Has anyone done an extrapolation on how the youth vote in 2004 swung – in terms of who did it vote as president? What, for example, is the configuration reflective of those between the ages of 18 to 35 (by UN definition) from the 12.9 million that made GMA president?

US President Barack Obama, in particular, fully benefited from a youth vote because of charisma and ability to speak the language of this sector that for eloquent as well as clear messages of change. That has required immersion in networking sites of the internet to impress upon young people a new symbol of hope. Barack was to be that symbol.

Today, data have it that the youth vote alone accounts for 11 million, 2 million of which represents the first-timers. In other words, 11 million alone can in fact – make or unmake presidents. So how will the more ‘manipulative’ presidential wannabe be able to harness friendly if not patronizing collaboration if not by invasion in the www. Certainly, every well-meaning aspirant takes part of the action.

However, come to think of it, the youth vote is myth, a misnomer even. In the field of 250 or so members of the House of Representatives, to include the party-list, there seems to be no a single soul who, properly speaking, can represent the voice of the youth. For one, there is no party-list representative of youth. Is it because the youth, as a sector, cannot be classified as marginalized or underrepresented?

There is even more difficult way to know how the youth choose their leader. What is their voting habit? What are their set criteria? To begin with, couldn’t it be that they are, in fact, the less uninformed of what are going on in Philippine politics, in governance, in high places, in the bureaucracy? There had not been any survey done by SWS or Pulse Asia on the youth by way of a single collective when they constitute in fact the swing vote of 2010.

It is high time SWS or Pulse coordinate with student councils and for it to launch a survey to capture the voting habit of the youth in so far as this coming May 2010 election is concerned. Failing in this area, there will never be any available data on how such a critical bloc can be harnessed. It is not far removed that a good portion of the 11 million are not those who buy newspapers nor watch tv news.

The youth is best remembered when we see footages on TV of them being hit by anti-riot police when conducting street protest rallies in embassies or gates of government agencies. They are being arrested and detained in cells unfit for humans. They suffer bruises if not unseen deaths if intelligence operatives of either the military or the police have to go underhanded. The youth, in other words, is a favorite target.

With 11 million young people from about 40 million voting population, they ought to be a potent force in our state of affairs. Sadly, their sector is not represented – not in the Executive, neither in the Legislative, much less in the Judiciary. Put simply, the youth vote is perhaps simply being ‘prostituted’ by money politics. The votes go to who can give a young pair of hand a crispy P500 bill.

Paradox here is this. When they are in the streets as mouthpieces for desired change in body polity, they project themselves as true-blue militant radicals clamoring for change in the system. If by any streak of luck, they get themselves elected, it appears that they quickly metamorphose or get themselves totally transformed as just another tamed mind, patronizing even, to the powers that be. Can you see what this proverbial “Old Boys Club” can do? Enough – kaput.

End of ends, the government remains “state magnificus”.

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