NEWS | Wax and Waning of University Politics: The UPM Politics Through Time
By Rochel M. Floron IV and Jo Maline D. Mamangun
While students continue to struggle with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, distance learning, and the Duterte administration’s intensified attacks against students, the University of the Philippines — Manila (UPM) faces difficulty to form genuine student representation which is vital in upholding students’ rights and values. Handled by the Commission on Appointments (CA), through the UPM University Electoral Board (UEB), the university now is in search of new members for the 42nd UPM University Student Council (USC) through an appointment scheme to compromise with the inability to hold the general elections. However, despite almost two weeks’ time to call for nominations, even extending the deadline for one more week, the UPM UEB failed to complete the slate with only four nominees for USC Councilor and one nominee for USC Vice-Chairperson.
These candidates are currently undertaking the process of online deliberations and the new set of council members are expected to be proclaimed on August 9, 2021.
Why it matter?
This alarming situation of student representation in UP Manila, which was even identified as a manifestation of ‘dead’ university politics, was accentuated by the successful recent USC elections of other UP campuses such as UP Diliman and UP Baguio. This might be bizarre as UP is known to be one of the bastions of activism and student leadership, one might wonder if this is an effect of a sudden or gradual loss of students’ trust in the USC.
The importance of a USC is indispensable. It is the open ground for university students to challenge ideologies, push for collective actions and advocacies, and harness the power of the student body. It is the flesh of the militant soul.
This current conundrum of UPM in terms of leadership, however, is not new. The events during 2016 to 2018 foreshadowed the fate of the current university politics of UPM — from the dwindling number of voter turnout, decrease in candidates per slate by the dominant parties, the rise of independent candidates and new political parties, as well as the abstention among the electorate, and the changing of colors of college bailiwicks. This article dissected a decade of UPM politics, started in 2011 when the automated elections went into full implementation.
Strong partisan politics
The UPM USC has been the battleground of two dominant political parties namely Alternative Students’ Alliance for Progress — Katipunan ng mga Progresibong Mag-aaral ng Bayan (A-K) and Bigkis ng mga Iskolar Para sa Bayan Tungo sa Makabuluhang Pagbabago UPM (BIGKIS-UPM) since the late 2000s. Founded by the Kabataan Partylist in 1999, A-K resulted from the convergence of two progressive student organizations, ASAP and Katipunan, and they exude a striking red color. A-K is known to be the campus’ broadest and oldest alliance of student leaders and various organizations, fraternities, and sororities. The red party is known for its pro-people and pro-environment values and advocacies.
On the other corner, BIGKIS-UPM proudly raises its blue-colored banner. Similar to A-K, BIGKIS-UPM ascended from a previous political party, Iskolar Student Alliance (ISA). BIGKIS-UPM was established in the College of Medicine by a student in 2007. From being a socio-civic organization to an alternative party, it follows the Service and empowerment, Holistic management, Academic excellence, Progressive multi-perspective activism, and Enduring integrity (SHAPE) principle.
For a long time, the university cultivated a culture of partisan politics as UPM was divided into political colors — one can easily identify the bailiwicks of a certain political party, as colleges became loyal voters to their colors — even the USC itself suffered from the implications of being highly polarized. Meanwhile, both political parties posed uncompromising leadership as the two always have their own bearers for each position in the council.
From the 33rd USC until the 39th, the colleges became consistent of their political colors, while some has already changing along those periods and has totally changed during the 40th USC: College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) entrusted their votes to A-K candidates, College of Medicine (CM) and College of Pharmacy (CP) remained split-ticket voters while generally were blue voters, and College of Medical Allied Professions (CAMP) and College of Dentistry (CD) were swing-voters not until the 40th USC elections when they largely abstained, College of Nursing (CN) were swing voters from 33rd to 36th USC elections then became a red college during 37th while in the 40th they abstained for Chairpersonship and Vice-Chairpersonship.
During the same period, both A-K and BIGKIS-UPM delegated candidates to each position every election, signaling a battle between red versus blue. Although in the 2015 elections, independent candidates started clinching flags from the two dominant colors.
Meanwhile, from the 33rd to 35th USC, the council faced a series of suspensions and impeachments among its ranks, and after being too ideologically uncompromising — rendered ineffective leadership. The 36th USC led by a red chairperson, John Carlo Lorenzo, and a blue vice-chairperson, John Edward Tanchuco, managed to consolidate a one-colored USC and have successfully accomplished projects for the student body by promoting ‘campaign-based’ leadership.
The general voter turnout of the university before the 40th USC elections was always almost reaching 60% with CP as the college that has the highest voter turnout of all seven colleges in the university. The CM which has always been a stronghold of BIGKIS-UPM, surprisingly devoted themselves to the candidacy of Pholyn Balahadia, from A-K, who received the greatest number of votes from CM, her own college, giving her the leverage to win two consecutive elections — first as the vice-chairperson of the 37th USC, then as the chairperson for the following term.
On the other hand, the abstention vote during 33rd to 39th USC had a steady increase that only hit its highest with 20.99% abstaining for the chairpersonship candidacy of Cid Ryan Manalo during the 2017 election.
Fade into uncontested elections
Starting the 39th USC elections, a sudden turn of events took place as the university seemingly became ideologically averse. The new situation was apparent with the rise of independent candidates, such as Raphael Santiago, who received the highest votes and has confidently secured two elections — first as councilor in the 39th USC, then as the vice-chairperson, and eventually became the chairperson on the following year through an internal USC decision nullifying the chairpersonship of then-Chairperson Voltaire Moya due to the students’ clamor brought about by the issue of his proclamation. Consequently, in 2018, as the independents were making their way to the top, BIGKIS-UPM reduced its candidates to one councilor, and A-K’s bets for the two highest positions ran unopposed while its average of six councilors candidates for the past seven years also reduced to three.
It was also in 2018 when the UPM held its first-ever special elections because abstain votes outnumbered the lone red bearers for the two highest seats at the USC, while the College of Nursing (CN) notably posed an equal number of abstain votes and votes for the lone vice-chairperson candidate from A-K. CAS, known to be the stronghold college of A-K, projected high abstain votes for the candidates for Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, both coming from the red political party. The same situation happened for the remaining colleges.
In the 2018 general elections, the UEB decided to uphold the 50% + 1 ruling despite protests, leading to the proclamation of the 40th USC with only two councilors and seven college representatives. This was the case until the Special Elections, which proceeded in the same year and resulted again in the abstention, the second highest, of the chairperson nominee from Sulong UPM, a new party which firstly emerged on the said elections.
The rise of independent candidates and new political parties have conquered the once territory of A-K and BIGKIS-UPM. As mentioned, the sole nominee for the chairperson seat and one of the candidates for vice-chairperson in the 2018 Special Elections were both from Sulong UPM. Surprisingly, those candidates were also from the previous elections’ list of nominees, however, with a different party, A-K.
Eventually, the following USC elections consisted of candidates from the independent party, Sulong, and another new party, Kilos Iskolar.
The transition from once a colorful election to an uncontested one also led to the dwindling of voter turnout. Data from the 39th USC general elections up to the 40th USC Special Elections show a decreasing trend in the number of voters participating in elections. Although one might claim that the university’s voter turnout, at least for the past five years, did not have a huge increase or even reached 100%, they still managed to maintain a 60.97% on average. However, during the 2018 Special Elections, the campus experienced a significant drop in voter turnout reaching an all-time low of only 38.17%.
Figures from previous years manifest the implications of decreasing numbers of candidates as students seemed to reject the available choices given to them, resulting in high abstained votes, switching of political colors, or not participating at all. The kind of elections students are seeing and experiencing now, since 2018 rather, are more complex than they used to be. Students’ participation, a vital element in an election, also the past councils’ edge, is continuously declining. This applies not only in nominating a candidate but also in choosing the next representatives of the student body.
