Mariel Lian M. Santisteban IV – BS ECE IDEOLOGY ANALYSIS: SANTUGON & TAPAT It’s the time of the year again – University Student General Elections 2014, where students get to wear colors: yellow and blue or orange and black, as they support and campaign for their respective candidates. As for DLSU-Manila, it has been quiet a yearly tradition wherein student politics reign and mimics the load roars and reflects the frustrations of local politics. But for DLSU-STC, it is only on its second year experiencing the dilemma of room-to-room campaigns, political rifts, debates, miting de avance, among others. As being a newbie in that kind of atmosphere; emotions and friendships gets involve much more than the real deal – ideologies and platforms of the 2 political parties, Santugon and Tapat. As observed, participation and membership of the students are hugely affected by the influences made by their group of friends or the people being affiliated to the political parties being involved thus the essence of the ideologies of both parties diminish in value. Through this analysis, it hopes to be nonbiased as possible and all of the things presented below are based on facts, research, RTRs, MDA and personal interviews. Alyansang Tapat sa Lasallista (TAPAT) Tapat had been founded in August 16, 1985 such that it is considered as the oldest existing political party in De La Salle University. From their history timeline, it was during the university’s 1985 elections when two non-existent political parties as of today – Panudla and Lakas Lasallista battled out for the top positions. It was Lakas Lasallista that prevailed and since then Panudla disbanded and eventually reorganized into Alyansang Tapat sa Lasallista. Tapat was born out of an alliance of different organizations and individuals which is grounded in one ideology, united by common principles and values, and driven by one vision. Tapat is an alliance which believes in the power of unity and collective effort towards making a difference. They believe that everyone should work in cooperation with everyone else. Tapat envisions a just and free society in which freedom is to be maximize human potentials and inherent right and in which justice prevails to ensure equal opportunities for all thus safeguarding the progress of the society. Their global platform and campaign is to empower the Lasallian and Filipino community towards the ideal society. They train and produce student leaders for the University and the country, participate in all electoral exercises, and stand for causes such as anti-discrimination, education, environment, partisanship, and students’ and citizens’ rights. The colors orange and black represents where Tapat stood in terms of principles towards the end of Martial Law. Having the orange against a black background symbolizes their belief that it is in darkness that light shines the brightest. There are 5 P’s of a Tapat leader: Principled, Pioneering, Progressive, Professional, and Personal; these stands for the brand of leadership that they embody. Principled – Tapat believes that principles should never change; they are the most fundamental part of a person. Pioneering – Tapat leaders always aim to be looking for new ways to protect student interests. Progressive – it means breaking away from tradition if necessary and finding new things to do or new ways to do things. Professional – it is to know what the job requires and fulfil it with the best of ones abilities. Personal – it is concerned with the welfare of his constituents and seeks to develop them to their full potential.

Iisa ang Tugon, Sa Tawag ng Panahon (SANTUGON) It was in 1984-1985 when the 1st Youth Congress entitled “Catalyst for Social Transformation” by Chino Gaton of Univervisity of the Philippines’ Tugon Party List was held. The delegates from DLSU were Ringo Morella, Ira Reyes, Joy Nicdao and Barry Ubarra. It was during this that Ringo saw the need to form a new party in DLSU. Since then, Santugon was formed as a socio-politcal party in DLSU on October 1985. It represents a unified response to what the students need and want. It also denotes unity in achieving their common goal, which is to serve the students founded on the values of family, integrity, individuality, faith, responsibility and passion for service. Santugon’s core principles lie on the belief of maturity and capacity of the youth in general. It envisions empowered Lasallians, progressive citizenry wherein each one’s competency is maximized, where the collective power of the youth is fully actualized, and the citizenry is socially aware and involved in nation building. For being a socio-political party, they train each member to inculcate the principles of the organization, provide venues for each member’s development, and sustain each member’s growth as mature and thinking individual. They also initiate issue-oriented activities that promote socio-political awareness inside and outside the university. They field and train their candidates and provide the whole student body with activities that promote political maturity and social awareness. They also take an active stance towards outreach and social welfare, environmental preservation, and the empowerment of the youth through holistic development. Yellow and Blue the colors that represent Santugon. Yellow stands for dynamism which means that there is always a positive attitude and strong character while blue represents the party’s Marian Devotion since Santugon was formed during the time of Martial Law. The Santugon brand of leadership are: Consultative, Proactive and Responsive. Consultative in which they ask the students for what they want and they assess if it is what they needed. Proactive in which they aim to know the problems and issues that the students are going to face and thus having solutions to those issues even before it happens. Responsive in which they respond to the call of the times such as they aim to give immediate action to the issues that suddenly just occurs. As presented above, it comprises the history, brand of leaderships and ideologies that both parties live by. There are also a number of contentious issue that the two parties continue to clash on. One of it is in terms of their place in the political compass – it is like a measuring stick that attempts to label people/organizations in the socio-economic model based on stands to issues, in which both parties have a different approach and view upon it. For Tapat according to their color representation, the party is on the left of the center which means that the party is neither centrists nor extreme communists. They are in between what is peaceful and conservative and to what advocates the application of the social and economic principles of communism through state policy. For Santugon, they do not merely ascribe their selves to a place in the political compass to define their decisions and stands on the issue. They base everything on their values and principles thus they look at all points of view and take into account all perspectives before they take sides. In terms of their vision and platforms, there is also a difference between the two parties. Tapat pushes for a macro approach, global platform and campaign, thus they result in building general plans of action in which they aim to connect the Lasallians and Filipino community towards their ideal society. On the other hand, Santugon envisions a micro-macro approach wherein they believe that they should always start solving issues within the university before they could go out to society thus leading them to have specific plans of action.

In terms of their stands with the issues, Tapat have their concrete stands and is therefore grounded upon one decision and action while for Santugon their stands are specifically grounded upon what is more relevant rather than what is convenient. This part now tackles how they approach a certain issue, it is then believe that for Tapat policies and the system should be changed according to what is more beneficial and convenient for the students while Santugon believes that sometimes it is not the system that is wrong, it is in the people that sometimes wrong interpretation leads to wrong implications thus it should be a two way changing process – the people and the system. It’s always been an issue whether which political party is which and to what platforms to believe in. It is now based on the students and voters on how they will interpret each of the party’s ideology and to whether or not these ideas and beliefs that they present will be valid and reasonable for them to support. Every vote counts, everyone should be wise enough to critically analyze and vote for the most passionate, trustworthy and capable of proper execution among the two parties more relatively to the candidates who are running.