Manifesto on Marcos’ burial, LA committee elections, COMELEC appointments, student handbook evaluation discussed on LA floor

The University Student Government (USG) Legislative Assembly (LA) held its third and fourth regular sessions for the academic year last September 19 and 23, respectively.

The manifesto on Marcos’ burial at the LNMB

In its third session, the LA discussed the resolution calling for the release of the manifesto on the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

The manifesto detailed some of the events which happened during the Martial Law. Furthermore, it expressed several reasons of Lasallians on why they are against the burial.

EXCEL2017 LA Representative Nicole Cruz and Minority Floor Leader Hiraya Mendez announced the results of a survey conducted on students’ opinion on the Marcos burial. The survey was proposed in the previous LA session.

With the results, the LA decided on condemning the burial. The LA representatives agreed to publicize the said results together with the release of the manifesto. With a unanimous vote from all the 16 members present in the session, the resolution was approved.

LA committee elections and COMELEC chair appointments

In its fourth session, the LA commenced with the election for chairpersons, vice-chairpersons and secretaries for its three sub-committees, namely the National Affairs Committee (NatAff), Students’ Rights and Welfare Committee (STRAW), and the Rules and Policies Committee (RnP).

Czarina Chan (BLAZE2018), Luigi Dino (CATCH2T19), and Anna Canlas (BLAZE2016) were elected heads for the aforementioned posts of the NatAff. Christian Silan (CATCH2T18), Tatsuyo Sato (BLAZE2017), and Sandy Cabrieto (EDGE2015) were elected for the STRAW Committee. Andrew Militante (EXCEL2018), Pio Alfonso (FAST2015), and Hannah Tuason (68^th ENG) were appointed as heads for the RnP Committee.

On the other hand, the resolutions calling for the approval of the appointment of Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioners were all passed. Charles Ambas was appointed as chair for the DLSU Science and Technology Complex; Angeli Roxas and Paula Chua for the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business; Erika Fernandez, Eriklarize Bautista, Kzhai Roxas, and Rianna Custodio for the College of Liberal Arts; and Neil Verzosa and Nel Aguilar for the Gokongwei College of Engineering.

Several issues with regard to the Freshmen Election (FE) and General Elections (GE) were also discussed, including the decreasing voter turnout in recent years. According to the COMELEC Commissioners, they will continue doing room-to-room campaigns and strengthen online publicity in order to raise awareness among the Lasallian community.

Other suggestions raised were to forge partnerships with student organizations and organize open forums wherein students can voice out their complaints and inquiries toward the candidates.

Furthermore, the COMELEC Commissioners stood firm in their obligation to uphold the Election Code during the FE and GE. The COMELEC Commissioners expressed that, in the event that candidates violate certain provisions of the Code, penalties will be strictly implemenented.

According to them, the most complex problem they experienced was the 2015 GE, which saw the disqualification of several candidates. To prevent this, they reiterated that provisions from the Election Code must be followed by the candidates, and that they need to submit complete documents in order to be eligible for running.

Student handbook evaluation

The last point of discussion involved revisiting provisions in the student handbook. Among those discussed were the ID policy, approved absences, dropping of courses, smoking outside campus, grievance process, dress code, eating in class, lending of calculators, and failures without warning.

The LA representatives suggested conducting research with regard to the said policies, citing several issues that students have experienced in the past.

The representatives will continue discussing the issues in future sessions and formulate specific amendments to suggest to the student handbook revisions committee.