Robert Hechanova, My USG President

A president needs to have experience. A president needs to have an established network. And let’s be realistic, a president needs to have charisma to move a student body that continues to hide its potential to become conscious, responsible and innovative.

I am voting for Robert Hechanova this year because he has all three qualities that a president needs to have. To be honest, I would not vote for him if he ran for a different position because his qualities are best suited for the University Student Government (USG) presidency.

He has four years of experience, and many have used this argument to justify his capacity, but what many do not understand is that experience determines the success of leading thousands of students. Moreover, the USG has to adhere to many different policies and processes DLSU implements. Hechanova, hence, is the best and most sensible choice because he already knows all the processes.

The USG has grown significantly in the past few years, and in its thrust to become an established student government, it will likely need a leader who has linkages. Hechanova’s experience and network with many companies, student organizations and the administration will help the USG form more linkages to better serve the students.

Last, the USG, in the past few years, has struggled in bringing students in and in empowering students. Empowering students means allowing students to have a voice in the USG. Empowering is more than just a word for the campaign; it is about getting the trust of the students, and allowing them to voice their opinions on issues that matter to them such as grievance cases, facility concerns and the like.

Charisma hence, plays an important role in the USG presidency. We need a leader that people can trust. This leader has to have the capacity to convince people to speak up and take a part in the USG.

For this, my vote goes to Hechanova.

Migi Moreno, My USG President

There are those who might say that voting for the independent candidate only amounts to that: voting for him just because he is independent and relatively unbound by the old parties.

But beyond just being an independent candidate, Jose Miguel “Migi” Moreno may indeed be the most versatile choice among the three. His first year saw him as a Batch President in the USG, consulting with his batch and starting up new projects for the most largely populated batch of ID 110 students. This gave him experience working under the USG system with ease and familiarity: developing plans and processing the necessary forms for project approval, and the working dynamics between each unit. While no project is directly credited to him, testimonies from CLA ID 110 students affirm that Migi did not wish to take credit for spearheading individual projects but preferred his role as an ‘enabler’ for the success of many teams’ projects under FAST2010.

He did not run again for office, claiming to have seen the partisanship in the USG and saying that it was a hindrance to actual results being done. Jaded, he left government and worked in the Council of Student Organizations, immediately rising as the Vice President for Alliances of the Samahan ng mga Mag-aaral ng Sikolohiya in one year, proposing greater transparency within the organization and a comprehensive, thorough review of the organization’s bylaws. For one reason or another, his reformist ambition saw to his being eased out of the organization.

But more than his experience in USG and CSO, Moreno spent a year as a regular student, and knows how regular students think. He spent a term immersing in student life in Singapore, and two terms concerned not about batch or org activities but only his studies, and the content of his thesis. This grounding in USG, CSO, and non-affiliated ‘ordinary’ student life makes the students’ concerns more or less closer to him, granting him a broad outlook of many sectors. And while he is considered an iconoclast, his platform of ‘refocusing’ resonates not just with students but also even with his peers from both political parties.

While Moreno makes a fair point, pundits may find it possible for his reformist agenda to be swallowed up by the culture of the fledgling system he wishes to reform. But Moreno through his own research of the constitution and the USG’s guiding principles, has a clear concept of what the USG was meant to be, and is my president because his open mind and relative independence from partisan forces can help him steer and in his own words ‘refocus’ the USG back to its original purpose.

Kaila Astorga, My USG President 

As the campaign for the General Elections comes to a close, one can say that you need only go Straight , Derecho or neither, going for the independent candidate. Or you can play a combination of the three. Doesn’t matter. Among the candidates for the USG president, my vote goes to Tapat’s standard-bearer, Kaila Astorga.

To be honest, I do not know her, but her drive and principles towards the development of the studentry has awakened my inner passion for making change. I see her as a woman with maybe high, idealistic principles; yet the guarantee of actualizing such principles is there, and has a future.

Her platform and the party’s platform as a whole—pioneering the students’ movement for the new Lasallian identity gives me hope that students will have the discipline to be engaged with the activities and projects of the USG. I am not saying that students are apathetic. Their plans have just given me the assurance that each Lasallian will have the need and want to be involved in the upcoming activities. And this is very important. We tend to think that the USG does nothing, but sometimes, we, Lasallians are the ones neglecting the opportunities presented to us.

Having an awareness of what a just and free society should be, Astorga shows that students, together with the USG can be committed to the University and to the country. Through student engagement, student empowerment, student vigilance, and student activism, each Lasallian will be ready to face the challenges and be instruments of change inside and outside the University.

If you want a USG that redefines the activities assembly and establish research and development arm per batch and college government, vote for her. If you want to be part of different advocacies concerning the youth and push for student’s welfare in national issues, vote for her. If you want to be competitive and participate in external opportunities in terms of academics, arts and research, vote for her. If you want all the sectors inside the University to be held transparent and accountable, vote for her.

If you want all of these, join her and be a part of the movement. Vote for Kaila Astorga, my USG president.