Halalan 2019: Lasalyanong Botante, Responsable calls for responsible student voters

Through the initiative of the College of Liberal Arts and Communication Student Council (CLACSC), students from CLAC attended Halalan 2019: “Lasalyanong Botante, Responsable”, an event that tackled voter’s responsibility, the current Padrino system exercised in the Philippine government, and what Lasallians are looking for in a candidate held on Friday, April 26, at the Luiz Aguado Viewing room.

First speaker and Social Sciences Department (SSD) professor Jesse Atienza shared different scenarios at the voter’s precinct during election day and the responsibility of each voter—

advising the crowd to keep watch and report for anomalies.

“As much as possible, be vigilant,” Atienza said.

Moreover, he briefly discussed the two-party system and the multi-party system being practiced in the Philippines, wherein the latter is considered the more expensive of the two as a multi-party system requires more spending to gain the vote of the masses.

Under the multi-party system, the candidates will win through a plurality of votes, “Unstable ang government niya … Kaya nga kailangan din natin ng strong na leader,” he said.

To add, Atienza said that the current Padrino or Palakasan system in the Philippines has been a problem that ought to be eliminated in order to promote equality in opportunities in the government and in the workplace.

Meanwhile, second speaker and SSD professor Dr. Marvi Aguilar focused on KKK—Karakter, Karanasan at Kongkretong Plataporma—as the Lasallian basis of candidate choosing.

Aguilar advised student to not merely look at the experience of candidates, as he claimed some of these officials are recycled politicians out of them exploit every means possible to stay in power.

“Political will is important, you need to have leaders that would fight for social justice. Kailangan natin ng mga lider na may kongkretong gagawin para sa mga mahihirap, that for me, should spell the difference,” she said.