Lakas-LOOB candidates secure office in UST CSSC 2024 elections
By: Agatha Rei Gomez
Lakas-Leadership Onwards Outstanding Beginning (Lakas-LOOB) Science candidates were formally declared the next College of Science Student Council (CSSC) officer-elects for the academic year 2024-2025 during Proklamasyon 2024 held April 26 at the UST Tan Yan Kee Audiovisual Room (TYK AVR) and live streamed through the UST Tiger TV Facebook Page.
Former CSSC Chief-of-Staff and Psychology junior Kevin Karl Escosar was elected President with 1,382 votes. A total of 504 voters abstained, while one did not answer.
Internal Vice President (IVP) candidate Viella Therese Querol, a Medical Biology junior, won with 1,252 votes; 633 abstained, and two did not answer.
Angeline Grace Garcia, a Medical Biology sophomore and the council’s former Auditor, was proclaimed External Vice President (EVP), garnering 1,078 votes against 799 abstains and 10 unanswered ballots.
Microbiology sophomore Gail Beyonce Salazar was elected Secretary with 1,194 votes. A total of 684 voters abstained, while 9 ballots were left unanswered. Salazar also served as the council’s former Secretary during the current term.
Giancarlo Ramirez, a Psychology junior, won as the Assistant Secretary with 1,154 votes. A total of 726 voters abstained, and 7 did not answer.
Treasurer candidate Jordan Badillo, a Psychology sophomore, was elected with 1,178 votes. A total of 695 voters abstained for the position, while 14 did not answer.
Sole freshman of the slate, Darrie Andrei Dizon from the Data Science and Analytics program, was elected Assistant Treasurer after garnering 1,101 votes against 778 abstains and 8 unanswered ballots.
Chemistry junior Erika Gwen Eustaquio was proclaimed the Public Relations Officer (PRO) with 1,187 votes, while 698 voters abstained and 2 did not answer.
No candidate vied for the position of Auditor in this election period.
A total of 1,887 College of Science (CoS) students voted for this year's CSSC elections, which is around 74% of the college’s student population of 2,562, the total number of recorded CoS enrollees for the term as of January 29.
An average of about 690 abstained votes were tallied for the candidates, while an accumulated total of 53 ballots were left unanswered excluding the votes for Auditor.
President-elect Escosar will become a member of the next Central Student Council Central Board (CSC CB) along with the newly-elected Local Student Council (LSC) Presidents of the different faculties and colleges of the university.
Following the announcement of the Central COMELEC in addressing CSC vacancies, the CSC CB will take over the functions and responsibilities of the CSC Executive Board (CSC EB) after the current slate’s term until the next CSC officers are elected at the start of the next academic year.
The officer-elects presented their vision of “MadaSCIgon — driven by the Thomasian Scientists, for the Thomasian Scientists” during Tapatan 2024, the Miting de Avance (MDA) for the CSSC elections held last April 19 at the Civil Law Auditorium.
They emphasized their goal of implementing the bottom-up approach as their strategy and leadership action plan for the next academic year, also highlighting their objective of building a more policy-driven council, implementing centralized systems, and “[ensuring] maximum student participation” by engaging the studentry in more discussions.
The supposed online live stream of the MDA was transferred to Google Meet after the UST Science COMELEC announced “unforeseen technical problems.”
Recordings from the MDA and the publication material on the candidates’ stand on social issues were posted on April 26, a week after the MDA and a day before Proklamasyon 2024, through the UST Science COMELEC Facebook page. The week-late postings garnered traction from the CoS student body.
