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.
More efficientIn 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.”
Promotion problemSalud 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.