Section 2Sec./Art. 2

Policy. - The State recognizes its responsibility to enable the youth to fulfill their vital role in nation-building and hereby establishes the National Comprehensive and Coordinated Program on Youth Development, creates the structures to implement the same and appropriates adequate funds to provide support for the program and implementing structures on a continuing, sustained basis.

The State hereby declares that "Youth" is the critical period in a person's growth and development from the onset of adolescence towards the peak of mature, self-reliant and responsible adulthood comprising the considerable sector of the population from the age of fifteen (15) to thirty (30) years.

The State further declares the National Comprehensive and Coordinated Program on Youth Development shall be based on the following principles:

a. Promotion and protection of the physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being of the youth to the end that the youth realize their potential for improving the quality of life;

b. Inculcation in the youth of patriotism, nationalism and other basic desirable values to infuse in them faith in the Creator, belief in the sanctity of life and dignity of the human person, conviction for the strength and unity of the family and adherence to truth and justice;

c. Encouragement of youth involvement in character-building and development activities for civic efficiency, stewardship of natural resources, agricultural and industrial productivity, and an understanding of world economic commitments on tariffs and trade and participation in structures for policy-making and program implementation to reduce the incidence of poverty and accelerate socioeconomic development; and

d. Mobilization of youth's abilities, talents and skills and redirecting their creativity, inventive genius and wellspring of enthusiasm and hope for the freedom of our people from fear, hunger and injustice.