With abysmal track records and a performance that has left quite a bitter taste with the Benildean community, political parties in the College seem to have functioned only for show since its inception. Now, after a year of absence due to their own shortcomings, political parties are poised to come back—but it will take more than just a change of name to bring lasting change.

The big change

In A.Y. 2014-2015, there was a shift from a Student Council (SC) form of student government to what we now know as the Central Student Government (CSG). In the CSG system, each school within the College has its own set of officers comprised of the President, Secretary, Public Relations Officer, and Batch Representatives, called the School Student Government (SSG). Governing alongside the SSG are the members of the CSG Executive Board (EB) consisting of the CSG President, Vice President (VP) for Academics, VP for Internal Affairs, VP for External Affairs, VP for Operations, and VP for Finance.

Aside from the CSG, political parties have also been an integral part of the College’s student politics. In the case of Benilde, there have been three prominent political parties since the shift, these are 1Sentro (formerly Sigao), Sinag Benildyano, and TAYO. Though not given the same powers and responsibilities with the CSG and each SSG, political parties in the College still hold a certain amount of influence within the Benildean community especially within their own spheres of influence and supporters.

This shift, alongside the existing political parties, should have addressed the problems of representing and reaching out better to the Benildean community as is the original intent for the change to the CSG system, but somehow the issues continued to persist.

Quality versus quantity

According to Article III of the DLS-CSB CSG Constitution and Bylaws, the CSG “shall promote, protect, and advance the students’ rights and welfare as stipulated in the Student Handbook” as part of their objectives. Yet, as admirable as the efforts of the CSG and political parties are to fulfill these, lapses still occur, which affect the student body.

According to statistics provided by the Student Involvement Office (SIO), for the past four years, the CSG has had quite the number of projects.

In A.Y. 2014-2015, the CSG conducted 12 projects out of 49 they proposed to SIO, but come A.Y. 2015-2016, the number of executed projects dropped to eight out of the proposed 37 projects. Fortunately, the student officers for A.Y. 2016-2017 picked up the pace and was able to conduct 22 projects out of the 39 they proposed. And for A.Y. 2017-2018, they were able to go further and conduct 37 projects out of the 65 they proposed.

These numbers may seem good on paper, but the problem here is not the quantity of projects but the type of projects conducted. For instance, the majority of these projects are short-term and usually talks on general topics and issues such as mental health awareness and understanding the Deaf community better.

Undoubtedly, these advocacies are not inherently bad—and they surely represent a part of the student body’s concerns—but they are still simply awareness-raising and reactionary. The student body needs a student government that actively promotes its welfare to the administration through stronger representation and must be visible catalysts of change both on and off the campus which will make them the true voice of Benildean students and not just simply an announcement board of class suspensions.

Petty politics

Furthermore, the issues and controversies within and among political parties also do not help in building up the image of student politics within Benilde.

One notable controversy that erupted during the 2015 General Elections was the ‘Singao’ issue. Screenshots of the malicious exchange between members of political parties Sigao and Sinag Benildyano in group chats were posted on a parody Facebook page sparking a huge debacle online. This act, among others, is in violation of one of the objectives set in the DLS-CSB CSG Constitution and Bylaws stating that CSG officers “shall promote and nurture healthy politics in the College.”

Not to mention that the nail to the coffin is the recent dissolution of all three political parties namely 1Sentro, Sinag Benildyano, and TAYO last A.Y. 2017-2018 due to failure of submitting requirements which include a calendar of activities for the incoming school year and a General Plan of Action (GPOA) with concrete objectives and clear preferred outcomes, as well as including activities that promote Benildean Expressions of the Lasallian Core Values.

In addition, political parties must also be able to successfully implement at least 50 percent of their GPOA from the previous academic year and maintain a membership of at least 30 students excluding their officers. Each political party will be evaluated by the Benilde Commission on Elections (Comelec) (60 percent of the total accreditation points) based from the aforementioned requirements and by the SIO (40 percent of the total accreditation points) based from the political parties’ performance and compliance to the Student Involvement Manual.

A growing disinterest

These circumstances can be cited as factors in the growing disinterest of the student body in its own student government and political parties, evident in the low voter turnouts during general elections—an opportunity for students to participate in the College’s political affairs by electing a new set of officers for the next academic year.

In A.Y. 2014-2015, Benilde Comelec recorded only 18.66 percent of voter turnout during the general elections (2, 401 votes out of 12,865 students) and took a dive to 13.27 percent the following year (1679 students out of the College’s total population of 12,651). But in A.Y. 2016-2017, the numbers dropped significantly when only 900 students voted out of Benilde’s estimated total population more than 10,000, which translates only to an 8.55 percent voter turnout.

Again, these may be attributed to the student body being simply apathetic to College politics and affairs, but as stated in the DLS-CSB CSG Constitution and Bylaws, the DLS-CSB CSG “shall make itself visible and recognized by the studentry…for the promotion of student awareness and active participation.”

The key words, therefore, are “active participation.”

As leaders and representatives of the Benildean community, the CSG along with recognized political parties, must be able to guide students into actively participating in projects and programs they propose—and of course “a night of singing under open skies” will not be enough for this mindset to be fully realized.

With political parties now allowed to return—however, by only applying under different names—starting this academic term, officers and members of these returning parties should learn from the mistakes of the past years and realize that better political parties and student governance come not only with a change of name, but a complete and total overhaul that will pave the way to a paradigm shift on how they perceive their responsibility.

Serving the student body and representing them is an incredibly high honor, but a great responsibility. The Benildean community deserves better student-leaders who understand the weight of this reality. It is time to put an end to the vicious cycle of “leaders” only appearing during the campaign period and disappearing into obscurity for the rest of the year and prevent the student government spiral further down to trapo politics.

Indeed, the old political parties should remain dead to make room for genuine student representation and improved student governance.

This article was originally published in The Benildean Vol. 5 No. 1: Emergence.

Infographic by Michael Ambion