Campus Politics

We all get to experience politics and leadership in at least one part of our life - be it at home, in the playground, in school or if you're lucky enough, in national or even global politics.
If my memory serves me right, I had my first taste of politics and leadership in school at the playground. I would lead one side of the class in a cops and robbers game (I think I was always on the cops side, coz I didn't want to be on the "dark side"). From there life took me to become class president for 9 years, batch representative for 3 different years, and VP in the grade school student council.

Now, entering my 4th year of law school I decided to run for the External VP position. Sure, being president was definitely on my mind but i decided to run for EVP to give way to friends who also wanted to run for the presidential position, and because my strengths and involvements are found in the EVP position.

The campaign period only lasted for 3 days because Monday was a holiday for us students due to the EDSA1 Anniversary, so it has been a very hectic and busy past 3 days. I think during this period I wasn't just a law student, I was a full time candidate and a part time law student. I ran for the position of external vice president, which means if elected I would be in charge of out of law school matters, external projects and of bringing issues and relevant events happening outside of law school to the attention of the very very busy students inside. My platform was of increased responsiveness to the times by being more involved and informed of the issues that are affecting our country. I ran unopposed, so I would like to believe my chances are good, but I had the daunting task of making sure that I get to convince voters to elect me because I deserve to be in office.

We ran a clean, honest, no fuss campaign - ayaw namin ng trapo-style of politics. We didn't have any tokens or giveaways (except the occasional stickers and pins of course) nor did we give away any food. We ran promoting our vision for the school by using our respective platforms. Nakakalungkot kasing isipin na pati pulitka sa school, nagiging katulad ng pulitika sa labas - which leads to us having leaders who are trained in the ancient art of the trapo (traditional politician).

Voting will end in about 2 hours, and the next time I write I may either be victorious or defeated. But no matter what the outcome is I know we put up a good fight, we were honest and sincere in our intentions and most important of all we were driven by our desire to serve our school and the community.