangays, to our national institutions, we commit to exposing abuses, demanding transparency and accountability, and building a culture of integrity. With one voice and one struggle, we stand firm in our call: Mula SK hanggang Malacaรฑang, wakasan ang katiwalian.
This statement was formally presented at the 2025 National Anti-Corruption Summit โ Sikhay Laban sa Korapsyon (SiLaK) of the Office of the Ombudsman on December 9, 2025, under the theme โAdvancing Democratic Resilience and Development through Anti-Corruption Reforms,โ by GoodGovPH Youth Advocacy Director Justin Altubar.
With this, we invite our fellow Filipino youth stakeholders to show their support for this solidarity statement through this link: https://forms.gle/uWxLZsZnvoKX3jN78
