By Ray Chen S. Bahinting
A FEW DAYS before the end of the campaign period, the standard bearers of Concerted Actions for the Upliftment of Students’ Endeavors (CAUSE) and Students’ Union for Reforms (SURE) political parties are “working hard” to reach out to more students before the election.
The campaign period started last Feb. 9 and will end on Feb. 22.
SURE party presidential standard bearer Gil Buenavista said: “[The campaign] is physically, emotionally, mentally, and academically draining.”
Buenavista said that since the campaign period started, it has been a challenging and stressful week for the SURE party.
The SURE party already campaigned to different colleges like the College of Business Administration (CBA), College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Computer Studies (CCS), College of Education (COE), Institute of Rehabilitative Sciences (IRS), College of Nursing, and School of Public Affairs and Governance (SPAG).
However, Charmaine Malata, vice-presidential candidate of SURE party, said that they were not able to conduct a room-to-room campaign in the College of Agriculture during the first week of campaign period.
Malata also said that they were able to campaign at the CCS lobby, not room-to-room.
Meanwhile, the CAUSE party has already campaigned to colleges like SPAG, CBA, CAS, COE, CCS, College of Mass Communication, and Medical School.
However, Cedrick Antiquina, vice-presidential standard bearer of the party, was only able to campaign at the Medical School for the first week of campaign schedule because he was out of town for the Ayala Young Leaders Congress.
Ina Elnar, the presidential candidate for CAUSE, said: “I really had to prioritize the campaigns especially last week since I was alone; Cedrick was not present so I had to tell them personally our platforms and for them to get to know me better pud.”
Room-to-room campaigns for both parties were specified by the Commission on Elections.
Maximizing Social Media
COMELEC legalized social media campaigning in Facebook and YouTube. Both parties agreed that the new campaign platform reaches more people.
Malata said, “We were focusing on social media because it’s a new feature and it’s more effective. Like, when you post something, it can reach to about twelve thousand people compared to traditional campaign nga mano-mano.”
Buenavista, on the other hand, gave credit to the Creatives Team of the SURE party, which was responsible for their posters and informational videos about the SURE party standard bearers and representatives.
Moreover, CAUSE party is also making use of Facebook and YouTube to campaign.
Elnar said that part of their strategy is to post the names and pictures of the representatives every day. She added that the members of the CAUSE party changed their profile pictures or cover photos to get the students’ interest to get to know them better.
Antiquina said: “Our vision and platforms are posted online so that the students will feel that even though it is not already school hours, they can still get to know the people who are running under the CAUSE party.”
The SURE and CAUSE parties have created their own public Facebook pages which can be visited online.~
