Tapat’s case for partisanship in USG dismissed

The Judiciary held formal hearing today to hear the sides of the government side (Ombudsman) and the complainant side (Tapat) on the case filed by the complainant, calling for the nullification of the Article VIII of University Student Government (USG) Code of Conduct.

Arguments and rebuttals

During the discourse between the complainant and the government, several points were raised regarding the Code of Conduct.

The complainant argued that the Code of Conduct violates and limits the nature of democracy and is unconstitutional. According to Alphonse Valenzuela, the representative from Tapat, the non-partisanship section of Article VIII disallows the elected members in USG to voice out their ideological views, which reflect those of a particular political party, thus violating the right of speech given in democracy. Moreover, the Article bars the non-independent elected candidates to implement their promised platforms since these are laden with political parties’ ideologies.

The government side, however, argued that the removal of the Article VIII compromises the independence of USG and its purpose of being autonomous body that represents the entire student body without the interference of external sectors such as political parties. Hanz Tiu, the ombudsman, argued that the Code of Conduct was meant to preserve the integrity of the USG, in order to properly represent the students.

Verdict

After several exchanges of arguments and rebuttals, the magistrate body’s decision rendered a dismissal of the case. Regardless of how arguments against particular sections under the Article were valid as presented by Tapat, the petition to fully nullify the entire Article VIII of Code of Conduct was not granted for the main reason that other sections under the Article still remain constitutional. The Judiciary, however, issued a court order calling for the Legislative Assembly to substantially redefine particular terms under the Code of Conduct, after several clashes on the definition of the terms between the government and the complainant during the course of the hearing.