BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – Who wanted to kill the president of Central Philippine University’s (CPU) student council?
Bryan Cerebo, president of the CPU Republic, said he could not ascertain who. But he believed the threat may have something to do with the controversial election of officers of the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) on June 22.
The election was held at CPU, venue of the recent SCAP national convention. Cerebo and several delegates walked out, citing irregularities.
On June 25, Cerebo said he received the text message, “Kung mahal mo buhay mo, manahimik ka.”
“We believed (the election) was very politically manipulated and rotten. Wala gid ang democracy naton nga ginatawag,” Cerebo said.
Cerebo intended to run for SCAP president. He said he had the support of several student councils from the National Capital Region, Visyas and Mindanao.
Another student leader – from the University of the Philippines-Manila – was also interested for the post and had the endorsement of several SCAP officers.
Cerbo said the process became contentious when somebody from the National Capital Region whom he described to be “from the SCAP group” raised a motion to amend a provision in the alliance’s constitution regarding election.
“The amendment, which was agreed by a simple majority only, was that only those with not less than one-year affiliation with SCAP are qualified to run for president,” Cerebo said.
Such amendment automatically disqualified him, said Cerebo, because he was elected president of the CPU Republic only this March 2014.
Cerebo said 150 of about 250 SCAP convention participants walked out in protest. They argued that any amendment must be approved by two-thirds of the participants and not just by a simple majority.
That very day also, Cerebo said, those who protested the process formed a new national organization of student councils and called themselves the Philippine Confederation of Students Council.
Cerebo was elected president of the new group.
CPU’s President Teodoro Robles expressed support to Cerebo and even advised the new group to write a manifesto of what happened and inform government offices concerned such as the National Youth Commission, Commission on Human Rights and even the Office of the President./PN
