The Sangguniang Kabataan (Sk)

The Sangguniang Kabataan or SK (Youth Council) is the governing body in every chapter of the Katipunan ng Kabataan (Youth Federation). Each barangay in the Philippines is mandated by law to have its own chapter of the Katipunan ng Kabataan in which the members elect their officers called as the Sangguniang Kabataan. The Sangguniang Kabataan is an off-shoot of the KB or the Kabataang Barangay (Village Youth) which was abolished when the Local Government Code of 1991 was enacted.

The Sangguniang Kabataan is the youth legislature in every local village or community. It also initiates policies, programs and projects for the development of youth in their respective political territories. The Chairman of the Sangguniang Kabataan acts as the Chief Executive of the Sanggunian (Council) while the Kagawad (Councilor) as the legislative council. The Kagawads approve resolutions of the Sanggunian and appropriates the money allotted to the council, a share in the revenue of the Barangay.

The Chairman automatically sits in the Sanggunian Barangay (Village Council) as ex-officio member. He automatically gets chairmanship of the Committee on Youth and Sports, one of the standing committees in the village council. Every Sangguniang Kabataan is then federated into municipal and city federations, then city and municipal federations are federated into a provincial federation.

The barangay SK Chairman represents the barangay in the municipal or city federation. The presidents of the city and municipal federation presidents becomes member of the provincial federation and the provincial federation president becomes member of the national federation. The presidents of highly urbanized and independent component cities completes the membership in the national federation. The entire membership in the Federation elect the national federation president who automatically sits in the National Youth Commission as ex-officio member.

The national federation is governed by the National Executive Board while the municipal, city to provincial federation is governed by the Local Executive Committee composed mostly of the seven regularly elected officers of the federation.

Since 1992 up to the present, there have been three simultaneous nationwide SK elections held in the Philippines which each term lasting from a minimum of three to five years due to amendment of the regular 3-year term limit of the council. After every poll, election of federation officers follows. The elected presidents in the municipal and city federations sit as ex-officio member in the municipal or city council respectively while the provincial president represent the youth in the provincial board. All of these ex-officio members automatically chair the council's committee on youth and sports development.