How does the Ateneo Sanggunian compare to other student governments across the world? The GUIDON finds out in this post-election special.

University of the Philippines: They sing the body politic

By Jose R. Mendoza

As the recently concluded Sanggunian General Elections fades from the minds of Ateneans, their attention is now turning towards another year of campus politics. It is now the time for actual work, after weeks of candidates’ faces inundating the halls and harried electoral hopefuls hopping from classroom to classroom to promote themselves.

What this yearly exercise always makes clear, however, is that such tactics are necessary to galvanize the Ateneo’s supposedly apathetic student body—a predicament that doesn’t seem to be the case in the University of the Philippines (UP).

UP has two political avenues open to student participation: the University Student Council (USC) and the Student Regency.

The USC is similar to the Sanggunian, being directly responsible for the concerns and welfare of students. The Student Regency, on the other hand, has no counterpart system in the Ateneo. The Student Regent is a recognized public official of the republic, and sits on the State University’s Board of Regents. He or she represents all students of the entire UP System in its highest governing body.

“UP is a microcosm of Philippine society,” says Krissy Conti, the incumbent Student Regent, about her school’s political scene.

There are three major student parties in UP, all claiming a left-leaning orientation: the Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (Stand UP), the Nagkakaisang Iskolar para sa Pamantasan at Sambayanan (Kaisa), and the Alyansa ng mga Mag-aaral para sa Panlipunang Katwiran at Kaunlaran (Alyansa).

The three parties are usually identified with particular crowds of UP students. Stand UP is the home for the militant activists, while Kaisa and Alyansa are for the more moderate or middle-ground students and scholars. This is in contrast to Atenean political parties, where, for the most part, identity is hard to figure out and history is hard to come by.

Conti says, however, that “election participation is only around 40%,” There is no voting quota in UP student elections. Nevertheless, Conti says that actual political participation is much higher. “Whenever we tell them to march, like how we did in September, [during the] Mendiola March to protest budget cuts, they come out by the thousands.”

UP remains to be the most politicized university in the country. Indeed, given the sometimes dull student politics in Loyola Heights, Ateneans need only to look at their neighbors in Diliman to see a student political scene it its full richness and vibrancy.

De La Salle University: The ballot is greener on the other side

By Jessica Y. Velarde

When it comes to the student government, the Ateneo and De La Salle University seem to be miles apart. With respect to student participation and the “hype” candidates bring to the campaign period, La Salle certainly has it in the bag compared to the Ateneo.

Judging from its online channels and official political activities such as the miting de avance, La Salle’s University Student Government (USG) seems to enjoy a participatory and supportive atmosphere between itself and the student body. In the Ateneo however, the case is different. Despite the numerous promotions, online pages, and forums about the candidates during the last elections, for example, the relationship between the student body and the Sanggunian remains limited.

Structurally, the differences between the two student governments are minimal. Unlike the Sanggunian, though, the USG has two main political parties: the Alyansang Tapat sa Lasalista (Tapat) and the Santugon sa Tawag ng Panahon (Santugon).

Janel Tumpalan, EXCEL2014 Batch President and a member of Santugon, speaks about the concept of “one USG,” where the seven represented colleges of La Salle converge into one student government. According to her, “The USG’s strong points are that there is no limit when it comes to making various activities and projects. It is fully backed up by the administration, other DLSU offices and organizations, and has a lot of connections with other universities as well.” Such support takes the USG to high levels of performance.

University of San Francisco: Where Loyola’s colors fly

By Kara R. Santiago

Sitting atop a hill in San Francisco, California is another Loyola school very much like our own. The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Jesuit institution, and like the Ateneo, has values and ideals deeply rooted in the Ignatian spirit.

Perhaps in recognition of its identity as an educational institution called home by one of the most diverse student bodies in the state, USF maintains a student government tasked to ensure that the communication between the administration and the students is not lost. The Associated Students of the University of San Francisco (ASUSF) Senate is essentially the counterpart of the Ateneo’s Sanggunian. Its structure is quite similar, but differs in the fact that the Senate has two separate divisions of power: the legislature and the executive board.

The ASUSF Senate’s legislature is composed of Senators who come from the different undergraduate divisions in the university. Two representatives each from specific grouping of students (such as students of the School of Nursing, students with disabilities, students from the Sophomore class, students of color, etc.) comprise the entire legislature.

This system of representation, which is a fundamental part of the Senate’s function, is implemented to ensure that no group is left out. On the other hand, the executive board is composed of the President, Vice President of Internal Affairs, Vice President of Public Relations, Vice President of Business Administration and the Vice President of Mission.

ASUSF President Lexington Wochner explains that the student electoral process is governed by two separate entities. It includes the constituents, the USF students themselves, in a school-wide election coordinated by the office of Student Life and done through an online voting platform called eBallot.

A separate group, called the Electoral Governing Board, administers the technical processes of the elections. This board is responsible for creating and enforcing policies that would ensure fair elections.

Just like the Sanggunian, the Senate also has to contend with the issue of student apathy. Wochner says, though, that the Senate’s efforts to bring the community together are best achieved when the body reels in volunteers for its endeavors.

“The ASUSF is in a constant change. We now actively solicit students for university committees and task forces. This is an important way of getting more students involved in university decisions, which sometimes include changing housing policy, meal policy, or hiring new staff members, to name but a few,” he states.

He adds that the USF administration has been “overall, receptive to our desire to involve more students, and as such we are working together with all members of the campus community to improve the student experience and the university as a whole.”

National University of Singapore: Democracy and efficiency

By J. A. de Lima

When talking about governments in the early 21st century, situating Singapore alongside the Philippines is an ambitious feat.

Among others, the former consistently performs to be the least corrupt in the region, according to the latest corruption index, while the latter suffers as among the most corrupt in the world, even after toppling a dictator in 1986. Aside from this, the political scene in Singapore today exhibits a strong parliamentary bureaucracy dominated by the People’s Action Party (PAP), while the Philippines operates on a more decentralized system, with local governments delegated a lot of work.

In the National University of Singapore (NUS), the student government operates through a parliamentary system similar to the state’s. The NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU)’s top officers come from a pool of students first elected through the Union’s 14 constituent clubs, which are basically student organizations. The elected students then form a council to further elect leaders into the executive constitutional positions, which include the presidency. All students are automatically members of the Union once they enter NUS.

Johannes Rubiano, Model United Nations Director of the NUS Political Science Society, thinks that this system is important. “[It] is a good measure of representation for all the diverse activities on campus, [which] ensures that all student bodies have their interests heard in NUSSU’s decision-making,” she explains. In contrast to the Sanggunian, this system is different because it does not give the students a chance to directly vote for their top council officers.

As part of its core functions, the NUSSU is largely concerned with ensuring student welfare and interests. But according to NUSSU President Ang Yu Qian, the Union’s goals today are different from when NUS was not yet formed through the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University in 1980.

“This is the 33rd Council, but before NUSSU, the Union had a different name… It was focused in a more political sense,” says Ang. “They championed for rights in the whole nation. Now, we take care of the welfare and interests of the students. We don’t champion for political rights.”

The student government Ang is referring to was the University of Singapore’s Student Union led by Tan Wah Piow, allegedly the mastermind of a “Marxist conspiracy” against the PAP-ruled government in 1987. The Ateneo has a similar historical backdrop; pre-Martial Law Atenean student activists, such as former Sanggunian Presidents Edgar Jopson and Alex Aquino, expressed staunch criticisms of the social conditions during the Marcos regime.

Today, one of the Sanggunian’s challenges is to figure out whether it should be more focused on student services or more asserting of its political identity. Many projects successfully cater to students’ needs, but its efforts toward a wider structural reform to address social injustice remain weak.

It would suffice to say that NUSSU is a microcosm of Singapore: organized, economically stable, efficient, progressive. It’s no wonder that the Union focuses on upholding student welfare and interests, because at the very least, Singaporean students do not have to worry much about ensuring sustainable lives for their countrymen. But the Sanggunian is also a microcosm of the Philippines—perhaps by virtue of its practical functions, but more than that, also by its flawed democratic processes.