Days before Special Elections 2025 polls opened, aspiring student leaders went head-to-head for “Malayang Talakayan,” the DLSU Commission on Elections’ debate and open forum held on November 15 at the fifth floor of Yuchengco Hall.
Moderators from La Salle Debate Society and USG Judiciary pressed batch representative and batch legislator aspirants from Alyansang Tapat sa Lasallista (Tapat), Santugon sa Tawag ng Panahon (Santugon), and independents. Each participant was given two minutes to respond to the moderators’ inquiries on their platforms, approaches to leadership, and stances on national issues.
Independent FOCUS2025 Batch Representative runner Jerard Benitez triumphed in the first round, while Santugon’s FAST2025 Batch Legislator candidate Yesha Gutierrez was hailed the winner for the second round. Benitez was also recognized as overall best speaker.
Student engagement, disconnection with the university administration
Benitez went up against Santugon’s EXCEL2028 Batch Representative Kate Ferrer and Tapat’s CATCH2T29 Batch Representative Matthew Miranda for the first showdown, where they were questioned on whether Lasallian student leaders should commit to mobilizing against government corruption.
Benitez, who ran on a platform to challenge the Santugon-Tapat duopoly, detailed that his Frosh Correspondency Program aimed to bridge the gap between the USG and the students, which includes notifying Lasallians on future walkouts and rallies organized by the student body.
Ferrer similarly answered that student leaders must be at the forefront of mobilizations and be involved in fighting corruption, saying that initiatives such as walkouts must be prioritized.
“It’s a matter of us using… this opportunity to fight for our rights as Filipinos… and to empower Lasallians,” she expressed.
Meanwhile, Miranda called for transparency to raise awareness within the community on ongoing issues and campaigns. “What we can do as student leaders is to bridge the gap on what is true and what is false between student leaders and the student body,” he remarked.
Next, the candidates were asked about their proposed strategies to effectively raise students’ concerns to the school administrators and increase student participation, particularly in addressing issues of insufficient manpower and lack of engagement.
Ferrer highlighted the need for the USG to expand and “communicate not only forms… but to ensure there [are] specialized [documents]” through online communication channels, which will connect students with the USG and university administration.
Benitez, however, contested Ferrer’s proposal, stating, “students are somewhat [indifferent] to actually answering forms.”
The independent candidate alternatively proposed his Frosh Correspondency Program, which hoped to establish face-to-face communication channels through dedicated volunteers, who would receive incentives, to boost participation in addressing student concerns.
Meanwhile, Miranda emphasized the importance of in-person initiatives, claiming “the projects [themselves] being [held] face-to-face is an incentive to go,” and brought up projects such as “SyncUp Circle and “CENCOM,” that aimed to collaborate with various organizations to set up booths in CADS to inform students of ongoing events.
Candidacy-filing and electoral challenges
The blue and red parties’ FAST2025 and CATCH2T29 batch legislator contenders, Yesha Gutierrez and Teo Pangilinan, respectively, went head-to-head on questions about the Omnibus Election Code and their suggestions for making the filing for candidacy less burdensome.
Pangilinan saw the importance of leniency to candidates struggling to file their Certificates of Candidacy. “There have been cases where candidates were disqualified… which led to them losing the opportunity to represent their batch… As [part of] the Legislative Assembly, we should push for bills and articles… [that] represent the whole student body,” he explained.
Gutierrez shared her difficulties when she filed for candidacy. “Mahirap talaga… we have to be tedious in seeing ano ‘yung files na sinu-submit namin o [kung] tama ‘yung na-susubmit namin.”
(It was hard… We have to be tedious in seeing the files we have submitted and if the ones we have submitted were correct.)
Questions were raised on whether the USG should mirror the national voting system, in which an explicit abstain option is absent. Pangilinan affirmed that the said option in student elections should be retained, as its removal would force Lasallians to choose candidates they do not want to vote for.
“We are a democracy… I do agree that we should have an abstain option because if the student body doesn’t think that candidates are qualified to lead, they should be able to say that.”
Gutierrez echoed his sentiments, saying that retaining the system will help in reaching the voter turnout Lasallians are looking for. She also recognized that “it’s not just the lack of engagement, but also the lack of qualified candidates.”
With the winners of SE 2025 already assuming their positions in the USG, the debate offered a glimpse into how these aspiring leaders hoped to reshape student governance, whether by refining electoral processes or amplifying students’ voices, with Lasallians determining who could best carry their concerns forward in the remainder of the academic year.
