Sangguniang Kabataan

Mythor John C. Zaragoza
Feb 1, 2017
1 min read

Sangguniang Kabataan ("youth council" in English), commonly known as SK, is a council for youth in each barangay in the Philippines. It was put "on hold", but not quite abolished, prior to the 2013 barangay elections.

In January 2016, the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Law was signed into law which made some significant changes to the SK and schedules new elections for October 2016. The SK Chairman leads the Sangguniang Kabataan council. A Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) composed of representatives of different local youth groups supports the SK and its programs. Under the 2016 reform, a new Local Youth Development Council was formed to support the SK programs and to be composed of representatives from different youth organizations in the community including student councils, church and youth faith groups, youth-serving organizations, and community-based youth groups."

The LYDC aims to harmonize, broaden and strengthen all programs and initiatives of the local government and non-governmental organizations for the youth sector," said Sen. Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, chairman of the Senate Committee on Youth and co-author of the reform act. The Sangguniang Kabataan is the successor of the KB or the Kabataang Barangay (Village Youth) which was abolished by the Local Government Code of 1991. The author, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. abolished SK because of allegations that this organization faces.