BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – Two more student leaders received death threats that they believed stemmed from the contentious election of the officers of the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) on June 22 at the University of Iloilo Auditorium here.
One of the two students who received threatening text messages was from a university here. The other was from Pangasinan.
According to the student leader here who asked not to be identified, the message she received was similar to the one sent to Central Philippine University Republic president Bryan Cerbo.
The text message read, “Kung mahal mo buhay mo, manahimik ka (If you love your life, shut up).”
Cerebo was the first to expose the death threat and what he claimed were irregularities in the conduct of the SCAP election.
The student from Pangasinan, on the other hand, received the following text message, “Piliin niyo binabangga niyo (Pick your battles well).”
The text messages were all from cellphone number 09179480917 and sent on July 25 or three days after the SCAP Congress held from June 19 to 22.
According to the female student leader from here, the SCAP election was irregular.
Only the electoral tribunal composed of two representatives per island region should have been allowed to handle the election process, as stated in the SCAP Constitution, she said.
She also said candidates must be nominated, given time to speak, then voted by the body.
“But there was no formal nomination. Instead, the names of the candidates were written on paper and submitted,” said the female student leader.
She also said congress participants were not issued receipts when they paid for their registration.
“I have been bugging the secretariat regarding this but up to now, weeks after the congress, some of us haven’t received our receipts yet,” she said.
The student leader said they were told that the secretariat did not issue receipts because they failed to print some or that SCAP was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission yet./PN
