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• Students vote for one course rep per batch
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• On the Record

Students vote for one course rep per batch

STARTING NEXT school year, there will be only one course representative per year level in the Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral.

The results of the plebi­scite showed that 56.9% or 1,602 of the 2,816 students who voted are in favor of this amendment. The plebiscite was held from January 18 to February 8.

The plebiscite was a "yes" or "no" vote to amend Article VIII of the 2005 Constitution, which says that there will be one course rep for every 30 students in a course per year level.

The quota for the plebi­scite was 50%+1 of all in­coming sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The turnout of the plebiscite surpassed the quota by 25 votes, said the Commission on Elections in its resolution.

Comelec Chief Commis­sioner Ione Abergele Salud (III AB Eu) said that although the plebiscite was initially scheduled until January 22 only, it was extended to reach the quota.

Comelec went room-to-room to ask the students to vote. English, Theology, and Philosophy classes were tar­geted to ensure that all four year levels could vote.

In an earlier interview with The GUIDON, new Sanggu President Cabrei Cabreira (IV AB IS) said that it would be more efficient to have only one representative per course. In the current system, the number of course reps depends on the number of students in a course.

Sanggu Committee on Rules Chair Ryan Albert Pas­cual (III BS Mgt) agreed with Cabreira, also in an earlier interview. “[The amendment] is more of making the position more important for [the reps]. They will function better and will have a better sense of ownership.”

Salud said that Comelec’s room-to-room voting was ef­fective. Yet she said that the information dissemination for the plebiscite was not enough.

Comelec Commissioner Brian Joshua Dejaresco (III AB Eco) said that the Sanggu was responsible for informa­tion dissemination.

“Sanggu was supposed to be the one giving out the information. Then, came the time of the plebiscite, [Comelec] just realized that Sanggu didn’t do much,” he said.

According to Salud, for­mer Sanggu President Karl Satinitigan said that Sanggu was supposed to disseminate the information regard­ing the plebiscite, which was held when he was still president.

“[Karl] said [that Sanggu is] going to work on the promotions but that didn’t happen,” Salud said.

Comelec, however, had a contingency plan for infor­mation dissemination. “We created our own spiels which contained [the] information but we could not let people decide on something for 30 seconds or a minute,” said Salud.

“There were a handful who didn’t want to vote be­cause the information didn’t sink in. It was too sudden,” she added.

Salud, however, said that to Sanggu’s credit, Ca­breira sent officers to help Comelec in disseminating information.