FOUR APPOINTMENTS in the Sanggunian ng Mag-aaral are “null and invalid due to its unconstitutional nature,” according to the Student Judicial Court (SJC).
The positions concerned are the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Chair, SOSS Secretary-Treasurer, 4th Year Central Board Representative, and the John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM) Secretary-Treasurer.
The Sanggu appointed acting officers in the School Board positions last March after the abstain vote won over the candidates in the General Elections held last February. Course representatives, meanwhile, elected the 4th year SOSS Central Board Representative among themselves to fill the vacancy.
There are no provisions for the said appointments and elections in Article XV of the 2005 Constitution of the Undergraduate Students of the Ateneo de Manila Loyola Schools.
“The appointments shouldn’t have been done because they were unconstitutional or they weren’t even in the constitution,” said SJC Chief Magistrate Dustin Balictar (IV BS MIS).
Failure of elections
Sanggu President Omi Castañar (V AB DS) said the Sanggu was aware that appointing officers and holding elections for the vacant positions was unconstitutional.
After the Commission on Elections announced a failure of elections last February on the positions concerned, Castañar said the Top Four decided to appoint acting officers.
“Yung basis of appointment nun, pinag-usap namin yung mga tumakbo, kung sino yung willing mag-step up (we talked about it, and asked who was willing to step up),” he said.
The Sanggu appointed Cheenee Otarra (IV AB DS), Alex Ang (II AB Psy), and Aggie Dorotan (IV BS LM) as SOSS Chair, SOSS Secretary-Treasurer, and JGSOM Secretary-Treasurer. Brian Sabalo (IV AB Hi) was elected as the 4th Year SOSS Central Board Representative.
All four appointments, said Castañar, were “not constitutional ways of filling up vacancies.”
“Meron pa namang (There’s still the) freshman elections…para magkaroon ng (to hold) special elections for those vacancies,” he added.
Even though the move on appointments was unconstitutional, however, Castañar said they needed the officers to implement their plans.
“I think unconstitutional doesn’t mean we’re wrong,” he said.
Objectivity
SJC Chief Magistrate Balictar said his main concern over the appointments is not the appointments themselves, but its effect on the mindset of voters for the upcoming Special Elections, to be held simultaneously with the Freshman Elections on August.
Voters may feel that the person already acting on the position would be the best person to elect for the job, Balictar said. “That…removes the objectivity of the campaign.”
Balictar added that the SJC’s role is to look at the matter from an objective point of view.
“Problem was…the SJC wasn’t organized before,” he said.
Balictar said that this year’s SJC was established during the first semester of this school year, and thus, had no hold over the appointments and elections last school year.
It would be too late if the SJC did something about the matter, Balictar said. “I told the magistrates na rin, when we decided on this matter…let’s leave this at the status quo.”
In a memo dated July 4, the SJC requested a “public, written recognition from the Sanggunian,” one that will respect and give recognition to the constitution.
The appointments were “unconstitutional and shouldn’t have been implemented without informing the entire student body,” the memo said.
What if?
The memo also contained guidelines if ever vacancies like this happen again in the future.
It also said that for the upcoming Special Elections, only the positions of SOSS and JGSOM Secretary-Treasurer and 4th Year SOSS Central Board Representative will be open to candidates.
Since both the positions of SOSS Chair and Secretary-Treasurer are vacant, whoever wins as Secretary-Treasurer will be appointed as Chair, while an Executive Officer will be appointed as Secretary-Treasurer. A new Executive Officer will then be elected among the block or course representatives.
Both Castañar and Balictar are optimistic that this year’s Special Elections will not fail, unlike in previous years, where few people voted.
