SANGGUNIAN PRESIDENTIAL candidate Regis Andanar and vice presidential candidate Roxy Trillanes released separate statements last Monday, March 20, asserting their status as independent candidates.

This comes after the Ateneo Commission on Elections (COMELEC) ordered Andanar and Trillanes to remove all physical and online campaign paraphernalia that reflected similarities with BUKÁS’ by 3PM last Monday.

The decision was in response to a complaint filed last March 14 by the Union of Students for the Advancement of Democracy (USAD), petitioning for an investigation regarding the campaign paraphernalia of Andanar and Trillanes.

Upon concluding their investigation, COMELEC said, “there is a high degree of probability that the electorate or at least a significant portion of the electorate” would believe “that Andanar and Trillanes are part of BUKÁS” from their campaign materials.

The commission also stated that Andanar and Trillanes “did not take adequate steps to clarify the relationship” between them and BUKÁS.

Because of these, COMELEC found Andanar and Trillanes to have “violated the spirit of Article III, Section 4 of the Provisionally Approved Electoral Code of 2016” which prohibits independent presidential and vice presidential candidates from joining coalitions.

The two candidates may post new campaign materials upon COMELEC’s discretion.

‘Not intention to confuse’

In a Facebook post, Andanar explained that it wasn’t his intention to confuse the electorate, but acknowledged his mistake. He maintained that despite this issue, he continues to “fight for a student government that goes beyond the walls of our beloved University” and asks that spaces for discussion be focused on the candidates’ plans for the future.

In the same post, Andanar also stated that he continues “to believe in the vision of the BUKÁS coalition, the advocacies the coalition and its candidates forward, and the direction in which it is headed.”

Meanwhile, Trillanes also affirmed that she is not a member of the BUKÁS coalition, and apologized for the confusion her campaign materials caused. She also called for a “fair and safe election.”

However, Trillanes also stated that her “platform and personal advocacies align with BUKAS’ candidates and the coalition’s overall direction.”

Dasha Uy, BUKÁS candidate for School of Social Sciences representative, said that they “respect the decision” of COMELEC. While she reiterated that BUKÁS “has no relation” with both Andanar and Trillanes, she noted that “the option for indiv[idual] candidates to support other [independent] candidates was just open.”

‘No malicious intent’

COMELEC explained that they approved the campaign paraphernalia of Andanar and Trillanes prior to its distribution because these did not violate the Provisionally Approved Electoral Code of 2016 or the 2017 Campaign Manual.

However, the commission did not foresee that Andanar, Trillanes, and the BUKÁS candidates “would brand in virtually exactly the same manner.”

“The problem for Andanar and Trillanes was that they simply didn’t distinguish themselves enough from BUKÁS given how many similarities in terms of campaigning there were, and I don’t just mean the paraphernalia design,” explained COMELEC Chief Commissioner Dom Rañises. “I mean the use of highly similar slogans online and offline, the placement of their paraphernalia right next to each other, and a lot more.”

In a separate interview, Rañises also noted that no one raised the concern about the provision barring presidential and vice presidential candidates from being a part of a coalition.

“Had any of the candidates, parties or private individual formally raised the concern regarding the provision stipulating presidents and vice-presidents being barred from becoming part of coalitions, the Commission would have certainly taken it under consideration. But no one ever had, or did subsequent to the decision of SJC in rejecting Christian Dy’s petition against the provision,” Rañises said.

Rañises is referring to the Student Judicial Court’s February 24 decision dismissing a petition filed by former BUKÁS coalition head and SOSS school representative Christian Dy which asked the court to nullify the provision barring presidential and vice presidential candidates from joining coalitions.

“As of now the Commission only reviews the Electoral Code at the end of every year. The provision in question was made several years prior,” Rañises added.

‘No value judgements’

Posting as “an individual” on Facebook, Dy credited COMELEC for remaining “above partisanship” by “not issuing a value judgement” on whether Andanar and Trillanes “misled the electorate.”

Dy also disclosed in his post that he was “consulted” by both Andanar and Trillanes for their campaign.

He also said that both candidates did not mislead the electorate since Andanar and Trillanes “have repeatedly expressed their support for the individual candidates of Bukas” and “when elected, they would be in political alliance with the representatives of Bukas.”

Dy also expressed his “surprise” that both candidates’ intent to associate with the coalition would be seen as “malicious.”

While the petition for investigation came from a political party fielding bets against Andanar and Trillanes, USAD Premier Lanz Espacio clarified that his party’s actions had no malicious intent. “The only petition that we made with the Commission is for an investigation regarding these actions. We didn’t judge, we didn’t have any value judgments.”

“We filed a petition for investigation because we believe that there was merit or basis for an investigation to be conducted,” Espacio said.