National Youth Commission chairman Ronald Cardema defended the agency’s annual hosting of Sangguniang Kabataan summits and trainings which were flagged by the Commission on Audit, pointing to Kabataan Partylist Representative Raoul Manuel as the one besmirching his office.
In an interview with the Daily Tribune at the NYC office in Quezon City, Cardema said newspaper reports (not in this paper) failed to mention that not a single “disallowance” was made.
In its annual audit report on the NYC for 2022, the COA noted the agency’s “excessive payment of hotel room reservations,” as well as the local accounts of NYC showed that its training expenses amounted to P31.4 million while travel expenses reached P5.43 million.
The COA said that the NYC’s local travel expenses jumped by 321 percent from P1.29 million in 2021 to P5.43 million in 2022. Training expenses, on the other hand, surged by 575 percent from P4.65 million to P31.4 million during the same period.
“Of course, it would jump. From pandemic period which we are barred from holding such, it will surely ballooned because we never hold those trainings during that period,” Cardema explained.
He added that they are mandated to hold SK trainings, sometimes called “summit”, to prepare the young officials for their positions. An annual budget of P50 million is allotted for this purpose, and according to Cardema, there are over 42,000 barangays around the country that have the same number of SK officials composed also of a chairman and seven kagawads (local councilors).
“Di nga namin makumpletong bigyan lahat ng training sa dami (We can’t even complete their entire number to train),” Cardema said, noting that some SK chairmen are also considered government officials for being the SK Federation president, heading the entire city or province’s SK members and sit as a member of the city council or provincial boards.
“Local officials na din ang turing sa kanila (They are considered local officials already). Sometimes they brought along with them a team (photographer, staff, and even families) and would not want to be booked at the hotel we contracted because of these factors. So they would instead pay for their own, in a much expensive hotel,” the NYC official further explained.
For this reason, Cardema added we’re acceptable to COA. “That is why we have ‘zero’ disallowance (in that report).”
He blamed Manuel for insinuating the NYC’s alleged overspending, as he always hurled some criticism to the Makabayan Bloc in Congress which Kabataan Partylist is a member, for failing to condemn the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army, and National Democratic Front.
Training the SK officials, the NYC chairman said, is a hard thing to do, especially for a commission composed of only 150 personnel including him.
“My travel allowance is only P500,000, that sometimes requires me to go to regions and provinces. One time I was made to attend an Asian youth forum, half of that travel allowance was spent already. How are the others, which I have to attend?,” Cardema asked.
The NYC is the government’s sole policy-making body on youth affairs but also coordinates and implements programs designed to respond to and raise awareness on youth issues.
Its mandate is enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, to wit: “The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being. It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism; and encourage their involvement in public and civic affairs.”