ASSOCIATE DEAN for Student Affairs (ADSA) Rene San Andres expounded on his memorandum regarding human auctions released on September 29 as a response to inquiries for clarification from the Ateneo community.
The memorandum states that the selling of and the bidding on persons, which the document also referred to as “human auctions,” is not tolerated in the Loyola Schools (LS).
According to the memorandum, human auctions oppose the “values of a Filipino, Jesuit, Catholic educational institution” by treating the students as mere commodities.
It was written that all members of the Ateneo community are discouraged from participating in any way, shape or form of human auctions.
In an interview with The GUIDON, San Andres likened the human auctions to “slavery,” which he defined as “bidding money for people.”
“[The human auction is] an activity that published a person’s physical appearance, with a description of the person’s likes, things like that, and asked the public, asked whoever to bid money for that human being, whose picture was posted online and available to the billions of people in the world,” he explained.
“I had to make a stand because it seems like people are losing sense of the importance of human dignity, and we seem to be gradually moving towards the commodification of the human person,” he added.
He explained that human auctions would only be allowable in the Ateneo if participating organizations made the mechanics of the event more specific.
San Andres said that most of the human auctions only had very minimal limitations. “It was [simply that] the winning bidder gets to spend a day with you. It was as general as that.”
He suggested that organizations promote the talent of the students rather than their physical appearance.
“It will be a bid for the person’s talent. For example, if a person is a good chef, then the person would have to make [the winning bidder] a great sushi dinner,” shared San Andres.
San Andres said the basic objective of the memorandum was to protect the students.
“I saw the activity as something that placed great risk on the lives of the members of the LS community. So I needed to set up something to safeguard [the community],” he said.
According to San Andres, he made the announcement when it was brought to his attention by Residence Halls Director Tim Gabuna, after the latter was told by an Atenean about a human auction being organized in school.
He clarified that the ADSA did not know of these human auction activities before the said instance. “I was surprised to find out that it was going on for quite some time.”
The names of the Ateneans involved in the particular auction were not provided to The GUIDON due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the situation.
San Andres said that while the aforementioned human auction initiative from the students was “well-intentioned,” it was still an activity that will not be tolerated.
Delayed action
Association for Communications Technology Management (ACTM) President Cam Diomampo said that her initial reaction to the memorandum was, “Why only now?”
ACTM held a human auction project last February and August 2013, both of which Diomampo participated in as a person to be auctioned.
According to Diomampo, both projects were approved by the Office of Student Activities, the administration office that directly deals with the projects of the different student organizations.
Furthermore, Diomampo expressed that human auctions are a cost-efficient way of fundraising for organizations in the Ateneo as initial capital is not needed.
Apart from this, she believes that human auctions are an avenue for students to spend time and show support for their fellow Ateneans.
“For students, it was clean fun, but I believe that parents, professors and [the LS administration] are not on the same page with the students,” said Diomampo.
Nevertheless, Diomampo said she and ACTM respectfully understand the decision of ADSA.
“In an interview with The GUIDON, San Andres likened the human auctions to “slavery,” which he defined as “bidding money for people.””
Isn’t slavery being forced to do something AGAINST YOUR WILL? I doubt these orgs rounded up their members and were put up for auction against their will…
Anyways how long did San Andres investigate this issue? An auction pops up in my news feed once in a while and from what I see a lot of the auctions involved friends bidding on their friends for fun. I don’t really see that as “dehumanizing” or “degrading”.
Lastly, were Sanggu and COA consulted in San Andres’ investigation (if there was one) or does the Ateneo Admin just do whatever the hell they want without taking the student population’s input into consideration?
After many years of explicit advertising in school and online, ADSA and ARSA just saw this now? Or do you mean started assessing this critically just now? If it is the latter, then these two must go down their pedestals immediately and look at how else the conditions on the ground are horrible. If it is the former, these guys should know that they haven’t been doing their job.
ngayon lang nila nalaman na matagal nang may human auction sa ateneo? hindi ba sila lumalabas ng mga opisima nila? isn’t that supposed to be part of the job? tsk
The imposition of legislation without due process and consultation? Just like in our national government! How do we remove this man from office?
Can this man really stand up for his statements? If these “auctions” are as grave as he says they are, what will he be doing to these organizers who have been found guilty of performing these “dehumanizing” acts?
THIS MAN HAS GONE OVERBOARD!!! HAHAHA GETS?
This strengthens my conviction that some of our administrators don’t really get to see Ateneo as it is now. Pathetic
San Andres knows jack shit
Whether they noticed it late or not, whether it’s similar to slavery or not, I’m with them on this. They really should be more specific with the mechanics, at least. I had a friend who agreed to be put up for auction, and it was only during the promotions did she find out that the prize was a movie date. A dark space with a stranger? That’s potentially dangerous. Another friend of mine had a group of guys pool their money to bid on her, and she didn’t know any of them. That’s potentially dangerous, too. I also recently saw a human auction wherein the promotions looked more like they were selling the people for a “good time”. Again, potentially dangerous.
If we’re not going to get rid of human auctions, then we should at least be more strict with them. Sure, the people signed up for it but there’s not enough protection for them.
Clearly, the administration is INIMICAL to formation and must be dealt with immediately. Preferably via excision