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| Photo by The Flame on Facebook |
Addressing the issue is the Faculty of Arts and Letters’ Commission on Elections (AB COMELEC) which released a memorandum dated April 2, Sunday, comprehensively discussing the timeline of events during this year’s ABSC polls, involving the said complaints filed before the Commission.
The first complaint dated March 22, 2023, was filed concerning DEKADA, the student political party housing some of this year’s candidates, for their alleged non-compliance of submitting their campaign materials’ URLs on time, violating No. 8, Section 7 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) obliging them to hand in the said links “within an hour after posting.” DEKADA also failed to follow another section in the IRR (7.2) which strictly imposes an 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM posting of campaign materials.
8 days after, on March 30, 2023, the AB Board of Majors (BoM) filed a set of complaints of misconduct against both AB Student Council candidates and incumbent officers. The specifics of the issues are as follows:
ABSC Auditor-aspirant Joseph Lorsan Coronel (DEKADA)
Coronel tried soliciting participation and support from Artlets Economic Society (AES) through a private message to AES President Hannah Erika Yabut on March 19, violating the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) No. 8 Sections 4 (Duration of Campaign) and 8 (Premature Campaigning) respectively.
Prior to the Miting de Avance, Coronel also attempted to enlist the support of both the AB Board of Majors and AB Societies through an ‘official involvement notice’ email.
Coronel’s platform ‘Mulat Knows!’ was deemed a form of bribery as it involves monetary incentives.
ABSC Public Relations Officer-aspirant Rachelle Anne Mirasol (DEKADA)
Prior to the Miting de Avance, Mirasol tried to enlist both the AB Board of Majors (BoM) and the Societies of the Faculty of Arts and Letters’ support through an ‘official involvement notice’ email.
ABSC Secretary-aspirant Gabriel Gabrillo (INDEPENDENT)
Gabrillo, on March 6, sought dialogue through a direct message with the AB Board of Majors (BoM) which was then received by BoM Speaker, Johannes Adrian De Guia, which violates IRR No. 8 Sections 4 (Duration of Campaign) and 8 (Premature Campaigning) respectively as it occurred prior the campaign period and Miting de Avance.
Candidates of the political party DEKADA
Both the AB Board of Major panelists and AB COMELEC members witnessed the ‘persistent coaching and cheating’ displayed by DEKADA Candidates during the For or Against segment of the Tagisan: Miting De Avance 2023 dated March 25 in which the candidates were called out for three warnings yet the coaching continued.
DEKADA’s Campaign Manager Hanielle Garcia
During the Miting de Avance, Garcia is claimed to have violated IRR No. 9, Section 4.9 in providing technical cues, which may involve cueing voice modulation and gesturing. The aforementioned IRR states that campaign managers, representatives, and supporters are only allowed to assist during the preparations and presentation setups and must refrain from giving cues, feedback, or prompts during the time a candidate is speaking
During the MDA breaks, Garcia also was seen to be huddling with DEKADA Candidates which possibly violates Section 4.11 of IRR No.9 covering 'any acts similar to the foregoing’
Incumbent AB Student Council Officers
Current ABSC officials were said to have displayed ‘unruly decorum’ during the March 25 live stream of the Tagisan: Miting de Avance 2023 through the comment section, causing 'undue distractions,’ possibly violating IRR No. 8 Section 10 prohibiting any commotion 'that disturbs the classes, causes undue distractions or contains an unreasonable amount of supporters.’
The incumbent officers also allegedly failed to separate themselves from existing affiliations with ABSC through the participation in the candidates’ campaign, which is deemed as 'inappropriate' as their personal profiles still depict the current positions they hold in the council, even with the attempt to execute such in their personal capacities.
Amid all the filed complaints, the COMELEC disseminated the scheduled case hearings to the respective respondents on April 1, where on the same day, the suspensions of the Certificate of Candidacy (CoCs) of Independent candidate Gabriel Gabrillo and DEKADA candidates Timothy John Santiago, John Enrique Moncayo, John Matthew Enriquez, Hannah Patricia Calara, Joseph Lorsan Coronel, and Rachelle Anne Mirasol were announced—deemed effective under Resolution No. 12.
The verdict of the CoC suspension was through COMELEC’s careful consideration of the matter and with the counsel of the Central Commission Elections and other local COMELEC units.
"It is important to note that the suspension is not the penalty itself for the alleged offenses; it is just to hold the assumption of the office by the candidates who have pending cases.” AB COMELEC states in the memorandum.
The voices of the CASAn and Artlets community
The released AB COMELEC memorandum and the ABSC Halalan 2023 case were met with numerous reactions from the student body. UST-CASA Chronicle reached out to three students from the CASAn and Artlets communities to obtain the students' perspectives on the matter.
A 2nd-year student from the Communication program expressed their dismay towards the issue—particularly towards AB Comelec’s handling of the matter. "As much as I appreciate AB Comelec's decision to raise up the violations and illegal moves that some of the candidates have done to show their lack of integrity, especially considering as they are student leaders, I believe it was a case of poor execution on their part. In the case of the first announcement as to why some of the candidates had their CoC suspended, I believe it would have been much better if they did the hearing first and wholly discussed if there were really grounds for these suspensions, as at that time, some of these were mere allegations. Context was greatly needed for this kind of major decision." They stated.
The student continued their sentiment by saying that it was jarring for the students to receive this type of news as they had to learn about it before the scheduled break. They said, "With the Easter Break coming up, AB Comelec should have had looked more into these allegations earlier on as to not cause such a commotion with the proclamation practically done and the break nearing. It was already apparent, especially during the MDA, that there were accounts of coaching and cheating happening, but it was not looked into further, which was the off thing about this.”
More feedback and reactions were gathered, specifically with the pending cases and alleged violations faced by the council candidates.
A 1st-year Political Science student gives a feedback on the case, saying, "When I first heard the news regarding the suspension of the candidacy of the DEKADA student council aspirants, I was shocked because I did not know the context of this story. My first instinct was to check the different news outlets of the Faculty of Arts and Letters to confirm the story and its details. It was very surprising, to say the least, the number of violations and offenses that were ordered against the candidates, especially considering the fact that this issue came out during the election period. I guess all we can hope for now is that this issue can be solved with due process so that we are able to determine the next set of student council leaders that will lead the Thomasian Artlets.”
A 4th-year Creative Writing student comments, "Sana mas nagcommunicate sila [DEKADA and Independent partylists candidates] at ayusin statements nila kasi from what I've observed lahat ng statements nila (personal or office) ay out of frustration rather than pagiging objective. Nagulat ako nung unang release ng comelec about the suspension. Sana ‘di nila nirelease agad at sinabay na siya dun sa explanation bakit sila suspended hindi after prokla, dun sasabihin. Sana mas mature approach nila about these things kasi serious matter siya, hindi ‘yong magpaparinigan or makikipag-away sa twitter about who's wrong. Like puro na lang pointing figures so feel ko may underlying issue na sila way before. But sana they handled it maturely, kasi they are the leaders and a leader should not be attacking each and everyone who are against them.”
Further developments
UST-CASA Chronicle reached out to both the AB COMELEC and AB Board of Majors (BoM) for matters of inquiries and to garner their statements concerning the ABSC matter and the developments of the case. We are yet to hear a statement from them.
In line with their pending cases and complaints, DEKADA has respectfully decided to not give a statement or share any information regarding the events that have transpired during the ABSC elections to UST-CASA Chronicle in consideration of the privacy of the individuals involved as well as certain processes being done as of the moment.
DEKADA’s decision to not comment or release any statement, for now, is on account of waiting until the due process takes place which will be handled by the AB COMELEC Tribunal.
