Daily Grind
asilva@theguidon.com
This year, two “average students”—Howie Uyking and Quico Muñoz—ran for president and vice president of the Sanggunian. Being somewhat nameless people in the Ateneo political scene, their candidacies were met with a lot of skepticism and negativity. There were smear campaigns and personal attacks against them, which targeted everything from their looks to their religious beliefs. One of them was even accused of murder.
Both Howie and Quico are my friends, and to their credit they’re both very good-natured individuals; however, I am one of the many who thought that their campaign was a losing battle. They were up against more seasoned, and I dare say, more credible individuals who have been relied on by their constituents for the past couple of years. Yet there they were, virtually unknown and inexperienced, gunning for the top two positions in the student body.
It was not all for naught that they both lost in the elections, since their running for office made the Ateneo political environment better. For one thing, they gave people a choice, which is a good thing for a democratic body. They were an alternative to the usual faces and traditional parties that we see year after year. Many would argue that they were not the best possible choices, but at least they had the courage to face the stresses of the challenge, which more qualified students lacked. Running for office is not exactly a solution, but by stepping up, they were being more pro-active than most who would just complain to no end.
One thing that they capitalized on was being new and fresh, and bringing Sanggu closer to the average Atenean’s consciousness. Common online applications like Facebook, Formspring, and Twitter became their main avenues to spread the word about their platforms and answer questions from the community. On the other hand, it also became an avenue for quite a number who wanted to give them a piece of their mind under the safety net of anonymity.
Deciding between two choices also helped students determine what they want from what they didn’t. In a time when alternatives and the anti-culture has become quite popular, it’s good to know that people do discern and not just pick the unorthodox for the sake of beating the system.
Lastly, the elections revealed some apparent issues in the Sanggu. It is evident in the one party’s campaign that it was trying to battle the exclusivity of the Sanggu, which reared its head most glaringly during the Top 4 Miting de Avance. There, a couple of panelists from the Sanggu exhibited an obvious disdain towards certain candidates, asking leading questions and punctuating them with jarring comments, while showing favor for others by being less aggressive.
One panelist even said that he took the campaign against certain parts of their office personally, as if not expecting to be criticized while holding office. Although I understand where the panelist’s comment were coming from, it was exhibited in a situation where they were called to be impartial.
In the real world, Howie and Quico would be considered nuisance candidates, although thankfully not as loony as the ones we see in the national elections. In spite of the fact that their campaigns were not quite impressive, their running brought to light many other issues that hopefully the newly elected officials, their opponents, could also address.
