New Era University

No. 9 Central Avenue. New Era, Quezon City, 1107, Philippines

COLLEGE OF ART AND SCIENCES

A Study of the Filipino Youth Situation and Programmes

in barangay Culiat Quezon City

An Undergraduate Thesis in Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts Major in
Public Administration

Grenio, Viella A.
Sta Cruz, Emil louis D.

January 2019
 Introduction

I. Background

There are 7 billion people in the world and 1.21 billion are young people or “youth’’ 754 million are from
Asia and 21 million are from our country. The Philippines today is tormented with various social
afflictions – poverty, crime, corruption, and indifference. Just as Jose Rizal said that the young people
are the hope of our nation and others like him exclaimed, the task of cultivating the motherland is
burdened upon the youth. Hence, how can we address these social ills plaguing Philippine Society? What
role does the youth play in addressing these social ills?

The youth, which by legal definition comprises those who are 15 to 30 years old, comprises almost one-
third of the country’s population. Given their large share in the Filipino population, the youth
increasingly play a large role in the development of the Philippine society. Their attitudes, values, mind-
set, and priorities will determine the development of the country in the future. With the crucial role the
society has placed upon the youth, it is imperative to instill a positive outlook upon today’s youth that
will orient them towards development. With that in mind, how does the youth view and react to this
challenge?

the youth acknowledge economic matters, crime, and governance as the country’s main problems.
However, despite the fact that they acknowledged the severity of these problems, most of them
respond with either helplessness or apathy when asked what they can do to help solve them. This is
reflected in the youth’s behavior towards involvement and participation in organizations and activities.
Only one of eight Filipino youth are involved in religious or recreational organizations and only one oft of
ten youth organizations. Furthermore, the Filipino youth was found to have unexpectedly high
incidences of involvement in illegal activities such as illegal drug use, criminality, and illicit sex. Given
these disturbing facts about Filipino youth, will they have the ability to address the various social ills of
the country?

Thus, the youth could inspire both hope and fear in the society. Fear in the form of apathy, criminality,
and immorality. Hope in the form of participation, concern and volunteerism. Solving the country’s
social problems, then, is a challenge for the youth to bring hope rather than fear into our society.

The youth have a crucial role to play in shaping the future of our county, have that there is no doubt.
They have proven that they can be powerful agents of change. The question is, are they up to the
challenge?
 New Era University
No. 9 Central Avenue. New Era, Quezon City, 1107, Philippines
Tel . No.: (632) 981-4221 to 4321 Fax: (632) 981-4240
Website www.neu.edu.ph

The undergraduate thesis titled “A Study of the Impact of Youths in

the Local Government Process and Their Contributions in the Philippine
community’’ prepared and submitted by Viella A. Grenio and Emil Louis
D. Sta Cruz in partial fulfilment of the requirements for research 2 has
been examined and recommended for acceptance and approval for oral
examination.