Enrico Miguel Pe Aguirre Perez, first prize winner of Kabataan Essay.

Among the regular categories of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature is the Kabataan Division, which allows the voice of youth to be heard and listened to. This year, youth entrants answered the question, “At a time when spreading of misinformation is getting common, what can you do to help people, especially the youth, search for the truth?”

As Ann Jeline Pablo, third prize winner of the Kabataan Essay category, pointed out, it seems that, in today’s society, there is an ongoing battle between opposing news on which is to be considered real. “The fact that we allow fake news to spread and that real news still has to fight for its place to be regarded credible causes people to be blindsided by the important things and the issues at hand,” she said.

“One of the biggest effects of rampant misinformation is the cultivation of ignorance. Amid changing the mindset of the masses, it may also weaken its critical thinking. One may immediately believe fake news and may lead to the misunderstanding of what is really happening in our society,” explains Mark Pedere, second prize winner of the Kabataan Sanaysay category.

At just 16 to 17 years old, the six winners of the Kabataan Division of the 69th Palanca Awards represent the youth who are conscious of the truths in society. They are socially aware, truth-seeking, and, most importantly, they refuse to be meek amid the era of misinformation. They strive to get the truth out the best way they know how — writing.

Marielle Calicdan, first prize winner of the Kabataan Sanaysay category, says that as an editorial writer, she feels it necessary to use her ink to speak for the minority. “I write mostly for those who are unheard and not usually featured in mainstream media. As I write for a student publication, an alternative media, I feel it my duty to write for the masses, those who come from the ranks of peasantry and the working class. Through writing, I translate their stories and amplify their voices in my own way.”

Marielle Calicdan, first prize winner of the Kabataan Sanaysay.

Meanwhile, Criscela Racelis, second prize winner of Kabataan Essay, shares her way of helping search for the truth today when the internet makes it easy to distribute anything: “I hope to overcome that (misinformation) by writing works that can educate my audience whilst also being entertaining and well-written enough to keep them interested and engaged — even through little steps such as posting a few paragraphs on social media.”

As the public encounters countless information every day which they have no control over ─ receivers have to be mindful and responsible enough to question the information before filing each one under fact or fiction.

Kabataan Sanaysay third prize winner Adrian Pregonir believes that successfully distinguishing real from fake news involves cross-referencing with different kinds of news sources. “I refer to various sources, from social media posts to news publications, and navigate the faults in each article through reading into the texts. I then continue on to share these facts and my thoughts on social media, a common platform used by many.”

The prevalence of misinformation is mainly rooted in politics, driven further by social media, where anyone can easily broadcast information they deem necessary to spread. In this respect, social media poses as a double-edged sword — at its worst, it’s a platform used to spoonfeed information that does the thinking for the people, while at its best, the virality tendency is the easiest and fastest way to educate the masses. It depends on where one draws the line.

“Truth remains elusive,” says Enrico Perez, first prize winner of Kabataan Essay category. “Misinformation is something of our own making because so long as people are capable of thought, they are capable of perspective, which, incidentally, makes some of them capable of writing,” he continues. “We are, after all, born without handbooks on how to navigate the world. Most of us get through it by writing our own.”

A large portion of the society still falls into the trap of fake news and allows it to dictate which to believe and which to overlook. This turns the public’s attention away from the issues that need to be addressed. Debates on politics, societal issues, human rights and climate change are just among the topics that are worsened by misinformation, thereby creating further division between the collective population, when united awareness and efforts are what’s needed.