PSHS-CRC marks end of SC poll for AY 2021–2022, airs list of winners

After a rigorous week worth of campaign periods, conduct of the Miting de Avance, and the election proper, the Philippine Science High School- Caraga Region Campus (PSHS-CRC) Commission of Elections (COMELEC) posted the winners for this schoolyear’s election via Facebook, on October 18.

A total of three parties; namely Make One Voice Echo (MOVE) party, Leading through Empowerment and Trailblazing Service (LETS) party, Samahan ng mga Aktibong Lider at mga Indibidwal na may Gilas (SALIG) party, and one independent candidate who ran for the position of internal vice-president, all vied for a position in the SC.

Out of the nine executive positions, MOVE party garnered 66.66%, including the three main positions of President and both Vice-Presidents of Internal and Eternal Affairs, meanwhile LETS party attained three of the remaining executive positions, and both SALIG party and the independent candidate gathered none.

For the batch representatives, 66.67% of the winners were re-elected from the previous schoolyear; with 83.33% or 5/6 of the elected officers from MOVE party and only one batch representative from LETS party.

The victors of the executive positions for this year’s election include Susanne Hierl from MOVE party as president, Nico Creencia from MOVE party as vice president for internal affairs, Zelan Espanto from MOVE party as vice president for external affairs, Shaina Delia Tomaneng from LETS party as secretary, Ysabella Geolingo from MOVE party as treasurer, Cecilia Jamero from MOVE party as auditor, Cheyenne Atupan from MOVE party as Public Information Officer (PIO), Justin Docdoc from LETS party as business manager, and Elan Victoria Tomaneng from LETS party as property custodian.

On the other hand, the next leaders for each batch comprise of Rauline Kayle Sabandal from MOVE party as Grade 12 representative, Judd Bañas from LETS party as Grade 11 representative, Julia Manatad from MOVE party as Grade 10 representative, Franceska Gamutan from MOVE party as grade 9 representative, Pembe Maliao from MOVE party as Grade 8 repesentative, and Red Abarca from MOVE party as Grade 7 representative.

Along with the oath-taking ceremony for the PSHS-CRC Model United Nations (MUN) Organization officers, PSHS-CRC will formally proclaim the newly elected Student Council (SC) officers for school year 2021–2022.

All official candidates and their respective candidacy essays were posted on September 27 through the PSHS-CRC COMELEC Facebook page; consequently, the candidates published their platforms and party pubmats during the campaign week, which lasted from October 4 to October 9, 2021.

To conclude the election period in PSHS-CRC, the COMELEC hosted an online Miting de Avance through Zoom, and invited scholars from all batches as they witnessed each candidate introduce themselves and answer a question made by the student body.

During the election proper on October 15, only 78% of the total student population voted, majority of which came from Batch 2025 with 81 votes, comprising 18.29% and covering nearly 1/5 of the overall vote count; followed by Batch 2023 making up about17.86%; then by Batch 2022 consisting 16.9% of the total number of votes; followed by Batch 2026 with 15.71%; and finally Batches 2027 and 2024 with a tie of 63 votes per batch, each comprising 15% of the final vote count.

Among all batches, Batches 2025, 2023, and 2022 marked highest for the percentage of students that voted in each batch, with 91%, 84%, and 81% respectively; on the other hand, Batches 2026, 2025, and 2024 had the lowest percentages for the number of scholars who voted per batch, namely 73% from ’26 and a tie of 70% from ’24 and ’27.

According to the COMELEC, they faced some difficulties in terms of getting the scholars to cooperate with the new system of elections, and some were hard to contact since there were offline students who were unable to vote in the election due to lack of resources.

“Another one of the challenges was keeping the peace among the candidates. There was also a delay of the election date due to an issue,” a COMELEC member added.

Although the SC election for this year were much more organized compared to that of last year, a number of suggestions such as an earlier scheduling of the elections, and more fortified guidelines for the election process was suggested by the COMELEC members. #