COMMUNITIES

‘Year of the Students’ SC to be Elected

Kenn Chua (H4C), Stallion Editor-in-Chief

Posted Thursday, 15-Jun-2006 2:15 PM    

              After leaving several vacancies in last year’s elections, the student body is re-treading the political way en route to completing the Student Council (SC) Executive Board.

              On June 27, the students will be electing an SC Secretary as the juniors, sophomores and freshmen will be voting for their respective batch representatives.

              Aspiring candidates may file their certificates of candidacy (COCs) on the first week of the school year and shall brace for a week-long campaign period thereafter.

              To open the June election, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is launching a campaign aimed at producing qualified candidates and promoting the elections per se.

              Mr. Timothy Agulto, SC moderator, reveals in the campaign that “[The SC] wants the students to vote beyond the image, beyond the porma and see what the character of the person is. [The SC] hopes that students can choose what is right against what is popular.”

Lessons from the past

              During the March election of 2006, only four of the seven positions (excluding the H1 Batch Representative) have been filled, with the rest having the abstain vote as the victor.

              The same happened in the freshmen batch representative election earlier last school year until a snap election produced Diego de Ocampo, now a sophomore.

              To Mr. Agulto, this emerging trend depicts a “thinking” electorate which has an obvious leader among them.

              The domination of ‘abstain’ may also be attributed to the disqualification of other influential candidates.

Of the 18 who filed for candidacy, only 15 were able to meet the criteria, which included academic and disciplinary standings.

“Requirements may present a flaw,” Mr. Agulto mentions in an earlier interview, “whereas the only basic standard is being able to balance SC work and one’s studies.”

              In contrast, current standards have been slightly raised with candidates having to maintain a running general average of 85 from the erstwhile 83.

              If the same trend prevails in the upcoming elections, the argument that the SC is a quorum falters and the SC may face having four empty seats out of eight, delaying much-anticipated programs for the Jubilee year. 

              However, the ominous picture is avoidable; only when the obvious leaders rise up to the call and when the more stringent requirements do not present a flaw as they might already have.

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