By Josiah Eleazer V. Antonio
Collegian former news editor Ronn Joshua Bautista is UP Diliman’s sole nominee for Student Regent (SR), after winning via consensus in the SR Deliberations held at the UP College of Mass Communication Auditorium last June 3.
The voting body, which consists of all UPD student councils, chose Bautista over UP Manila University Student Council (UPM-USC) Chairperson John Carlo Lorenzo and UPD Communication Research senior Angelo Lagman as he promised his leadership to be marked by democratic consultations, accountability and accessibility.
Lorenzo, on the other hand, stressed the need for a strong relationship between the SR and all UP campuses to serve as a better avenue for their concerns while Lagman focused on the collective identity of the whole system for genuine change and justice.
Every year, student councils from the different UP campuses convene to select an SR who will represent the students in the Board of Regents (BOR), the university’s highest policy-making body.
After initial deliberations, the body limited the discussion to Bautista and Lorenzo as majority of the student councils considered Lorenzo’s experience as a student leader in UPM and Bautista’s knowledge as a former news editor of the Collegian as basis in finding an SR.
Other SCs lead by School of Economics Student Council, meanwhile, decided that Diliman should only have one nominee for the unit to have a solid bet for the final deliberations.
With objections from other SCs to have only one nominee, the body decided to divide the house to vote on the number of nominees that should represent Diliman in the SR Selection. The motion to adopt one nominee won, 10-9.
Highlighting Bautista’s impartiality, objectivity and openness, the body decided to forward him as the sole nominee of UPD.
Bautista is among four other nominees— incumbent USC Chairperson Raoul Danniel Manuel from UPV, incumbent UPD USC Councilor Miguel Enrico Pangalangan for UPV Tacloban and Himati’s incumbent editor-in-chief Khurshid Kalabud Jr. for UP Mindanao.
After receiving two nominations from UPM and UPD, Lorenzo will sit as UPM’s sole nominee for SR.
Representing approximately 58,000 UP students to the BOR, the nominees from the different units will face in the final deliberations in the upcoming 40th General Assembly of Student Councils on June 20 to 21 at UPV Miag-ao.