AN IMPEACHMENT complaint was filed against Artlets Student Council (ABSC) President Rafael Arellano by a group of Artlets for “gross negligence of duties” on Thursday, less than a week before the start of the 2019 ABSC general elections.
The 28 complainants, composed mostly of Asian studies seniors, cited the “disappointing” AB Week and failure to distribute last academic year’s official AB merchandise as examples of Arellano’s “incompetence.”
LOOK: The signatories of the impeachment complaint filed against ABSC President Rafael Arellano have been released by the Board of Majors. pic.twitter.com/zSLlwZAW4g
— The Flame (@abtheflame) March 23, 2019
“AB Week was disappointing and did not meet the bare minimum expectations […] This is for the fact that [freshmen are] to experience AB Week for the first time and would only settle for the mediocre delivery of the college week while the [seniors] will have this as their last,” the complaint read.
Article XII Section 2 of the ABSC Constitution lists gross negligence of duties, malversation of the funds or properties of the council, and willful or culpable violation of the constitution as some of the possible grounds for impeachment.
“It is unbecoming of a Thomasian to become incompetent, more so for a student leader like Arellano. His poor performance affects the reputation of the Artlets Student Council and must not continue in the succeeding academic year,” the complaint concluded.
The impeachment complaint and complete list of signatories were officially released through a memorandum by the Artlet Board of Majors (BOM) on Saturday.
In its memorandum, the BOM said it will still deliberate on whether the complaint will undergo a trial.
The board also clarified that they initially decided to withhold the names of the complainants because Arellano had not yet been formally informed of the complaint.
“Pinag-aaralan pa rin namin, like ongoing pa rin ‘yung magiging meeting namin. And then ipapatawag na rin namin ‘yung student council, kasama ‘yung mga nag-file ng complaint,” BOM Speaker John Steven Usero said in an interview with the Flame.
Arellano is yet to respond to the Flame’s requests for comment. F – Ma. Leandrea Tamares with reports from Gillian Patricia Geronimo
[…] READ: Impeachment complaint filed against ABSC president over AB Week, unreleased AB merch […]