It is not easy bringing together the voices of an 8,000-strong Loyola Schools population. Even in the Ateneo Sanggunian, it is not always easy to consolidate the Top 44’s different opinions on national and campus-based issues.

According to Senior School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Central Board (CB) Representative Gino Limcumpao, it is common for CB members to be worn out after handling task forces.

“After every issue [a CB member handles], sobrang pagod mo [kaya] ayaw mo nang maghandle ng iba pa (After every issue, you end up being so tired that you wouldn’t want to be in charge of another issue),” said Limcumpao.

As a response to the difficulties faced by the CB and the council in general, the Sanggunian created the Social Issues Task Forces to handle specific, relevant and timely social issues.

“Task force is a generic term we use when we gather students to work on specific stuff for the student body,” said Sanggunian President Rob Roque.

Centralization of efforts

According to Senior SOSS Executive Officer Lance Chua, these task forces would centralize the various efforts of officers and students alike in responding to pertinent issues.

He added that the task forces would spearhead the promotion of student awareness on an issue, the creation of a stand, and the consultation with the students, professors and organizations.

Limcumpao, meanwhile, said that during the year, there were a lot of issues that came up.

“Ngayong second sem lang lumabas nang ganyan ka-todo ‘yung mga political issues na binigyan na sila ng task forces na sarili nila (It was only during the second semester when a lot of political issues arose that necessitated the creation of task forces),” he said.

Commitment to issues

Because of the limited time the current Sanggunian has, they chose to address the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill and the Student Rights and Welfare (STRAW) Bill among all the other issues that were laid down during a CB meeting.

“These two were chosen because…it would be easier to catch the attention and interest of the students and because we [the Sanggunian] do have some commitments to these issues,” Roque said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Chua agreed and said, “Just look at all the efforts being put into the RH Bill. Recently, the [Association of Interdisciplinary Studies Majors] held a talk entitled “No Boundaries: RH Bill”, which gave students various insights ranging from lawmakers to Jesuits.”

He added, “Students can easily participate by supporting the various efforts raised by, not only the Sanggunian, but also the Organizations, [Non Government Organizations], the Loyola Schools Departments, among others.”

Student concerns

Roque added that the Sanggunian is committed to the two issues which they opted to focus on.

During the Buklod Atenista in Davao, the five student councils of the different Ateneo campuses in the country made a commitment to prioritize the RH Bill.

According to Roque, the issue regarding the alarming number of AIDS cases in the area was brought up.

The STRAW Bill, meanwhile, is a commitment to the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP). As a member of SCAP, the Ateneo supports the STRAW Bill which pushes for all the schools to have a Magna Carta.

Unfortunately, the STRAW Bill wasn’t able to make it when the Congress closed last year.

Limcumpao said that having a student Magna Carta was important.

“It’s a reality that not all of the students, not all schools, have the freedom…and the protection that we have…It was a fight given to us last year. Now that the Congress has opened, we took the battle again,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Apart from the RH Bill and the STRAW Bill, other issues that were considered include human rights and the Maguindanao peace process, among others.

Laying the foundation

As of press time, Roque said that they are currently looking for members who could be part of the teams.

Their target period is on the end of January.

Limcumpao said that one ways they plan on enticing students to be involved in the task forces is to promote these in ways which would highlight not just the relevance of an issue to an Atenean but also the Atenean’s relevance in the issue.

He cited as an example the outpour of Ateneans support when Ondoy struck; there was even an instance when the Ateneo declared that the college covered courts couldn’t hold in that many volunteers.

“That’s probably the secret. You have to find a certain connection between the issue and the Atenista,” he said.

In promoting the task forces, the Sanggunian plans to utilize online media such as Facebook and e-mail blasts.

“[These will be] designed to just lay down the ground work on what the issues [are] and why the students should care about [them],” Roque said.

Apart from these, he added that they will host events such as public debates, conduct room to room campaigns.

“Eventually, you’ll want to give them [an idea on]…where they could work on these,” Roque added.

“Taking it to heart”

It is the first time these social issues were given task forces of their own.

“They [the issues] may not be the most exciting at this point, or the most well-known, but it takes a lot for students to be part of these and I guess the nation is really counting on students like us to really do our part,” said Roque.

“It’s not just about knowing about it, but really taking it to heart, doing what we can to help out,” Roque said.

Ed’s Note: For breaking news articles on the creation and eventual activation of the planned task forces, visit http://theguidon.com.

With reports from Bea L. Mandac and April C. Manucot