May 3, 2008. The University Student Council (USC) General Assembly (GA) last May 3 turned out to be a controversial one, especially after I allegedly posted a “colorful” report of the proceeding–which honestly for me was equally colorful–at the USC website. Party lines were obviously drawn. Anyway, the issue is over and moot, and internal and personal issues have been resolved. All’s well, I guess.

After that said GA, we held a USC pictorial for the website and other such future publications of the student council. It was a pretty cool pictorial, despite the fact that we had to do a group picture in the middle of the afternoon near the signage of Vinzons Hall, the university’s primary “student union” building.

We had individual shots and shots by committee. I was the photographer, of course, as always.

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Tags: general assembly, pictorials, University Student Council, UP Diliman, Vinzons Hall

April 30, 2008. This was more than two weeks ago. Since I need to catch up on a long backlog, I’ll just re-post a ‘press release’ I wrote and sent to some newspapers and news networks. This was one of the first things I did as the student council’s official ‘media liaison’ or public information officer. Just a disclaimer, until then, I didn’t have any previous experience writing sending press releases, so I found this task problematic. But I’ve gotten the hang of it now, I guess.

The University Student Council (USC) of the University of the Philippines (UP) today held a press conference and forum at Vinzons Hall, the university’s main student union building, regarding the rice crisis the country is currently facing. Together with representatives from residents of the UP’s residential communities and transport groups in campus and a representative from the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the student council demanded that the government take immediate, sustainable and pro-people solutions to the crisis.

According to its statement, the student council demanded that the government “increase its support to the National Food Authority (NFA) in its procurement of palay, dismantle the rice cartels and impose a crack down on illegal acts of price manipulation, implement a moratorium on the land-use conversion of agricultural land, and increase its investment in the agricultural sector.”

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Tags: Alcantara Hall, forum, press release, rice crisis, University Student Council, Vinzons Hall

Still, three days of University Student Council (USC) meetings weren’t enough to resolve the establishments and the leaderships of all the USC’s committees. Another special session was held last Friday, April 11, 2008, to tackle the remaining committees.

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Tags: meeting, student council, University Student Council, UP Diliman, Vinzons Hall

Two days weren’t enough to allow the University Student Council (USC) to deliberate, establish and elect the chairpersons of its various committees, so we held a special assembly last Thursday at the USC Office in Vinzons Hall to discuss such unresolved matters.

We started promptly at six in the afternoon, but as expected, deliberations ensued for more than six hours. The assembly adjourned by almost midnight with only three committee establishments and leaderships resolved. That gives us a rate of a committee resolution every two hours.

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Tags: meeting, student council, University Student Council, UP Diliman, Vinzons Hall

As a candidate, I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures during the campaign. I couldn’t carry along my bulky camera all around campus. Here are some of the few pictures that I was able to take right before and during the campaign season.

These were taken on February 13, 2008 from one of the first discussion groups and training sessions we had as a slate right before the elections.

The ones below were taken on February 20, 2008, a Wednesday. After a brief discussion group regarding our General Program of Action, and right before we were interviewed at the Philippine Collegian office, we had some time off at the Sinagbayan tambayan on Vinzons Hill.

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Tags: CAL, STAND UP, student council elections, University Student Council, UP Diliman, Vinzons Hall