Page 29 - The Flame

Section 2; Article IV, Section 2 (students’ to earlier negligence committed on certain conditions that will not apply in Artlets,”
right to public information); Article VIII, occasions during the course of their terms. Fernandez said.
Section 3-C (President’s duty to coordi- Catiis said that the Insignia issue only Initially, the ABSC wanted to follow
nate all activities of the council); and Arti- “triggered” the TPSF in filing the com- the requirements of the TSITP, however,
cle XII, Section 2-A and 2-B (impeachment plaints. “the society presidents expressed dismay
against Council officers due to: violation Despite the allegations thrown against on the late release of the TSITP rules. Our
of the constitution and gross negligence them, Fernandez and Sazon said that they point is that, it is a tradition. They should
of duties). did not violate any provision in the Artlets have followed it even without us telling
In a separate complaint, it was stated constitution. They refused to give addi- them,” Fernandez said.
that Sazon violated eight provisions of the tional details on the matter. He said that it was already late when
same constitution namely: Article II, Sec- the SOCC furnished them a copy of the re-
tion 5 (presenting the Council’s position Bending of rules quirements and the ABSC was already or-
on matters concerning its welfare); Article Catiis said that her disqualification to ganizing Insignia that time.
III, Section 2 (ABSC’s responsibility in orga- the TSITP affected her to a great extent Villasis lamented that the ABSC should
nizing activities); Article III, Section 3 (the that she cried in front of the organizers of have been strict in following the rules of
Council’s transparency); Article IV, Section Insignia 2011 after Sazon broke the news the TSITP.
2 (students’ right to public information); to her. “What if they (candidates who incurred
Article VIII, Section 4-A (VP External as “[What happened to me] was not fair failing marks in some subjects) won as Mr.
next in command to the President); Arti- because my right to join the pageant was and Ms. Artlets?” Villasis asked.
cle VIII, 4-D (supervising and coordinating taken away because of something I am not However, Fernandez noted that Insig-
projects and activities); Article XII, Section responsible of,” Catiis said. nia was held because “we are following
2-B and 2-C (impeachment against Coun- She noted that being awarded as the traditions set by the institution that
cil officers due to: gross negligence of du- this year’s Ms. Artlets was “more than we respect.”
ties and abusive use of power). enough,” but she pointed that more than “But on a personal note, [Insignia win-
All of the aforementioned violations the title, she wanted to represent the Fac- ners are there to] represent Artlets for Art-
as stated in the complaint stemmed out ulty in the TSITP. lets, not necessarily for TSITP,” Fernandez
of the issue on the ABSC’s failure to relay “The mere fact that I was crowned Ms. said, stressing that Insignia winners are
SOCC’s requirements to the candidates Artlets gives me the right to represent my not crowned to “just represent the Faculty
and the societies. Faculty. It means that I am qualified for the in the [University-wide] pageant.”
“[Fernandez and Sazon] failed to dis- next step which is TSITP,” she said. “Hindi lang sa pagre-represent sa pag-
seminate the crucial requirements for the She cried foul to the ABSC’s “negli- eant ang essence ng pagiging isang Insig-
TSITP pageant towards the aspiring candi- gence” and “inefficiency” for not applying nia,” Fernandez said.
dates and their respective society presi- the SOCC prescribed rules for TSITP in In-
dents,” a portion of the complaint read. signia. Aside from the height requirement, Supplementary complaint
The complaint also stressed that the she noted that the ABSC eventually al- During the first session of the impeach-
requirements of the University-wide pag- lowed society representatives with failing ment proceedings held last January 30,
eant were not parallel to Insignia that marks to join Insignia. Lead Prosecutor Jester Ivan Ricafrente
“rendered the latter irrelevant and dubi- “We only based Insignia’s requirements from the TPSF filed a supplementary im-
ous and that the subsequent disqualifica- to the requirements of TSITP, but not en- peachment complaint against the defen-
tion of crowned Ms. Artlets.” tirely follow [it] because there are certain dants, stating the three instances when
It also noted that the defen-
dants violated the provision on
transparency due to the Council’s
lack of initiative to immediately
issue an official statement regard-
ing the disqualification of Catiis.
The TPSF accused the defendants
of maladministration that resulted
in a rumor regarding Catiis’s dis-
qualification.
Furthermore, the TPSF said
that the inconsistency in rules,
which it stressed “has never hap-
pened to prior presidents,” was a
result of their “incompetence” in
the administration of their duties.
As of press time, Fernandez
and Sazon are suspended from
their posts. The ABSC Constitution
stipulates that an official should
be suspended after “a motion for
impeachment has been submit-
ted” against him or her.
TPSF President Jeshamar Vil-
lasis said that the impeachment
case stemmed not only because of
the aforementioned violations of The impeachment tribunal is composed of the Board of Majors (presidents of the different academic
the two defendants, but also due societies in Artlets). ZHEA KATRINA R. ESTRADA
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