By Joshua Ofiasa Villalobos, 22
University of the Philippines – Cebu
UNICEF Philippines Youth Advocate
Dear fellow Filipinos,
This letter is for you. Especially to our people in government. We are writing as the voice of the future we all aspire to build for everyone, especially for children and young people who will inherit the future we will create now.
In the past seven years I’ve worked with children and young people, I had the chance to listen to them share their ideas of the future. They imagined it, sang it, drew it, spoke of it, fought for it, and most importantly, actively contributed to building it.
We hope for nothing more than a safe, sustainable, livable, and a progressive future. A future where we can pursue our dreams and reach our aspirations. A future where we live in peace, provided with equal opportunities, and in commune with our natural world.
But that’s not what’s happening.
Climate crisis is threatening our chance to have a livable future with constant extreme weather events, which disproportionately impacts children.
We are growing in an era of rapid technological shifts that make the future uncertain and even more complex. While we are the generation who grew up with these technologies, many of us—especially in poor and rural communities—still don’t have access to them. And this limits our ability to maximize the benefits and opportunities these technologies bring.
And then there’s education. Filipino students are far behind their peers, with an estimated learning gap of 5.5 years. I have seen this with my own eyes—young Filipinos in high school who couldn't read or comprehend basic English. Are we raising a generation of uneducated, unskilled and, eventually, unproductive Filipinos?
But this is not because we didn’t dream high enough or work hard enough or did our part. It is because the system has failed us.
Yet, we refuse to give up. We are not idly standing by amidst these realities. Around the country, and in fact, around the world, children and the youth are taking up spaces to build the future we want. We are present in policy discussions. We lobby our government officials. We implement community projects. We empower our fellow youth. We work with other generations to address existing social issues because we know that our future is on the line.
However, we can’t do it alone and what is being done now is not enough.
It is said that by 2050, the Philippines has the rare opportunity to become the world’s 14th biggest economy. But we can only achieve this if we invest in human capital—health, education, skills-building; if we invest in the workforce of tomorrow. That is, us—the children and youth of today.