Legislative Assembly holds term-end session

The Legislative Assembly (LA) had its last session for the first term of the academic year, yesterday, August 15 at the University Student Government (USG) Conference Room.

USG Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct (COC) for USG officers and political parties was the first proposal discussed.

A thorough discussion on the semantics of the proposal was held since the proponents and the other representatives sought for the right words to correctly express the message they wanted to express. Both elected and appointed USG officers shall be held liable for whatever decisions they make, according to the COC.

The big point of discussion for this proposal was the COC’s provision on partisanship. The LA representatives sought to clarify the vague parts of the said section and set parameters as to what extent USG officers can work with political parties. The influence of the USG elected officers was debated highly. After a lengthy debate, the resolution was laid on the table.

Electoral Code

The next agendum discussed was the resolution on the Electoral Code. It was also laid on the table due to the LA representatives not receiving any feedback from the Commission on Election (COMELEC) on the planned revisions to the Electoral Code.

Manifestos

A manifesto on tourism was also discussed. The manifesto calls on local government units to identify potential tourist spots, an initiative being done by the national government. The resolution was unanimously approved.

A second manifesto, on the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, was also discussed. The legal powers of the FOI bill was discussed which mainly entailed that citizens have the right to ask for the disclosure of public documents. The resolution was approved unanimously with fourteen representatives giving their approval.