In Good Faith

The USC WATCH is a project initiated by UP ALYANSA. Simply, it provides a blow-by-blow account of the ongoing USC Committee Deliberations plus announcements and updates on projects of the USC. The WATCH aimed to be non-partisan in providing updates on what the USC is doing inside and outside of the GA. It aimed to bring the USC closer to the students, and aimed to make the USC the transparent and accountable institution that it's supposed to be.

Sadly, not everyone can work in the spirit of good faith albeit this is what their words profess. During the Committee Deliberations of the USC dated May 18, 2011, Wednesday, members of the University Student Council manifested their strong opinions against the WATCH. Their points ranged on the implications of the WATCH are as follows:

1. The updates were partisan and biased.

2. Several Council members who are not members of ALYANSA were made to look bad by misquoting them and/or taking what they were saying out of context.

3. The Watch is stepping on the rights of the USC to provide updates to the students, specifically, it was stepping on the rights of the Secretary General and the Mass Media Committee to do their duties effectively.

4. The Watch provided a venue for the students to bash other USC members. It was promoting a culture of disrespect given the insults thrown at the USC members.

5. Members of ALYANSA were cited as doing criminal acts of libel, given the claimed misquotes in the WATCH, and stealing of intellectual property, given the uploaded committee proposals of various USC members without their permission.

6. Members of ALYANSA who were doing the WATCH were threatened that cases of libel and intellectual property rights violation would be filed against them should they continue with the WATCH.

We in ALYANSA manifest our strong disappointment and dissent to the USC's reaction with regard to the WATCH, and the USC's action to curtail an independent and autonomous formation, no matter how politically-oriented it is. The words hurled at the formation, plus the threats that we received make us shudder at the curtailment of our rights as an organization to forward a project that was initiated in good faith to bring the USC closer to the students and live through our continuing vision— "Kasama Ka sa USC, Kasama ka sa ALYANSA."

With regard to the forwarded implications of members of the USC, here is what we have to say:

We aimed for the updates to be non-partisan. The posts simply reflected what members of the USC articulated during the Deliberations. However, we do not claim perfection that is why we have always been open to corrections. There were multiple ways to correct the updates— i.e. via commenting, or communicating with any of the members of ALYANSA. We never aimed for any members of other political formations to look bad, nor did we aim to make members of ALYANSA in the USC look good. We only posted and reported what we witnessed. Again, as stipulated many times in our disclaimer, the posts in the USC WATCH are unofficial. We encouraged the students to check the official minutes of the USC meetings prepared by the Secretary General to be able to countercheck our posts. Despite our nature as a political formation, and despite the fact that given our nature whatever we post will always be seen as biased no matter how unbiased we try to be, we can only hope that our acts be seen and recognized in good faith.

We agree, however, that the WATCH became a venue for different groups to attack the USC members, which we tried to prevent by posting constant reminders in the page to only make relevant and responsible comments; and deleting negative comments. In the end though, everyone still has the right to forward whatever they have to say with regard to our public leaders. The fact that the Council members are elected publicly and popularly already subjects them to a wider scope of scrutiny and they should be open-minded enough to hear criticism at its worst and praises at its best. We can only do so much in controlling these comments.

With regard to the criminal accusations—we abhor these threats and unthought-of words. To accuse an organization that you are supposed to represent in the USC with multiple criminal threats without even trying to consult first or talk to it privately to address the issue is a strong contradiction to the ideals and principles that the USC is supposed to uphold. To mindlessly accuse us of libel when there was no malicious intent, to indict us with theft of intellectual property by posting the proponents’ General Plans of Action when, owing to the fact that these proposals are the USC's plans for the students, they should be open to the public is disappointing for an institution that is supposed to be transparent and accountable.

In the end, the comments of our USC is very much noted and still respected in spite of the fact that the same respect cannot be shown to us. This statement is to formally inform the USC in an open response that we will continue with the WATCH not for our own partisan interest—which is a very low assumption of why we're doing this – but because and only because we believe that the highest representative body of UPD which is our USC should continue to uphold transparency, accountability, responsibility, and accessibility.

To address the concerns raised though, the following actions will be taken:

1. Should there be any comments or corrections with regard to the WATCH, the members of the Executive Committee posted in the page may be contacted for corrections.

2. The students are still highly encouraged to check and countercheck the updates from the USC WATCH with the USC Updates and to check the official minutes of the meetings of the USC.

3. The moderators will delete negative and senseless comments to prevent attacks on our USC members.

ALYANSA remains to be an independent, autonomous and principled political formation, and we ask for the USC to recognize this. The USC WATCH will resume tomorrow beginning with posts from the Committee Deliberations on the Basic Student Services Committee dated last May 18, 2011.