How many more letters will we read?

“The reaction was pretty mixed,” suddenly prominent Santugon candidate Mia Jimenez told me this afternoon. “People from other batches were asking me questions.”

Her open letter, which was assiduously circulated over the weekend, has made her some sort of celebrity. Some might see her as a symbol of courage, of one candidate who decided to speak up about a consistently controversial – and confusing – aspect of the everyday musings of the Student Council. Others might see her as a candidate from, bluntly, a political underdog who’s desperate to win.

“Around three,” she answered, when I asked her about the number of people that asked her about the letter. “From what batches, I don’t know.”

But did the letter come at the right time? Admittedly, not everybody gets what Santugon candidates meant about partisanship – maybe they wouldn’t even give a damn – but it did spur some discussion. Carl Abaya, one of Santugon’s candidates for FAST 2007 Legislative Assembly representative, was quick to back Mia up. “It came at the right time,” he said, smiling.

“Pandora’s box!” Mia quickly followed, comparing her letter to that – something that opened up and, in this case, launched a lot of possibilities.

Fluff resolutions or sturdy responses?

The resolution in question, however, was something that, admittedly, would seem like more of a fluff resolution at first glance. “It’s a resolution about La Salle and the political situation in Myanmar and Burma,” Mia said. “However, I wasn’t the only one who did it. I co-authored it.”

Indeed, in her letter, it states that her co-author – “the Resolutions Monitoring and Management Committee chairperson,” which happens to be Tapat candidate Hugh Morris – never got around to printing the resolution since the beginning of the term. For two terms she waited, she wrote, and retold me earlier, and nothing happened.

I haven’t managed to contact Hugh about the issue, but probably the closest we have is yet another circulated email. This time, it’s from CLA college assembly president Mica Fernandez, who is also from Tapat. She also addressed other letters circulated around the Internet over the weekend. Again, this has been edited for style requirements.

Based on the two emails that we’ve received from concerned students, I know this seems like yet another attempt to sway voters. Let me start off by saying I cannot ask anyone to vote for a certain party as I am an elected officer that is not on leave. As much as I have tried to take the first email/blog, sent via all CLA’s Yahoo! groups, objectively, allow me to simply clarify these issues.

I believe there has been a miscommunication on only two things. First, is the alleged “secret meetings” and bypassing of batch presidents in selecting project heads. Let me start off by saying that the CAP has no jurisdiction to control batch assembly activities. Article XI, Section 4.4 of the SC constitution explains that the CAP issues directives only for college and university-wide activities. For college-wide activities, I always delegate project heads in the weekly ACA meetings and thereby in the presence of all elected CLA officers present. (1) There are times when, with no one volunteering to take the job, I have to “volunteer” a volunteer. In this respect, I choose to volunteer to either (a) those who approached me with the idea in the first place, or (b) to my running mates, if the project or program was in our platform when we ran. I saw it disrespectful to assign them to people who ran under a different platform. (2) Delegating in front of all batch level officers, gave everyone the opportunity to volunteer or contest my suggestion.

Another clarification is that I have never had any secret meetings with officers from my political party about college activities. Article X, Section 3.4 states that the entire college assembly, and not selected members alone, decide on matters involving the student’s interests in the college. Information from and about the Student Council has always been forwarded to all elected officers. For information from the SC, I also forward to CAP10 [the group of student organizations in the CLA].

The second misunderstanding would be the notion of complaints about the SC. An SC officer doesn’t have to be “visible” or “felt”; that’s not what their role is. Article III, Section 3 of the SC constitution states that “The prime duty of the DLSU SC is to protect and defend the rights of the students…” Being visible and felt can be attributed to a technique called “politicking”, unless it is the assembly or office itself that is visible (and believe me, it’s sometimes even hard to distinguish). An elected officer should not complain, because it shows lack of initiative on addressing issues, be it internal or external. An SC officer is given the power to lead their batch and is given all the venues to address their concerns. If they feel that they are being treated unfairly, it would be a matter of speaking up. This is where the miscommunication lies. I have never heard a single complaint on my leadership of the batch levels until last week, campaign week.

While the RMM chair cannot answer since he is currently [in] LOA for elections, I have but one comment. If printing was the problem, there is a working PC with a printer and ink at the SC office. But then again, I don’t know the specifics of this particular resolution since it was never brought up in our meetings despite discussions on the LA agenda.

If there is any more misunderstanding, or issues that have yet to come out, I suggest it be done the appropriate way; talking to the parties involved. If there is a problem with my leadership, no one else should be complained to but me. Allow me to do my job with as much respect and dignity that goes with an elected position such as mine. There is no need to use venues such as the campaign to voice out complaints. It would be great if the rest of the campaign days would be spent communicating platforms, instead of ruining the integrity of others.

If the truth is what is needed, let it be done the right way, because you need all the parties involved, plus research and documents to confirm validity, to conclude that one thing is the truth.

Mica Fernandez
College Assembly President
College of Liberal Arts
SY 2007-2008

Campaign shifts to the online realm…

This may be unrelated to the most prominent email controversy, but it’s still another blog entry, this time from Santugon executive secretary candidate Jessa Reña. It’s yet another emotional plea about why they took such an aggressive campaign this year, and what she and her fellow candidates have gone through.

I don’t think it’s healthy to keep these all inside, so here we go.

I am not running anymore. You all know that. I surprised everyone, even myself, by saying yes to the position of executive secretary. It is not an easy decision to make, but I have my own reasons. Two years. I’ve been in the Student Council for two entire years of my college life. I missed out on a lot of other stuff because of the demands of being a Student Council officer, and the pressure to give your best because students put their trust on you. I gave my best, I performed, I delivered. I am tired. And it is not only now that I realized why I’m tired. The Student Council is definitely not a breeding ground for student leaders. I won’t expand anymore on why. But one thing I’ve realized is that I can do something about it. In the future, I do not have the right to complain about the system, about the Student Council if I, myself, refuse to do something about it.

And now, six brave girls decide to stand up for the truth. Madami nagulat, kasi hindi ito yung usual campaign ng Santugon. We know. God knows how great a courage we had to come up with just to be able to speak out the truth. To stop staying at the safe side. Students deserve the truth, and even if it means people (those I thought were good ones) saying bad words behind my back, even if it means being hated by some, then it doesn’t matter, because more than anything, everyone deserves to know the truth.

Words can’t say enough how hurt I am everytime we have our family meeting at night after a day of hardwork of campaigning, and I hear my santugon 76-0 slate narrate how they were humiliated, offended, and how horrible they were treated. Ganito na ba kadumi ang general elections? Even the freshmen were treated heartlessly. The freshmen. I am only a [sophomore], and I know I’m not older than you are, but I’d rather be the one to receive your so-called “strategies” than have anybody from my slate hurt. Hindi ako nagagalit. Hindi ako nakikipaglaban. at kailanman, hindi ako gumagawa ng gulo. If you know me, alam mo yon. But for my 76-0 who have been hurt, I will stand up for the truth.

I am not your enemy. It is not my intention to agitate you, or make you hate me. Whether you’re wearing blue and yellow or orange and black, I look at you as a student. Difference in political parties never hindered me from treating all of you as a friend, as a person. I may not win, this I know for a fact. I am not strong against someone who was a Lasallian Ambassador, against someone who has been preparing for this for who knows how long. But I will not lose faith. I will fight so that I know at the end of this all, no matter how the Student Council will turn out to be, I know I gave my best and I tried to do something to change it.

It is time to give what is due to the students. It is time to trust again.

God bless us all this General Elections.

Vote wisely. Believe it or not, your future may rely on it.

Just now, I chanced upon another Santugon entry – a more straightforward campaign pitch from former Santugon candidate Karyl Factora. She ran last year, and lost, for COS college assembly president. This was reposted on academic vice president Aimee Chua’s blog.

For the three years that I have been a student in DLSU-Manila, I have seen different types of leadership in the Student Council. I’ve seen how leaders from both Santugon and Tapat work as either batch or Legislative Assembly representatives. It was rare for me to see how a Santugon college assembly president worked because I was privileged to only know four successful candidates from the said party; the rest of the CAPs were mostly from Tapat. As for the executive board positions, there is only one Santugon leader who is blessed enough to serve in the SC in such position ever since I started studying in DLSU-Manila; and that, of course, is none other than Stacy Carbonel.

I will be honest in telling you that I have nothing against Tapat leaders. Some of them are the nicest people that I have ever met and have given me so much to learn. Armi Padilla and Noey Arcinue have always gained my respect because they have always inspired me to work harder in the Student Council.

The main point of this entry is to tell you that it is time for DLSU-Manila to have Santugon leaders show the way in the Student Council. While it is important for Lasallians to be in the forefront of nation building, the Student Council must realize that it should be serving its purpose protecting students’ rights and promoting students’ welfare, as well. More than just enriching the lives of people outside the campus, it should start molding leaders out of the student body first. That, I highly believe, is what Santugon leaders can deliver.

Santugon leaders are not just all about fun. While it is true that the party is known for fielding good-looking and relatively popular students, it never forgets to choose leaders who have dedication for their work. Tapat has already had five consecutive years of leadership in the Student Council. Isn’t it about time for Santugon to show what it is capable of?

I am not a candidate for this year’s General Elections because I believe that those who were chosen have the capability of truly serving the students. Cliché? Maybe so, but there is a definite truth to it.

For this General Elections 2008, I am telling you to vote derecho. Make that right choice and see how a Student Council should really function. Have a set of leaders who will really deliver to what they say during the campaign.

It’s about time.

…but just when it’s over

It’s funny that these things start coming out just when the campaign period wraps itself up. Tomorrow is the start of voting, although like last year you’ll still see candidates and supporters in party colors watching the polls. You can still ask them questions, but they can’t ask you to vote for someone.

In 2006, I was able to watch what turned out to be the last RTR that the Santugon candidates for CLA had. Being a freshman, it felt slightly overwhelming that you’re watching something that the candidates saw as monumental. This time around, it wasn’t, either because I’m too aware, or too busy, or too mindful of the fact that the campaign never really ends even if it officially did.

I only managed to catch the FAST 2007 candidates finally take down their tarpaulin that’s been hanging at the Z2 wall in front of Miguel Walk for the past week. They first posed for photographs – one of which was for my camera – before taking it down and walking with it, along with other Santugon candidates, towards the amphitheater.

The Tapat people, on the other hand, were doing their own thing – as the tarpaulins were being pulled down, orange and black flags passed by, with the executive board walking towards Gokongwei. I asked Tapat’s Carmel Puertollano about it, and she merely shrugged with a smile.

Despite the short celebrations that probably marked the end of the campaign period, these guys still have stuff to clean up and deal with. With the looming polls comes the usual fight for fifty percent, plus one member, of the student population. Turnout has been a problem especially for the juniors, whose number of actual voters dwindles with time. The parties – and the COMELEC, especially with its own RTRs last week – would need to do a lot of convincing.

And most of the voters are probably still undecided. I know I am still undecided. I haven’t managed to ask my question to the Santugon executive board, who remained elusive – but less so – this year. I can still ask them questions as long as the polls are open, at least.

But with the way things are going, the students might end up more annoyed, maybe more confused, and maybe even more retaliatory with the way they vote. But hopefully they aren’t disillusioned when we get here a year later.

Shale Campaigns 2008 has a thread at PinoyExchange. Click here to post your opinions and speculations on the coming elections. Also, click here to view all multimedia content related to this year’s campaigns at Fifth Year Holler.