The slate of student-leaders for the freshies, shiftees and transferees (FSTs) of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Media and Communication (CMC) is complete, even as student council candidates struggle against abstention.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the FST council has had a full roster, with 147 FSTs (75.8%) voting in the elections.
Cion Marfil, outgoing FST vice chairperson and Communication Research (CRes) representative, said the outgoing council was “definitely proud” of the milestone. “I’m just happy that there was a set of students who wanted to run with full energy and motivation.”
Meanwhile, the CMC Student Council (CMCSC) has not filled its thirteen seats since 2018, with only eight filled last year.
Local special elections for the CMCSC had only three candidates, namely Guia Marie Mistades for chairperson, Andrew Nicoli Dela Plana for CMC representative to the University Student Council (USC) and Jhames Aaron Paredes for community councilor.
Marfil said that they considered running for the student council themselves but ultimately decided to be more active in other organizations and focus on academics instead.
Broadcast Media Arts and Studies (BMAS) transferee Angel Cristel Celebre was elected chairperson, garnering 54.42% of the votes over BMAS freshman Carolina Cybele Sarmiento’s 37.41%.
BMAS transferee John Kris Bautista ran unopposed and was elected vice chairperson.
The standard bearers were joined by Journalism freshman Noel “Dos” Rufon as CMC representative to the University Freshie Council.
Both running unopposed, CRes shiftee Rhylle Williard Mogol was elected secretary-general and Journalism freshman Carlos Gabriel Solis treasurer.
The four department representatives are freshman John Owen Delos Santos (BMAS), freshman Lirhain Hondolero (CRes), Leandro “Leo” Sulvita (Film) and freshman Aldrich Allaga (Journalism).
All winning candidates ran under the “Alab Maskom” party, except Hondolero.
The newly elected CMC FST officers took their oath on Oct. 5 at the CMC Lobby.
On the same day, the three CMCSC candidates launched the “Táyo na Maskom” coalition online for the college’s student council special elections held on October 15 to 16.
However, all three candidates failed to secure positions, losing to the abstention vote despite high voter participation.
The College Student Electoral Board has yet to announce the procedure for filling vacant local seats.
