Posts tagged with student council elections

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March 19, 2010

On student council elections

The past month saw various student council election campaigns in campuses across the country. For some students and for those of us who have graduated, there is a tendency to dismiss student council elections in major universities as irrelevant child play. For me, though, and I’m not saying this just because I have always been involved in campus politics, I believe that student council elections are legitimate exercises of students democratic rights. It serves as a rehearsal for students of their part in the larger context of Philippine society. I also believe that the leadership of the student council is decisive and crucial in the formation of student mass movements against commercialization of education and campus repression.

In the University of the Philippines Diliman, the militant Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights – UP (STAND-UP) regained the leadership of the University Student Council, after two years of losing the Chairman position. The Alternative Students’ Alliance for Progress – Katipunan ng mga Progresibong Mag-aaral ng Bayan (ASAP-KATIPUNAN) in UP Manila similarly regained the leadership of their University Student Council after three years of losing. STAND-UP and ASAP-KATIPUNAN’s nationalist counterparts in the other UP campuses in UP Baguio, UP Tacloban, UP Miag-ao, UP Cebu and UP Mindanao also scored resounding victories. This is indeed a reaffirmation of the genuine leadership that nationalist and militant activists offer and the potency of militant and collective activism in challenging attacks to students’ rights and welfare and in engaging the different issues that plague the country.

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March 28, 2009

STAND-UP Campaign Trail ’09 (Part V)

The day before election day is traditionally when the miting de avance for University Student Council candidates is held. It’s traditionally held at the steps of Palma Hall. Here are some photos from the February 24 miting de avance more than a month ago.

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March 9, 2009

STAND-UP Campaign Trail ’09 (Part IV)

Here are some pictures from STAND-UP’s proclamation rally held the Friday before election day. Proclamation rallies, regardless of the party holding it, are usually held at the historic steps of Palma Hall.

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March 7, 2009

STAND-UP Campaign Trail ’09 (Part III)

One of the more traditional yet integral parts of the student council election campaign is the dorm tour, where dorm assemblies and debates are held every night at UP Diliman’s numerous dormitories.

For a week, the parties and the candidates go on two dormitory assemblies every night to deliver their campaign line, present their program, plans of action, and well, succumb to whatever questions or tasks the residents ask the candidates to do. Dorm assemblies also serve as opportunities where parties usually get to debate and well, hurl accusations and pose questions and challenges to each other.

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March 5, 2009

STAND-UP Campaign Trail ’09 (Part II)

The organizers of UP Fair’s Tuesday night, EMC2 Fraternity, gave us a few minutes to come up on stage on the second day of the campaign period a few weeks ago.

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STAND-UP Campaign Trail ’09 (Part I)

For a large part of the two-week election campaign period for the University Student Council in UP Diliman, I went around with the candidates going room-to-room in the vast campus as one of their campaign managers.

With more than twenty thousand enrolled students in the university and dozens of buildings scattered within Diliman’s 600+ hectares, it is no easy feat to reach out to the widest number of iskolars ng bayan to deliver the campaign line.

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March 4, 2009

UP Diliman USC Elections ’09 Results

Here’s a short and partial rundown of the results of the University Student Council elections in Diliman.

Chairperson Party Votes
1. Titus C.K. Tan KAISA 4,900
2. Airah T. Cadiogan STAND-UP 3,389
3. Nina Marie D. Acasio ALYANSA 1,276

Titus Tan of KAISA won the Chairpersonship of the University Student Council, with a commanding 4,900 votes, while Jaque Eroles of STAND-UP clinched the Vice-Chairpersonship with 4,525. We only won four out of twelve seats among the USC Councilors.

Vice-Chairperson Party Votes
1. Jacqueline J. Eroles STAND-UP 4,525
2. Joseph M. Gutierrez ALYANSA 3,911

I was honestly upset when news broke of the results, and I was actually in disbelief, as it was really something we, or I personally did not expect. Assessments of the election campaign have been ongoing and resolutions will be forged.

To our candidates who weren’t fortunate enough to win seats in the student council, I have no doubt on your continued commitment to serve the people and the students in various fields and arena. And I’m looking forward to the work that we shall continue to do. It’s been a tiring campaign season for all of us, but it’s genuinely been a pleasure to have been among your campaign managers.

The incoming USC will prove to be one of the most evenly-divided (among political parties) USC in recent history. Good luck to the incoming University Student Council!

Councilors Party Votes
1. Christopher T. Yu Independent 3,918
2. Mario C. Cerilles ALYANSA 3,888
3. Katrina Nessa M. Abad STAND-UP 3,486
4. Luis Jose F. Geronimo ALYANSA 3,446
5. Andrea Monica V. Gonzales ALYANSA 3,235
6. Fermina A. Agudo STAND-UP 2,884
7. Katrina Ross P. Manzano ALYANSA 2,738
8. Muhamad Jumer C. Sali STAND-UP 2,717
9. Raymond Charles V. Pestana STAND-UP 2,654
10. Brian K. Ong KAISA 2,621
11. Jose Leandro R. Alinea KAISA 2,578
12. Lee Tomas O. Tan KAISA 2,512
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February 23, 2009

Collective Action for Social Change

Those who profess the futility of collective action know nothing of their history. For the tide and ebb of world events are determined precisely by collective action.

As one revolutionary put it, “The history of the world is the history of class struggle.” Throughout the world, regimes and tyrants have been toppled down, and democracies established by the strength of collective action. The wheels of history from feudalism, capitalism to socialism, from monarchies to parliaments to peoples’ governments, were concrete conclusions of class struggle. Examples of which are the anti-colonization movement in Africa and Latin Amercia, the Liberation movement in Southeast Asia and Indo-China, the Religious Tolerance and Womem’s Rights Movement in most parts of the world, the anti-apartheid movement in Africa, and the establishment of the International League of People’s Struggle against Imperialism. And even individual heroes are propelled by the thousands of men and women who clamor, hand in hand, for a common aspiration.

History itself reveals that there is no stronger mark of popular sentiment than mass actions, making collective demonstrations indispensable in the realization of our common goals. In the Philippine setting, the stirrings of collective dissent began in the aftermath of the Spanish conquest. For instance, the Katipunan was borne out of the unity of the peasants and artisans against the colonizers. From the Spanish to the American regime, a common sentiment for national sovereignty fueled radical movements for freedom. Corrupt and authoritarian regimes were crushed when confronted by the ferocity of widespread mass demonstrations. In fact, the mere existence of repression attests to the potency of collective action ““ why suppress mass demonstrations if it does not instigate fear in the most hardened of dictators?

Thus, our stance remains ““ collective action is still our most potent weapon for social change. For only by participating in a coordinated action of thousands of people can individuals pursue both their personal and social liberties. As long as there are forces and establishments that conspire against the democratic rights of the people, individuals have to unite to register their shared will.

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February 17, 2009

Crumble Their Deception

Leadership and unity, as propounded by some political formations in campus, can never be conceived by mere grand statements and more so, claimed in the absence of praxis.

For such calls must always be situated in conditions that manifestly surround us. Indeed, more recently, we have emerged victorious in our fight against a vicious attempt by the administration and its cohorts in the person of false student leaders, that tried to rob us of our representation in university governance and tested the power of our concerted action. It is important to note that it was only STAND-UP which has been firm in its struggle for genuine student representation by defending the Office of the Student Regent, while other political groups have collaborated to further their own selfish interests and hunger for power in the guise of flawed calls for “democratization” and “student participation”.

It is in light of this that we challenge ALYANSA and KAISA to go beyond the confines of their deceptive and misguided advocacies through an honest assessment of their actions in the past years. True leaders, after all, are judged not by their seemingly noble yet hollow declarations in a desperate effort to gain public approval, but by their concrete efforts to unite with their people armed with the sharpest of principles and a clear course of action. As such, the formations must be exposed for the populist and vacillating groups that they truly are.

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February 15, 2009

Now the campaign manager

Topping the previous elections is sure to make a lot of people expect you to run for the student council the next year. Indeed, for the past weeks, it’s been a nagging question among friends, random strangers I bump along the campaign trail and even on blogs and message boards. This is my first election season in four where I’m not a candidate. To be perfectly honest about it, it was simply because of a grade I got in one of my major subjects in Law last semester, which effectively disqualified me. It was quite unfortunate, and it has caused me, and my circle of friends, brods and colleagues some disappointment. For a few days some weeks ago, I felt quite bad how disappointed I made some people feel. But that’s over, there are many other ways of serving the people and the students. Once again it’s student council election season in UP Diliman.

I never would have realized how similarly and even more tiring managing the campaign is than being a candidate. I shall be posting pictures from the past days in the next few entries. Here’s some from STAND-UP (Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights – UP) presentation of candidates for the student council elections.

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