Ateneo Student Judicial Court

Ateneo de Manila University Loyola Schools

Case No. _____

IN THE MATTER OF THE CALL FOR OPEN APPLICATION FOR THE POSITIONS OF BUKLOD
ATENISTA AMBASSADOR AND BUKLOD ATENISTA TRAINEES

Saje Miguel R. Molato

Petitioner

Kristoni Go
Petitioner

Edna Africa
Petitioner

Julia Kim Li
Petitioner
Versus
Railey Montalan
Author

To: The Honorable Magistrates of the Student Judicial Court, the humble petition of the petitioners
above named.
PETITION
The Sanggunian Central Board recently passed a resolution calling for applications for the positions of
Buklod Atenista Ambassador and Buklod Atenista Trainee. As students afforded certain rights by the
Constitution of the Undergraduate Students of the Ateneo de Manila Loyola Schools, WE, SAJE
MIGUEL R. MOLATO (III-AB Political Science), KRISTONI GO (II-AB Diplomacy and
International Relations), EDNA AFRICA (III-AB Political Science), JULIA KIM LI (II-AB
Psychology), collectively constituting the Department of External Affairs, we hereby petition the
honorable Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order on the implementation of the said resolution
until issues regarding its legitimacy and violations made by one of its authors with regards to the
Constitution of the Undergraduate Students of the Ateneo de Manila Loyola Schools are resolved. The
following are arguments in favor of said course of action:
ARGUMENTS
Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution of the Undergraduate Students of the Ateneo de Manila Loyola
Schools, under Article 5 of the Declaration of Principles, Purposes, and Policies of the Sanggunian,
Section 10 which states that The Sanggunian shall uphold the Magna Carta of Undergraduate Student
Rights of the Ateneo Community, states that Every student has the right to participate in the
governance of the school by having a fair and effective representation in its policy-making bodies with
power coming from their ranks. The student should be able to participate in the formation and
application of regulations affecting them. We, the Department of External Affairs, provided the
assurance of support and due representation by Central Board Member Railey Montallan with regards
to our initiative to create a legitimate and functioning Office of the Buklod Atenista Ambassador under
the Department of External Affairs, have been consistently misrepresented, effectively silenced, and
ultimately our ideas plagiarized under the existing resolution.
The initial draft of our resolution was scrapped after the initial dialogue with members of the Central
Board in order to create a revised version that is constitutionally and format-wise appropriate, to be
written by Railey Montallan under the supervision of the DEA Chairperson in order to assure that the
initial proposals and ideas remained intact.
This was not the case, and it is because of the following actions that we, the Department of External
Affairs, find our right to be represented fairly and effectively violated:
1) We were explicitly told that the Central Board Member presenting the resolution to the Central
Board had the capacity to make changes to our resolution without prior notice and without our
consent, whereas no legitimate explanation was provided as to this clause, and neither does the
CIP for CB officers contain any specific provision that allocates such power. Although
dialogues were held, none except one of the agreed upon provisions are present in the final

resolution.
2) We were informed that the Central Board had made a collective decision regarding the matter
of editing the content of our resolution, implying that we had no further say on our own
resolution, without providing us an actual document indicating the passing of such a decision.
Therefore this is not in any way a legitimate decline to our proposals.
3) We were not invited to any dialogues or joint sessions regarding the approval of our resolution,
and neither was there an official decline of our proposal as to allow the central board to draft a
new resolution regarding the matter; effectively barring us from engaging in any form of
discourse and at the very least an opportunity to defend the provisions of our bill
4) We were never provided the revised copy that was assured during the initial, as well as the
succeeding second dialogue with regards to the resolution.
5) The resolution that was recently passed contained only one provision of the supposed 4 fulllength resolutions to be passed regarding our proposal.
The petitioners find it hypocritical for the Sanggunian to claim that it aims to empower its
student body through providing them the capacity to lobby for resolutions and bills, when even
the simple matters of consultation and proper transparency are very easily bypassed and
willfully neglected. We find the following impositions of authority and power very alarming,
and for a Central Board Member, whose duty is to represent his constituents and their
advocacies to the student government, to deliberately manipulate and intervene based on his
own discretion, deeply appalling. It is stated that The Sanggunian is founded on the principle
of representation, participatory democracy, accountability, decentralization, consultation, and
efficient and effective services. under Section 2, Declaration of Principles, Purposes, and
Policies of the Sanggunian; commandeering a resolution and revising its content without the
consent of its original authors defeat the principles of representation, participatory democracy,
and accountability; and this is an atrocious act that we, constituents and members of the
Sanggunian, will willingly oppose.
PRAYER
Wherefore, in the interest of a proper democracy and due representation, it is respectfully prayed for
the Court that the implementation of the resolution for Call for Open Application For The Positions Of
Buklod Atenista Ambassador And Buklod Atenista Trainees be issued a Temporary Restraining Order
until all issues are resolved through a joint session evaluation and clarification with regards to all the
violations aforementioned in this petition, as well as the provisions of our initial proposal. We also pray
for all other reliefs that the Court may deem just under the established premises.
Ateneo de Manila University,
7/28/15
Submitted by:
SAJE MIGUEL R. MOLATO
3-AB Political Science
sajemiguel96@yahoo.com