What can we learn from the Philippines’ youngest female lawmaker?
Sarah Jane Elago has authored over 426 bills during her stint in the 18th Philippine Congress. She has written acts to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression; as well as ensuring the fundamental equality of women and girls under the laws on marriage and family relations. She has achieved all of this by the age of thirty-one. Politics is all too often viewed as the realm of older and middle-aged males, so what can we learn from the youngest female lawmaker in the Philippines? The Silent MP chats with Sarah to find out.
‘Young people always have this ‘go go go’ mindset, you know, it is really all about achieving this goal, [with] no working, and sleeping for only about an hour a day’. Speaking from experience, Sarah believes that the pressure beholden to young politicians requires a degree of self-awareness towards themselves and their teams. It is important to know when to push your membership, when to challenge them, when to demand clarity of commitment, and, crucially, when to rest.
In this sense, Sarah cites communication and trust as two key elements behind her success as a youth politician. ‘You have to learn to put your trust in your membership and in your constituency,’, she tells The Silent MP, ‘because if you don’t, then they wouldn’t flourish as big or as great as other potentials’. Sarah tells us that the provision of trust has a nurturing effect on others; providing strong levels of trust and communication allows them to grow. ‘At the office level, in our collective capacity’, she explains, ‘it’s really about looking after each other’. Part of this trust and commitment is sharing the ability to respond to criticism. Sarah notes that whilst it is easy to learn from theory, true growth in practice comes from personal reflection.
Now more relevant and important than ever before, Sarah tells the Silent MP that taking the time to learn about what is happening in the personal lives of our peers can allow us to provide support and understanding when it is needed. ‘We’re having staff whose parents just lost their jobs’, she explicates, ‘that can affect the work of young people in our office…you are only as powerful [and] as effective as what the staff can accomplish’. Moreover, support from institutions is crucial; ‘we need to have an effective health system that not only cares about physical health’, Sarah explains, ‘but also about our mental health’.
Young politicians are certainly not immune from discrimination. Sarah herself has had the experience of receiving comments like “you’re still young, you have so much more to know”, or “you should get this course, or this programme”. All opportunities to grow and learn are welcomed, Sarah reinforces, yet this does not discount the fact that young politicians are elected representation in the same way older politicians are. ‘We have the mandate of the people’, Sarah enthuses, ‘to say our piece on these issues’.
Having the confidence to say our piece as a youth politician, is paramount. Sarah leads by example, professing trust, communication and self-awareness. This advice is not exclusive to younger parliamentarians, we can all learn from the words of the Philippines’ youngest female lawmaker.
