COMELEC-Science Stirs Debate on Science Students’ Political Engagement
Written by: Gerard Michael Mirande and Kenaiah Ramos
On December 7, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC)-Science unit posted their poll results on their official social media pages answering, “Is College of Science really apolitical?” The poll, which garnered diverse responses from the student body, aimed to gauge the political engagement of students within the College of Science (CoS). With varying insights from the participants, the poll sought to shed light on whether the students in CoS are apolitical hold any truth.
PolPar Exposition Gimmick
In an interview with the Legal Head of the COMELEC-Science Unit, Lindsay Jose, she stated that the poll was their main gimmick for this year’s Political Party Exposition (PolPar), highlighting that even though this gimmick is simple, it still leaves a heavy impact on the student body.
“[It is a] very simple question but at the same time very difficult to answer…” she mentioned.
However, she expressed that during the conduct of the poll, they were not able to reach the expected participation they wanted from the majority of the students.
Low Student Turnover for Politically-Related Events
Their question on whether the student body is apolitical stems from the low turnout of attendees from last year’s Miting de Avance (MDA), as she revealed. Jose also mentioned that while manning the booth and inviting students to answer the poll, she often received a refusal from the student body to participate.
“Napansin kasi namin from previous events, when it comes to political activism or anything centered around politics, medyo mababa ‘yong participation ng students. Actually, nagsimula siya [na mapansin] noong MDA from the previous school year na sobrang kaunti ng nag-attend na students,” she mentioned.
She also highlighted that the responsibility of making the student body politically active again is not only in their hands but rather a collective effort from all members of the student body.
“Iyong political awareness and political activism, it’s not only COMELEC’s responsibility; it’s a collective action of the student body to be politically aware kasi we can only do so much,” she added.
Post-Mortem Analysis
When asked what they would do with the results obtained and what other organizations could do to support them, Jose reflected on how they could have done the activity.
“Since it [was] the first hybrid political party exposition, dapat pala [naging hybrid din] ‘yong gimmick. Honestly, I wasn’t aware of [that shortcoming]. I should have made a poll online rin where students could react. Siguro naging mas malaki ‘yong engagements doon [if we made] the same poll, but online. Kaso nag-end na [rin] ‘yong PolPar Expo [Political Party Exposition].”
COMELEC-Science also tried reaching out to the Central COMELEC organization for a copy of the voter turnout. Jose stated that the poll should have been released on Thursday or Friday, with the data being released to the public on Saturday. However, the data gathering came up short.
“[The data would include] the voter’s turnout from 2019 to 2024. So, gusto kong mapakita ‘yong data before, during, and after the pandemic, kung ano ‘yong trend [sa voter turnout]. However, when we reached out to Central [COMELEC], ‘di kami na-replyan.”
The data for the vote turnout would fill in possible gaps in the poll since they are the students’ opinions. Moreover, COMELEC-Science wanted to perform a quantitative analysis based on the given data.
“Para sakin, mayroon ding problem sa system ng mga organizations. I’m not saying na itong organization lang, but the fact that we were unable to get a reply from Central [COMELEC] raises a red flag for me since that data should be made available to everyone after the voting,” she added.
When asked to clarify whether there was no data since Central COMELEC did not reply or if there was no data in the first place, Jose answered, “[I’m not] sure, kasi nag-email ako to them if may mabibigay sila [at] walang reply. Siguro [na-resolve siya] kung [sumagot] sila na ‘Sorry, we don’t actually have it,’ but that still raises a red flag kasi that data should have copies.”
Science, Politics, and Student Detachment
In response to the question of whether science and politics can go hand-in-hand, Jose affirmed that notion adding that politics affects science and that they ought to go conjointly.
“Hand-in-hand talaga for me ang politics and science. Politics will always exist in science, talaga. So siyempre kapag may mga research, [mayroon ding] mga ethical considerations [which, in essence] are politics,” she added.
When asked whether the detachment of Thomasian scientists from politics is affected by the administration, Jose stated that while preparing for the exposition, she did initially think that the detachment could be the administration’s fault.
“But I’ve come to realize na hindi, kasi ang pinakamalaking sistema na nag-aact upon us is the discipline talaga natin individually. Because if we wanted to, may paraan to be more engaged in politics. Although of course, the administration plays a hand. If we [want] to, as students, we have the power to make breakthroughs and break barriers. So blaming it all [on] the administration [is like] denying a bigger truth here [that] the biggest card to be played is the students’ individual discipline,” she clarified.
This year’s PolPar was conducted from December 2 to 7 to allow political parties to present themselves to the student body. The exposition was also the first hybrid PolPar by the COMELEC-Science Unit since the pandemic. LAKAS-LOOB has been the only participant in Science’s PolPar for three years now.
Photo courtesy of UST COMELEC Science Unit
