A GROUP of UST students called on the University Central Judiciary Board to invalidate the election of two Central Student Council (CSC) officers, saying they have no “legal right to possess” their posts.
The group led by Law student Rabin Bote said the recent CSC special election was unconstitutional since the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) had “unduly” amended the student council constitution by allowing the bid of newly-elected vice president Rowen Oloresisimo, whose proclamation is still on hold, and treasurer Kojie Uy.
In a 17-page petition letter, the students argued that the candidacies of Oloresisimo and Uy should be deemed void ab initio or void from its inception.
“Since no valid candidacy can arise from an invalid election, all candidacies arising from it must be considered void ab initio,” the letter dated Sept. 8 read.
“In the absence of a valid election, the candidacies of Ms. Oloresisimo and Mr. Uy cannot give rise to a valid office. They cannot assume an office they do not have the legal right to possess in the first place,” it added.
The group sought to nullify the poll body’s executive order to open the filing of candidacy for the vacant vice president and treasurer positions to all UST students, following its declaration of a failure of elections.
The COMELEC’s Executive Order No. 1, series of 2025-2026, dated Aug. 10, said, “the commission has opted to forgo the previously established criterion and has thereby rendered both positions available for candidacy to all bona fide students of the University.”
Under the UST CSC constitution and election code, only incumbent central or local student council executive board members are eligible for the CSC vice president post.
According to the students, the move sets a “perilous precedent” for constitutional amendments, adding that the fate of the student body “cannot be solely decided by a select few.”
The group also claimed that the COMELEC had deprived the student body of participating in the process of revising the constitution.
Apart from Bote of the Faculty of Civil Law, the petition had five signatories from the Faculty Arts and Letters and one each from the Graduate School and College of Education.
During the voting period, a disqualification case was filed against Oloresisimo, since she was not an executive board member for either the central or her local student council, leading to the withholding of her proclamation.
Oloresisimo, a Legal Management junior
and the lone candidate for vice president, received 8,318 votes, while 3,101 left their ballots unanswered.
Meanwhile, Uy, an Engineering student who was also the sole candidate for his post, was already proclaimed by the central COMELEC on Saturday, Sept. 6, after garnering 7,554 votes over 3,865 abstentions. F
