With Christmas literally just around the corner, celebrations have been dampened by the recent devastation suffered by provinces in the southern Philippines when typhoon Sendong swept through this past weekend.

Scores have been killed with the body count still rising while millions worth of damages have been incurred. Our brothers and sisters in affected areas are struggling to put back together what’s left of their existence, this is the time we answer to the call of being a citizen and a fellow Filipino.

We must help out in any way we can. We are thankful for the many channels and means of helping out the typhoon victims, for Lasallians based in Cavite, the Lasallian Community Development Center (LCDC) will be accepting donations beginning today, December 19 – 22, 2011 from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and December 23, 2011 from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 nn. Specifically, we encourage you to bring the following:

1. Food items such as canned goods, noodles, coffee, sugar, milk, water, water and other ready to eat food and drinks (cup noodles, biscuits/bread, energy drink, chocolate/milk drink, etc);
2. old clothes, specifically children clothes;
3. blankets, sleeping mat (banig);
4. medicine.

For cash donations, you may send it directly to La Salle Academy Iligan through the following accounts:
BPI Account # 9353-0377-62 (LSA Savings Account )
or DBP Account # 016221-030

Of course, prayers for their recovery are much needed. The best way we can say thanks for the blessings we have this Christmas is to give what we can share. For in giving, we receive something more precious, something money can’t buy. For in giving, we affirm our faith and our creed; we affirm our Lasallian identity.

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Yesterday was the start of the student council election season in DLSU-D. For yesterday was the first day of filing of candidacy for those students aspiring to become officers of the student council.

This ten working day period for the filing of candidacy will end on January 18, 2010, this was set in Section 39, Article VII of the 2008 Revised Student Election Code of DLSU-D. So by now, students of DLSU-D can expect that the three active political parties – Partido Indipendiente (PI), SINAG Political Party, and Samahan ng mga Estudyanteng Naninindigan para sa Tunay na Reporma at Ordinansa (SENTRO) Political party – are busy in assisting their prospective candidates with processing their candidacies.

The requirements for the filing of one’s candidacy is enumerated in Sec. 38 Art. VII of the same election code. These are:

a. Two (2) candidacy forms with two (2) recent uniform copies of 2×2 pictures
b. Certification of grades from the registrar’s office, of the semester preceding the elections
c. Recommendation letters from their respective Deans or from the Department Chair and noted by the Dean
d. Program or Platform of Government (for independent candidates only)
e. Certificate of good moral character issued by the Office of the Student Services
f. Photocopy of the current semester’s Registration form
g. Formal written parental consent for all candidates of USC and CSC’s
h. Other necessary requirements set by the SCE to substantiate any of the above mentioned requirements

These requirements are meant to prove that they have satisfied the qualifications for a candidate in the student council elections set forth in Sec. 37 Art. VII of the 2008 DLSU-D E-Code:

a. Be a bona fide student of the School and must have been a student of the university for at least one (1) year immediately preceding the election.
b. Carry a minimum load of fifteen (15) units during the semester or as prescribed by the college. However, candidates may appeal to the SCE if their load for the semester is less than (15) units, supported by a valid reason for such underload and certified by their College Dean.
c. Have obtained a GPA of 1.5 or higher during the semester immediately preceding the election¹.
d. Have no failing grade in any of the subjects enrolled during the semester immediately preceding the election
e. Not have been found guilty of committing any major offense

The Commissioners of the Student Commission on Elections (SCE) will then take these required documents and examine them, then decide if the aspirant will be proclaimed as an official student candidate or not.

There are several factors that can influence or determine the outcome of the SCE’s decision. These are:

• Completeness of the requirements
• Credibility and Validity of the requirements
• Substance of the requirements
• A legal challenge or opposition to the filing of candidacy of a particular student

I would go into the details of these factors in the next post. To all aspiring students out there who believe that they can be of great service to the student body, it’s wise to get familiarized with how the 2008 Election Code of DLSU-D works.

Disclosure: I am affiliated with SENTRO Political Party

1. For candidates for the College Student Councils, the GPA requirement is not 1.5 but according to the standard set by their respective college

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While discussing about the revisions to the Student Handbook of DLSUD with the Dean of Student Services, we cannot help but talk about the 2008 USC Constitution and we always end up with one conclusion: student-leaders need more time to study, understand and implement the provisions of the said constitution.

This is timely because a new set of USC officers have just started their official term and are well in the middle of preparing for their plans and programs for the new school year. They have a clear mandate of implementing the 2008 USC Constitution and so it is essential that they understand its provisions.

To help them and every other student-leader and even ordinary students of DLSU-D in understanding the 2008 USC Constitution, I have decided to update the “layman’s guide” I wrote back in 2008. We used this in promoting for the new USC Constitution in the run-up to the plebiscite for its ratification. Now I publish its updated version to continue the effort of evangelizing the student-leaders and students of DLSUD about the 2008 USC Constitution. (If you don’t have Flash or it is disabled, you can click on the link to read it on Scribd.)

Hopefully, with this new guide publicly available on the web, many more student-leaders and students would be familiar with the 2008 USC Constitution and help each other in implementing its noble provisions, because after all, the document was created for their benefit.

If you have questions or comments about the guide and the 2008 USC Constitution itself, please don’t hesitate in raising them in the comments section below or you can contact me should you feel for a more private conversation.

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Through the initiative of the NSTP-CWTS, particularly their Voter’s Education classes, in cooperation with the University Student Council and the DLSU-D Pre-Law Society, a month long activity about educating voters for the automated national elections this coming May 2010 was held in De La Salle University – Dasmariñas.

It culminated in a mock elections for all the registered voter-members of the DLSU-D community; student, faculty and staff.

The results are quite interesting, though not conclusive because out of the 12,000 students, faculty and staff in DLSU-D, voter turn out for the mock elections was just 1,728 which is broken down into the following: 1,373 students, 232 faculty, and 123 staff.

As from the graph below, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III won with 44.39% while his Vice-President Mar Roxas obtaining 50.98% of the votes respectively. The final list is as follows:

President

1. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III – 767 votes
2. Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro – 320
3. Richard “Dick” Gordon – 233
4. Manuel “Manny” Villar – 207
5. Eddie “Bro Eddie” Villanueva – 75
6. Joseph “Erap” Estrada – 65
7. Nicanor “Nick” Perlas – 51
8. Jamby Madrigal – 14
9. John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes – 14

This is something that has been taken for granted, but in the Lasallian community, Gibo Teodoro has a solid following, especially among the younger students freshmen and sophomore. Unfortunately for Gibo, most of them are not yet registered voters.

The Vice Presidential race ended up in the following order:

Vice President

1. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, II – 881
2. Jejomar “Jojo” Binay – 401
3. Bayani Fernando – 192
4. Loren Legarda – 152
5. Eduardo “Edu” Manzano – 43
6. Perfecto Yasay – 34
7. Jose “Jay” Sonza – 20
8. Dominador Chipeco, Jr – 19

I find the results very interesting, surprising even, because Jejomar Binay placed second besting Bayani Fernando. What I did not find surprising was the low support for Loren Legarda, it just goes to show that Lasallians are discerning voters.

Now for an important, yet seldom talked about segment of the 2010 national elections, the race for the 12 seats in the Philippine Senate. The top 12 candidates voted by the Lasallians from DLSU-D are the following:

Top 12 Senatorial Candidates

1. Pia Cayetano (NP) – 1249
2. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (PRP) – 1226
3. Franklin Drilon (LP) – 1217
4. Ralph Recto (LP) – 1036
5. Gilbert Remulla (NP) – 988
6. Ramon Revilla (Lakas-Kampi-CMD) – 960
7. Juan Ponce Enrile (PMP) – 935
8. Sergio Osmena, III (Ind) – 866
9. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr (NP) – 843
10. Vicente Sotto, III (NPC) – 729
11. Jinggoy Estrada (PMP) – 596
12. Sonia Roco (LP) – 464

As what Manolo Quezon points out, the electorate likes to cherry-pick its choice for the Senate, and this is reflected by the DLSU-D vote, with Liberals and Nacionalistas tied with three of its Senatorial candidates being voted into the top 12. The rest of the slots won by opposition parties while the administration having only one of its official candidate taking a seat. Though you could say it got two, as Santiago has always been with the administration by default.

The bottom line is, the administration’s Frankenstein coalition would have to do a lot of work if it wants to get a handsome share of the Lasallian vote in Cavite.

I don’t have the exact demographics, but the students of DLSU-D come mostly from the CALABARZON region, a vote-rich region in Luzon. Registered voter-students’ age range from 18 to 25, the affluent kind that has access to internet, SMS, blogs, Twitter and Facebook, so now that the Aquino-Roxas tandem has captured a fraction of DLSU-D’s support as shown by the mock elections, the Liberal party has every reason to capitalize and mobilize this segment and transform it into a core of support in assisting its campaign to do two things: secure and consolidate its support for Aquino and Roxas and second, to get more support for the rest of its Senate slate.

With the current administration, poised to take over the Lower House, with no less than GMA herself, leading the charge, the next President, if he is to govern properly, must have a solid majority in the Senate. So if I were Francis Pangilinan, I’d follow MLQ3′s advice and move heaven and earth to have more of LP Senatorial slate elected, and by the results of mock elections in DLSU-D, CALABARZON is a good place to start.

I congratulate the NSTP-CWTS students and faculty for a job well done and showing the country where, roughly as it may be, DLSU-D stands in the upcoming 2010 elections. Hopefully, this would make our fellow Lasallians become more discerning, and more vigilant voters come May 2010.

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Election season has pushed the burning topic of Charter Change to the back burner with the electorate and the public being fed with propaganda from candidates that the problems of our country stems from the obscene and systematic corruption in our government.

That’s not the case in our Parliamentary Procedures course as starting tomorrow, we officially convene our class into a mock Constitutional Convention tasked with the solemn duty of revising the 1987 Constitution of our Republic.

It’s an exercise for us to practice what we’ve learned in Parliamentary procedures which every good student of Political Science should know by heart. We’ve been divided into committees focused on major parts of the Constitution with myself being the Chairman of the Committee on National Economy and Patrimony.

It may not be my favorite committee but it’s an opportunity to protect the economy of the Philippines from the ravages of globalization and international ‘free’ trade. Also to conserve and reserve the resources of the Philippines for Filipinos. It all means that provisions that remove the restrictions on foreign ownership of land will not pass as on my watch. I’m not saying that we close-off the country to foreign trade and commerce, but the whole point is retain the “Filipino first” policy in the Constitution.

The only changes that need to be inserted would be a provision to include principles of sustainable development as part of the national economic policies especially now in this times of changing global climate and the need to preserve our natural resources.

The other changes I’d like to propose to the Constitution would be to strengthen the Constitutional Commissions like the Commission on Human Rights so that it would have the ‘teeth’ to protect victims of rights abuses and enforce laws that protect our civil, political and human rights.

Strengthening the Office of the Ombudsman would also be my priority. I’d like to have the Ombudsman selected not by Presidential appointment so as to achieve more independence and impartiality in doing its job of going after erring and corrupt officials.

Luckily, the minority bloc of the Consultative Commission called by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo produced a more acceptable draft of a new Constitution, one that opposes the creation of a Parliamentary government thus avoiding the further consolidation of political and economic power in the ruling elite of our society.

ConCom Minority Draft

The important features of their draft Constitution that I find acceptable are:

• Incorporation of the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights into the Bill of Rights
• Radical reform of the Judiciary for efficiency and stability in the law
• Strengthening of the Commission on Human Rights and Ombudsman

It starkly differs from the majority version which was what has been pushed by the Arroyo administration since 2005 which focuses more on setting up a Parliamentary government and opening up our economy to foreigners.

I don’t know whom among my classmates would advocate the same proposals. What interests me is their reasoning and of course, how they would stand up to my opposition. Nonetheless it would be a fun and an enlightening exercise. Hopefully, we would be able to finish the revision on time and present a draft Constitution for the public’s consumption so that when the talk focuses once more on Charter Change, we Political Science students of DLSU-D would have given a valuable share in the national debate.

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