{waiting watching wishing}

Sunday, January 25, 2009

{Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Student Regent and the Upcoming Referendum}

Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Student Regent and the Upcoming Referendum

Who is the Student Regent, anyway?
The Board of Regents (BOR) is UP's highest policy and decision-making body. The Student Regent (SR) is the SOLE student representative to the BOR. The SR is selected from among our ranks to represent us in the BOR. The SR is very important as he/she is OUR voice and represents OUR interests in the BOR.

How is the Student Regent selected?
We don’t elect a Student Regent (SR) through direct elections. Instead, a body called the General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) which consists of all local and university student councils throughout the ENTIRE UP System convenes twice a year. The first GASC is usually held during the semestral break in order to discuss and ratify the Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection (CRSRS) while the second is held in December to deliberate upon and choose the SR from among the nominees.

The nominees are those nominated by individual students and organizations all over the UP system. Autonomous units like UP Baguio, Manila, Diliman, Los Banos and Mindanao get two votes each, while other constituent units like UP Visayas Tacloban College gets a vote. Ideally, the SR is selected via consensus, but in the absence of such, through a majority vote.

What's so different about this year's GASC?
Last December, the student councils were convened as the GASC. Unlike previous years wherein the councils met at an earlier date to deliberate upon the CRSRS, the councils were convened only once in order to discuss what question would be subject to the referendum mandated by RA 9500.

But wait, what exactly is a referendum?
“A referendum is a means of assessing public reaction to the given issues submitted to the people for their consideration. It is consultative in character (Philippine Law Dictionary, 2005)” It is essentially a process wherein a population via direct vote is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposition. The winning proposition is the one which obtains the largest number of votes.

What is the upcoming referendum for?
Republic Act 9500 otherwise known as the UP Charter of 2008 which was signed into law on 29 April 2008, provided that a referendum by the students should be held to ratify the rules and qualifications for the selection of the SR. Essentially, each and every UP Student is given the opportunity to participate in this exercise and let his/her voice be heard with regard to the selection process of the SR. This referendum for the ratification of the CRSRS is scheduled on January 26-29, 2009.

How many votes would it take to make the referendum successful?
50%+1 of all qualified voters, in our case, students currently enrolled. If such number is not met, then the referendum would have failed.

What happens if the 50% + 1 requirement is met, but the NO votes outnumber the YES votes (assuming the ballot question remains unchanged)?
The referendum will be considered successful, but the CRSRS of 2007 has been disapproved.

So why all this fuss about the upcoming referendum?
We are going to be asked to approve or disapprove the CRSRS in its entirety, with a referendum question phrased like this:

Do you approve of the EXISTING Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection (CRSRS) as rules and qualifications to govern the selection of our student representative to the UP Board of Regents?
( ) YES ( ) NO

However, it is the contention of some that such question not only severely restricts and limits the choice of the students, but also completely disregards proposals submitted by different individuals and groups. Such would have allowed the students more options from which to choose.

What were the amendments proposed?
Among others:
a. Minimum academic requirement for the Student Regent
b. Excluding any mention of Kasama sa UP (an organization of some student councils) from the existing rules
c. Changing the voting system from giving a set number of votes per campus (e.g. Diliman-2 votes, Visayas-1 vote) to giving a vote to each college. Some proposals also include giving bigger campuses a proportionally larger number of votes.
d. Adding specific duties to the office of the Student Regent

So why were these proposed amendments not considered in the final question of the referendum?
When the different student councils met to discuss the referendum, it was argued that since the meeting was a special meeting the councils could not act as a policy-making body. In other words, the councils had no power to decide to include the amendments in the referendum question.

Okay so when the students answer the question in the referendum, they’ll answer either yes or no. What happens in either case?
YES would mean that the existing CRSRS will remain in place and the Student Regent will be chosen accordingly. NO has a number of implications: The current SR remains as such pending the holding of another referendum to approve a set of rules for the selection of the SR. If the incumbent SR resigns or for some reason becomes disqualified from holding the position, the OSR will be declared vacant, and we will have to follow the status quo ante in selecting her replacement (as per RA 9500)

Let’s talk about the CORE ISSUE. Is this referendum essentially an affirmation or rejection of the OSR?
A vote of yes/no only amounts to the approval/disapproval of the CRSRS of 2007, and not the OSR itself. Such Office is mandated by law and cannot simply be abolished by a referendum. Furthermore, legislation and cases decided by our Supreme Court provide mechanisms to ensure that the OSR will not be vacant as the law abhors a vacuum.

Would saying NO to the status quo necessitate the abolition of the Office of the Student Regent?
Staying the public referendum, or achieving a NO vote, would not under any circumstance abolish or render vacant the Office of the Student Regent (OSR). The OSR is a public office and as such, the SR is a public officer. He/she has the mandate to continue holding the position until his/her successor has been appointed (Lecaroz v. Sandiganbayan 305 SCRA 396), and if the student regent can no longer hold office, the vacancy will be filled in the same manner as the predecessor (Section 2, par 2 R.A. 9500). Thus if the CRSRS is not approved, it is not true that we will have no SR, or that we will be at the mercy of a Malacañang appointee.

Why should I care?
The Student Regent is our representative in the highest policy making body of the University, the Board of Regents. Important decisions that ultimately affect US are decided by the BOR. As our SOLE representative, the SR has the duty to ensure that our interests are represented in the Board.
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Choose to Know is an alliance of concerned members of the University Student Council of Diliman, student councils from across the UP System, student leaders, students and political parties formed in order to ensure that the referendum will not be rendered a wasteful exercise and the integrity of the democratic process of upheld.

Posted by arianne at 8:18 PM