Students' awareness and participation on the socio-political issues on campus have resulted in explosive moments of political mobilization in Ateneo de Manila University over the years. The protests against sexual harassment in 2019, the student strike in 2020, and the solidarity campaign with the Ateneo Employee and Workers Union in 2023 have all exemplified the ability and power of mobilized student body in upholding Atenean democracy and justice. However, these gains have historically not been consolidated and sustained by any collective leading to its slow demise in the months and years after.

Student engagement in Sanggunian processes and projects has been consistently low, with many students unable to identify the impact of the student government in their daily student lives. In turn, the Sanggunian is strongly in need of an effective and sustained push toward leadership development for, by, and of the students, particularly on complex and multi-sectoral issues on campus, and grappling with the myriad of struggles happening on the national level.

Political parties have been absent in the university since the shift to online classes during the pandemic in 2020. There are few effective avenues for student expression, and few student leaders with the will to champion community concerns on university issues and beyond. This has contributed to students’ resignation to key issues such as tuition fee increases without consultation. The task of amplifying the voices of students, whether through their needs as students or their advocacy as active citizens and directing them towards political action remains largely unfulfilled.

There is now an opportunity to not only organize and mobilize systematically to tackle these issues, but also to build political communities committed to a democratic politics relevant to the  context of contemporary Philippine society, one capable of serving students and contributing its efforts to the advancement of social justice in the Philippines. To answer this call to forge political consciousness amongst the student body, this paper proposes the establishment of a campus political party named PARTIDO PANDAYAN.

What is a campus political party? What functions does the political party perform within the student body?

A campus political party is a student organization under the Loyola Schools (LS) which, united by a common political worldview and set of principles, seeks to serve the LS student body primarily through engagement with the LS Sanggunian and its various elected and appointed functions and powers. Its activities include, but are not limited to:

1. Running its members as candidates for elected positions in the Sanggunian;
2. Serving as an organizational mechanism for the articulation of students’ demands for, and expectations of, various student, faculty, and administrative entities within the university;
3. Providing an avenue for critical, integral, and practical political education for students, by students.

As an organization founded upon shared worldviews, Partido Pandayan will be programmatic. Its decisions and actions reflect its fundamental goals and values, and its engagement with the Sanggunian election process is rooted in its desire to realize its vision for the student body and the university community. Being programmatic, it is also educational. The Party will seek to raise students’ political consciousness and capacity for effective political action as part of the holistic education which Ateneo de Manila University strives to achieve.

The party programme will be the most concrete statement of its goals and principles, and will be the result of careful, sustained constituency-building with students and internal democratic deliberation of all party members. The programme expresses the organization’s inherent claim that its stances represent the interests of all students. It is from the party program that its electoral platforms are drawn, subject to the context within which it finds itself in. The Party bears the responsibility of being organizationally rooted in as many sectors of the LS student body as possible.

The Core Principles of Partido Pandayan

1. The Party is committed to democracy. Democracy consists of the presence of elections and in the existence of rights, but also in the capability and willingness of all people, above all the oppressed and marginalized, to realize their individual and collective interests and aspirations through political means.
2. The Party holds that access to quality, safe, and democratic education on all levels is a human right, and that education is a potent means for the development of a progressive political consciousness amongst the youth. It asserts the liberty of students and faculty to collaborate in the production of knowledge, and their social duty to exercise this liberty towards the realization of the right to education, and of a just and free society.
3. The Party is committed to the advancement of the power and welfare of all the university’s workers, both faculty and non-teaching workers, whose labor, alongside those of students, forms the basis of the life of the university and secures its social relevance.
4. The Party strives to be a safe space for all students, especially for those of marginalized genders and sexual orientations. It shall have no tolerance for misogyny, queerphobia, transphobia, and all forms of discrimination, harassment, abuse, and violence. It shall strive to extend this safe space, and all means to protect it, to the entire university.
5. The Party holds that social justice, democracy, and equality cannot be realized without the class-conscious political education and organized struggle of the oppressed and marginalized. It asserts that active participation in these struggles is necessary for the development of student leadership.
6. The Party is secular. While it recognizes and respects the Catholic and Jesuit traditions of Ateneo de Manila University, it also seeks to advance the representation and interests of students of all faiths and none. It shall strive to link the values of faith with the struggles of the oppressed and marginalized, and shall encourage the deepening of both through political involvement.

Partido Pandayan’s Mission & Vision

Our Mission

The Party aims to advance a socialist alternative politics within Ateneo de Manila University committed to the realization of a democratic life on campus through the development of capable student leaders rooted in the historic traditions of progressive movements within the university, and who are committed to the empowerment of students within the university and the country.

Our Vision

The Party seeks to be a potent center for the practical development of socialist political consciousness and action amongst students of Ateneo de Manila University, and an effective vehicle through which students’  interests are realized within all levels of the university.

Our Sanggunian as a Student Union

The Party will aim to emphasize the Sanggunian’s potential to act as a student union that serves as an organ of student power within the university, able not only to plan and implement projects for the benefit of students, but to impact university policy in the interest of students.

The Party believes that the Sanggunian should carry the duty and task of going to the student body, and actively bringing both social and campus issues to fellow students - in contrast to more passive mechanisms such as constituency checks. Student leaders should actively champion student concerns in university issues, and fight for the student body’s right to be heard in important decision-making processes, such as tuition fee concerns. These would be foundational principles of any student leader from Partido Pandayan.

Flashpoint events in recent years in LS, such as the 2019 anti-sexual harassment protests, the 2020 Student Strike, and the 2023 AEWU solidarity campaign have shown that students’ voices must not only be heard but be taken seriously into account from the level of the university’s highest decision-making processes to the four walls of the classroom.

PANDAYAN’s External Linkages

Engaging with other student organizations on campus

The Party recognizes the need to engage with campus political organizations and groups in its quest to actualize multi-sectoral based governance. This includes the home organizations and interest groups within COA and LIONS, arms and divisions of the Sanggunian, and sectoral representatives for scholars and dormers.

 The Party shall strive to form relationships of solidarity with other student organizations, built upon a foundational understanding of collective efforts as essential to effective change, both on and outside campus. With the Party’s programme and organizational principles, relations with other organizations should be seen as opportunities to broaden and deepen socio-political engagement for all involved parties.

In particular, the Party aims to interact and cooperate with other organizations by bringing crucial social issues to all sectors of the student body, and encouraging students to explore and engage in opportunities for action and collaboration for all groups to act towards the broader interests of democracy and social justice on campus.

Engaging with civil society outside campus

The Party views active engagement with civil society organizations outside campus as an essential aspect of bridging the student experience to social issues on the ground. Working with organizations with concrete, practical experience in the struggle for human rights, democracy, justice and equality would branch out our own student leaders’ capacity to address social issues, and the Party’s capacity to bring these issues into a relevant light for the university community. This may take the form of engaging with political mobilizations outside Ateneo, partnering with organizations to hold talks or forums inside campus, and partaking in multisectoral discussions with various organizations, among others.

The Party is committed to independent decision-making and implementation. The Party is first and foremost a progressive political instrument for Ateneo de Manila students, and must decide and interface on the terms and necessities of its undergraduate students with one foot inside the institution and another down the hill.

Proposed Process for Establishing Partido Pandayan

We propose the following process for the relevant steps in our party-building process:

1. Drafting of Party proposal paper currently being read

This proposal is not final; the identification, ethos, and processes of the party are open to further discussion and development in succeeding consultations.

2. Partner-building

This proposal will be presented to different interested parties within the undergraduate schools for their comments, suggestions, revisions and, should they agree, their partnership in the core group that will establish Partido Pandayan. At this stage, the organizing team will approach and consult with identified groups and individuals, such as progressive student organizations and student leaders on campus.

3. Drafting of necessary requirements & public foundation-building

Current party partners will work together towards the drafting of necessary documents such as the Constitution and Bylaws, list of current members, proposed calendar of events, member educational material, among others. Our efforts to establish a campus political party should be openly conducted for public awareness and discussion, as well as to promote interest in membership. Beyond the key groups and individuals consulted with in the preceding step, the organizing team will now be open to any and all interested students from ADMU.