‘I answered the call to serve’: Peralta to run for UST CSC Secretary
By Christine Nicole Montojo and Aabgina Cos
DISCLAIMER: TomasinoWeb remains to be a non-partisan media organization that does not campaign for any candidate.
Most students are familiar with freshman LEAPMED student John Harold Peralta’s work as the Executive Coordinator under the current Secretary of the Central Student Council (CSC). Now an incoming sophomore, Peralta is running for the University’s student council secretary post.
With the elections coming on March 27 to April 1, TomasinoWeb was able to interview Peralta on his leadership and platforms if he becomes the next secretary of the CSC.
Healthcare and Thomasian inclusivity?
Peralta’s platforms consist of policies focused on students with physical disabilities, envisioning a PWD-Friendly Campus by having more visually impaired and wheelchair accessible areas, while catering to the hearing impaired by availing sign language interpreters.
Although UST actively promotes inclusive education across its many colleges, it is still an ongoing project, with its focus on creating developmental manuals towards communication, self-help, social, emotional, and cognitive development, and gross and fine motor movement skills.
Despite focusing on issues that plague those with physical disabilities, Peralta failed to include his plans for people with mental health problems in his platforms.
The plans he outlined had given emphasis to those with physical disabilities, not mentioning or giving an explanation to why those with mental disabilities were not included.
However, he expressed that during mental health crises alerting the local student councils, CSC, and University admins, they would first ensure the safety of Thomasians, catering to their needs before everything else. They would also protect and monitor information about the crises in social media.
“We would have to play our part in damage control, and coordinate with the admins on […] what everyone would do moving forward,” he said.
Naturally, news about any mental health emergencies would spread quickly. Noting that, Peralta’s believes that there is no need to lay out the details, instead, they could spread positivity on how to handle the situation.
“For example, […] we would have mental health checks — we could promulgate programs of [the] guidance more. We could have Thomasian Mental Health Responders […]. We should also […] look for where it all started. So, maybe, we could focus more on those things rather than “pagchikahan” or “ipakalat” kung ano mang nangyari, kasi it would trigger a lot of people,” he said.
Peralta also added that his principle on damage control is to do no harm or do as less harm as one can.
As such, the University offers counseling and career services for each college with their respective guidance counselors. UST’s College of Science also formed a team called “Thomasian Mental Health Responders” (TMHR) who provide free psychological services to anyone challenged with their mental health. The team consists of licensed psychiatrists, psychologists, school counselors, social workers, people with psychological first aid training, and graduate students specializing in psychological support.
On CSC’s constitutional revisions
Constitutional revision has been touted as a major step in fixing most of the systemic problems that have hampered student leadership. However, Peralta believes it has more to offer for the Thomasian community.
“Yung constitutional revisionism kasi, it’s something that would empower the policymaking mandate of the council, but it doesn’t mean na it would be giving or we would be starting from scratch […],” he said.
Peralta added they want to prioritize the constitution in a way that would help student leaders better represent their policies.
However, if that does not push through, then the process with the central board would stay.
The current administration had advocated for revising the constitution as a means of solving the structural problems that student leaders faced.
Revisions to the 2003 constitution include appointing all positions below the president and vice-president instead of filling them via election.
Despite the working draft of this revised constitution being available, it will still be up to the future executive board to execute.
With the current system, most local student council candidates run unopposed, even more in the CSC, where this year’s entire slate is running without opposition, due to the other candidates for vice president and secretary withdrawing on March 6.
“I believe that student politics [is not] dying around. […] It’s just that, the trend in student politics, […] there is hesitancy in running for these positions,” Peralta said.
He also said that students nowadays have a higher standard for leadership, which could also cause hesitancy.
Leadership potential
To some people within the current student council, they know Peralta as a competent staffer within the system.
Arnet Paguirigan, a first year Civil Law student and the former secretary of the CSC in A.Y. 2021–2022, met Peralta when he was in senior high school under her team as a community development committee staff member.
“I remember […] that he was mature for his age, since he was only in shs at that time when he applied in CSC. He was the youngest member of my team and he was eager to learn more about comdev and advocacy projects since he would often volunteer in projects [..],” she said.
Paguirigan also pointed out that Peralta knows when to step up to and give his opinions while staying considerate and respectful of others’ perspectives. She also commends Peralta for his platforms as she believes it would benefit the Thomasian community.
“[…] His platforms are the core of who Harold is, [he is] an advocate of mental health and for the overall well-being of everyone. So I was not surprised when I read he wants to push for a more pwd-friendly campus and create better ways for students to cope with their academics,” Paguirigan said.
“As his former EB, I’m proud of Harold and his growth as a student leader. I know it’s his time already to be the kuya of his own team and I hope nothing but the best for him and his journey,” Paguirigan added.
Meanwhile, Nina Rodriguez, a third-year student who worked with Peralta in the CSC during AY 2021–2022, had seen him in action during their shared time as staffers for the secretary of the CSC during that time.
“Based on my experience with him, he is very hardworking and he’s very industrious…as far as I know, he did have a lot of leadership positions back when he was in senior high,” she said.
However, she had doubts that he could perform his duties well once elected, given his major being one of the most competitive programs within the University.
“He wouldn’t take on a job if he won’t be able to do it, he won’t promise something if he won’t, if he knows that, he won’t be able to push through with it,” said Rodriguez.
“While I do believe in Harold…I do hope he knows what he’s getting into and that he understands how difficult his program is and how difficult and tedious it is to be the secretary of the central student council,” Rodriguez added.
Despite the pressure from the position, time and election results will reveal if he does become the university’s next CSC secretary.
