Children’s participation

in social movements

ARTICLE: RAFAELA ABUCEJO | JANUARY 12, 2024

During the latter days of 2023, it was clear that no festive celebrations would fill the homes of jeepney drivers, operators, and their families. On the same streets where children sang carols, others marched alongside their parents to brave a bigger fight: their livelihood at stake. A telltale sign that the youth of today are conscious of their socioeconomic struggles and their resistance to state abuses is chartering a better future.

Protests and transport strikes nationwide were held to oppose the government’s forced franchise consolidation under the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP). Salinlahi Alliance for Children's Concerns, a national alliance of groups dedicated to forwarding children’s rights nationwide, estimated that approximately 600,000+ children in the families of jeepney drivers and operators will directly be affected by the state program. This is only one of the many times that the system continuously failed our children.

We must always be reminded that children are at the forefront of the negative impacts of poor national policies. We should no longer be surprised that the youth of today want to keep amplifying their voices when it comes to issues that affect them.

Now, more than ever, we must help our children become well-informed about their basic rights and, more importantly, advocate relentlessly for these rights. Depriving them of this is excluding them from participation in the same world that they will soon foster as adults.

It’s quite ironic how we teach good citizenship in schools for years yet the rules somehow change when we see children in action while conscious of their realities. Suddenly, it’s rebellious, disrespectful, and they have no idea what they’re doing.

While we inherently see children on the streets as a sign of a grim reality, this can be more represented as a symbol of hope, fervor, and love for the nation. It should be celebrated, an indication that ours is a world that lies in the good hands of today’s youth who partake in molding everyone’s future—not just their own.

Mao Tse Tsung declares to our youth, “The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You, young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life [...] the world belongs to you.”