by Gian Carla Guido
Last December 4, 2021, law school student councils sent a joint statement to the Association of Law Students of the Philippines (ALSP). The joint statement contained complaints over the National Conflicts of Law (NCOL) held last November, as well as demands for a public apology and a transparency financial report.
The grievances included were: (a) scheduling issues of the games; (b) disregarding agreements regarding rules and regulations; (c) failing to act upon grievances relayed by the LSGs; (d) failing to provide official receipts; and (e) overall lack of professionalism.
When asked about how the almost month-long event was originally planned, Juan Carlo Santos, President of the San Beda College Alabang – School of Law Government (SLG), said that the councils had a Zoom meeting with ALSP, where they initially agreed that the event would start on November 7, 2021.
“There were plenty of problems in the scheduling, so that’s why it took an entire month to finish everything. It wasn’t supposed to be that long since there were only a few games, but what ALSP kept saying was that they didn’t have any manpower, or something along the lines. Also, sometimes they don’t give reasons for the rescheduling. They just say, ‘Oh we’re sorry, we’re moving it next week.’”
Santos said that the scheduling issues were especially evident with the quiz bee, in which participants Emmarie Sese, Jinwoo Kim, and Raymond Gratela waited around a month for it to start.
“You know how quiz bees go, it’s a one-day event. How hard is it to handle an event like that? You just have to prepare questions. The problem was that ALSP did not prepare guidelines which were fair for everyone. Instead of fixing the guidelines, they just moved it to another date so they could have time to prepare. The consequence of that, of course, is that the players’ time will be affected. We’re law students. Time is really precious to us, it’s gold.”
Santos also mentioned that ALSP made a Viber group chat where the councils, ALSP, and the players could coordinate and voice their concerns. He claimed that the group chat was chaotic, there were fights, and that there were times when ALSP could not answer their questions, which caused frustration on the part of the councils and the players.
Santos then spoke about the problems regarding the official receipts. He said that ALSP would promise to send them on a certain date, then would renege and promise to send them on a later date, which made it difficult for the councils to make their audit and liquidation reports to their respective accounting offices. ALSP eventually sent the official receipts after the councils sent them the joint statement.
“Here’s the funny thing. When we sent out the joint statement to the secretariat e-mail, that’s when they sent the official receipt. The post- assessment report, no. They just sent out the official receipt.”
The ALSP Secretariat’s reply, according to Santos, to the emailed joint statement of the councils stated: “Acknowledge [sic] Receipt of your email. The entire ALSP is currently busy working on the 32nd National Convention. Responses are delayed. Thank you.”
On a final note, Santos called ALSP “very consistent” and revealed that the councils patterned their joint statement from a previous joint statement regarding the NCOL back 2017, which covered nearly identical grievances. He also declared that SBCA-SOL will not be renewing its membership with ALSP during his term as President of the SLG.
When asked for comments on the joint statement, then ALSP Secretary General Marie Czel Ongtangco declined to comment and said, “The ALSP have [sic] a Board of Trustees and the concern is already raised to them.”
NCOL 2021 Chairman Justin Vince Macasaet also refused to comment, but revealed that ALSP, through its National President-Elect Alexis Vien Regala, had decided to issue a public apology after dialogue with the councils on December 12, 2021.
On December 16, 2021, ALSP released its public apology and post-event evaluation survey for the NCOL. In the apology, Regala acknowledged ALSP’s shortcomings in the handling of the NCOL, thanked ALSP’s members for their patience, and looks forward to serving ALSP’s constituents for the incoming term. ∎
2021 Joint Statement – 2021 Joint Statement – https://www.facebook.com/sbcaslg15161718/posts/1941634982707714
2017 Joint Statement – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1237240739647157&type=3
ALSP Letter of Apology – https://www.facebook.com/alspnationalofficial/posts/4778718798857525
NCOL Post-Event Evaluation Survey – https://www.facebook.com/alspnationalofficial/posts/4778739838855421