Further, the process by which the SR will then be selected and the body which would perform the task are unknown to the students, even to the present SR, hitherto.
Student groups who supported the “no” vote, meanwhile, wanted to include their proposed amendments regarding the selection process and the qualifications of the nominee in the new codified rules.
The result
At the onset, Adbulwahid was foreseeing a difficult circumstance in attaining the 50 percent plus one stipulation as instructed by UP Vice President for Legal Affairs Theodore Te. She even pointed out that Te did not present the basis for such requirement.
The present SR cited logistical limitations that might result from the meager P60,000 budget allocated for the referendum by the administration that was taken from its discretionary funds. She related that the sum of almost a million pesos that was used for the referendum was largely contributed by the volunteers of the student referendum from different UP units.
Abdulwahid accounted the success of the referendum to the rigorous effort exerted by the current composition of the OSR alongside other student groups, formations, councils and individual students in campaigning for the student participation in the referendum.
Largely, it was the students across UP System and their will to save the OSR that ultimately made the day, Abdulwahid said.
Seventy-three percent of the total votes cast was for the retention of the current CRSRS; 26 percent, meanwhile, voted against it.
The yes vote won in 13 units of the UP System including Los Baños, Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Mindanao, Iloilo, Miagao, Pampanga and Tacloban and in its flagship campus in Diliman. The vote also won in UP’s extension campuses in Baler, Aurora and in Palo Leyte. Majority of the Open University students also voted yes.
UP Mindanao, meanwhile, delivered the highest turnout for the “yes” vote. Out of the 86 percent of the student population or 749 students who voted, 737 voted yes.
In UP Diliman, largely populated colleges such as the College of Engineering, Education, Social Sciences and Philosophy and Science, students voted in favor of the CRSRS.
Victory
The referendum has been a success, said Abdulwahid.
She furthered that it is a victory of the students in their quest to save the institution. The existence of a student representative in the BOR, Abdulwahid stressed, is the end result of the struggle of the student for democratic representation of the student sector, which comprise the majority of the UP community.
The referendum has been a challenge “faced valiantly” by the determined students who wanted to retain student representation in the BOR, said Abdulwahid.
However, the quest of the new SR has a long way ahead.
The nomination process and the announcement of the next GASC to select the new SR will be scheduled in April. Cadiogan said that there will also be information drive among the students regarding the CRSRS.
From among those who fight for the retention of institution, there has been quite a relief from the stress and tension that mounted in the verge losing the OSR. However, steps forward must be taken by the new SR and the rest of the students amid the attack on the student’s democratic rights and their very place in the university, said Abdulwahid. (Bulatlat.com)
