Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region IV-A CALABARZON
Division of Rizal
Tagumpay National High School
San Jose, Rodriguez Rizal

SUPREME STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Narrative Report for
AUTOMATED ELECTION OF SSG OFFICERS FOR SY 2020-21

I. INTRODUCTION

Tagumpay National High School (TNHS), as an integrated public high school,

follows the DepEd Order No. 47, s. 2014 entitled "CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE
SUPREME PUPIL GOVERMENT AND SUPREME GOVERNMENT IN ELEMENTARY
AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS” and DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2016 entitled "ADDITIONAL
GUIDELINES TO DEPED ORDER NO. 47, S. 2014" issued as a guideline for the implementation
and systemization of the Student Supreme Government (SSG) in all primary and secondary schools
nationwide.

As stated by this order, SSG elections shall be conducted school-wide annually. Pursuant to
this, TNHS has been conducting annual elections for the new officers of SSG to serve for the next
school year. And as an addition to that, TNHS has followed OUA's memo regarding a synchronized
SSG election nationwide that is said to be held at February 14, 2020.

However, as a response to the growing Age of Information, the Department of Education

(DepEd) has created the Digital Rise Program, and the framework of the Public Schools of the Future
initiative, which aims to reform measures and respond to challenges that hinder quality education for
new learners, with IT integration as one of its phases.

With this, the Automated Election System (AES), a nationwide automated election for the
new batch of SSG and SPG (in Elementary level) officers, was developed by the Information and
Communications Technology Service (ICTS), with input from the Youth Formation Division (YFD)
and will be conducted in chosen schools, following an OUA memo.

TNHS has been one of the lucky school participants to hold its pilot automated SSG election
program for its new batch of SSG officers in the School Year 2020-21 on February 14, 2020 (as
pursuant to OUA Memo No. 01-0120-0609, headed by Mrs. Ann Michelle Medina, the school's ICT
Coordinator and Election Head and Mr. Celedonio Borricano, SSG Adviser, and facilitated by the ICT
department teachers, as well as other teachers, student teachers, and student facilitators formed by
withdrawing Grade 10 SSG officers, chosen students under the Commission of Election (COMELEC)
and chosen students to interview and report regarding the happenings of the event.

II. OBJECTIVES

Pursuant to DepEd Order No. 47, s. 2014 and DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2016, SPG and SSG
elections are held to:

 Assign a government body for the students that will follow the SPG/SSG powers, duties and
responsibilities in accordance and follow their duties and functions individually based on their
position.
  Legitimize the government body of the students and the candidates that will take place, as
voted (and shall be acknowledged) by the students themselves, who will be in office to take
accountability and responsibility to what they serve.

As the AES is part of DepEd's Digital Rise Program, the automated election has an aim to:

 "Utilize technology to help aid not just learning and school instruction, but also streamline
administrative, financial, and other processes under the Department," as stated by Alain Del
Pascua, DepEd Undersecretary for Administration.
 Conduct a pilot implementation as an attempt to streamline the voting and canvassing process
of synchronized SPG/SSG elections.

Furthermore, the held election program aims to:

 Integrate a sense of democracy, equality and justice to the students by giving them the
freedom to choose their government.
 Enable the student population to select the leaders in order to promote organization and
stability and to hold them accountable for their future performance once in position.
 Provide political education to the students and give them the awareness, making them able to
hold public discussions and express their own opinion for the betterment of all students.
 Show the importance of the voice of the student population, as it embodies freedom and
democracy for the betterment of not just the students, but also the school.

III. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EVENT

Pre-Election Events

Following the release of the timetable of the synchronized SSG election and the development
and issuance of an automated election system, Mrs. Michelle Ann Medina, ICT Coordinator, has
advocated in order for TNHS to be one of the schools to conduct an automated election, as the school
is capable enough to handle such technology thanks to years of support and excellence from ICT
teachers and hardware given by the Department of Education and tablets granted by Microsoft to the
school.

Filing of Candidacy is conducted pursuant to the timetable, where two parties registered and
were granted to finalize their roster of candidates until February 8, 2020. The two parties are UNO
Supremo, led by Danielle Tabora, the party's presidential candidate and AWIT (Action with
Intelligence and Teamwork) led by Justine Gorres, the party's presidential candidate.

The roster of UNO Supremo composed of:

Position Candidate
President Danielle Tabora
Vice President John Renz Latumbo
Secretary Althea Baculi
Treasurer Alexa Carino
Auditor Liv Axl Calgas
Hope Salonga
Public Information Officer
Giane Pios
Siddha Dela Cruz
Peace Officer
Faye Roco
Faye Marie Ello
Ralph Matias
Grade 10 Representative
Aljie Manrial
Marynelle De Dios
 Princess Anne Dican
Cezel John Panuncio
Ernesto Abrio
Grade 9 Representative
Hannah Sofia Danielle Llanos
Raine Pillarte
Phoebe Hipolito
John Vincent Adame
Divine Grace Barrios
Grade 8 Representative
Krystel Joy Dalumpines
Franz Era Manalang
Alexa Jona Mariano

Meanwhile, the roster for the AWIT Party-list composes of:

Position Candidate
President Justine Gorres
Vice President Angelene Julie Coca
Secretary Gabrielle Torres
Treasurer Au Bercero
Auditor Ace Clark Escoto
Khylla Ebuenga
Public Information Officer
Marco Saliga
Dwayne Loyola
Peace Officer
Yumi Jamito
Renz Geon Fugoso
Steve Mark Santos
Grade 10 Representative Charles Pusing
Hazel Mae Gadian
Adonis Danao
Jashana Mercader
Grade 9 Representative Kyla Grace Gan
Jian Rei Gabriel Macapallag
John Rico Gundran
Grade 9 Representative Anna Mary Balansag
Jenny Mae Baris
Julia Alvarez
Peter June Riveral
Grade 8 Representative Mark Khyan Mercader
Atrhon Quira Seña
Freane Dezerie Maylas

On the other hand, pursuant to DepEd Order No. 47, s. 2014, a Commission of Election
(COMELEC) has been formed from selected Grade 10 students (with affiliations from different clubs)
namely, in no particular order:
Section Name
10-Pilot Rica Mae Balingit (COMELEC Head)
10-Pilot Andrea Jane Latumbo
10-Pilot Jhoanna Marie Badong
10-Pilot Joshua Angelo San Carlos
10-Pilot Nathan Patrick Añonuevo
10-Pilot Sebastian Yuan Benj Ferrer
10-Laboratory Arvin Ramos
10-Edison Elthon Newland
10-Galilei Justine Joy Dekit
 Additionally, work will also be assigned with the withdrawing Grade 10 officers of SSG
namely, in no particular order:
Section Name
10-Pilot Krisha Pernites (Withdrawing President)
10-Pilot Arlyn Mae Balcena
10-Pilot Angelica Joei Jamito
10-Pilot Czarina Dominic Kwan
10-Pilot Jay Laurence Semacio
10-Pilot Micaella Mae Juliano
10-Pilot Mitzi Heart Vicente
10-Pilot Wilver Elson Mendoza
10-Copernicus Rhaniel Angelo Panes
10-Dalton Jurell De Guzman

Altogether, with the addition of Mhecelaica Cabrera (10-Pilot) as one of the event reporters,
they are assigned as the student facilitators under the supervision of Mr. Celedonio Borricano, SSG
Adviser.

Campaign Period and Preparation Process

Following the timetable issued in the OUA Memorandum Number 01-0120-0609, a two-day
campaign period were granted to the candidates in order to promote their-selves and garner popularity
and trust from the student population.

For organization, as there were only two parties who are running for election, a system of
section-by-section promotion was made, where in the first day, the UNO Supremo party will
campaign in the classrooms on the eastward buildings (the Ynares Building 2 and the new DepEd
building) while the AWIT party will campaign in the classrooms on the westward building (the Old
Ynares building), whereon the second day, the two parties will switch/do vice-versa in order to
campaign for the remaining classrooms.

At the section-by-section campaign, all candidates present themselves in front of each class
and they will present their platforms and advocacy in order to promote and share their insights for
their administration. With this, students and teachers are also free to ask and clarify some things
regarding their platforms and the party is free to accept suggestions and take note of comments
regarding their advocacy and administration.

Besides a section-by-section campaign, there is also a conducted online campaign where both
parties share their whole roster and advocate to the students to vote them. This has been allowed given
that all candidates followed the netiquette otherwise a party may have been disqualified already.

As the candidates execute their campaigns, withdrawing Grade 10 SSG officers and
COMELEC officials were soon gathered up to be informed about the election process for the Election
Day. With this, they were instructed to cast their votes early (using both their personal cellphones and
Microsoft tablets) and instructed on how to handle the processes of the election, involving the
registration, the dissemination of tags with usernames and passwords, the proper way of voting and
how to submit it, and how to get acknowledged that your vote is done.

With this, Medina personally showed the student facilitators on how their vote is being
processed as they cast their votes early, eventually making its way to the database and counting the
vote and tally it to the voted candidates, showing a partial unofficial result of the election.
 To further test its functionality, 10 chosen students from 9-Venus were also brought to the
Computer Laboratory 2 to cast their votes early and to give the facilitators a demonstration of how
will the students be instructed and an insight of how will they interact with the Microsoft tablets.

Furthermore, extra work has been done by organizing and printing the stubs per section
needed for the election tomorrow. Connectivity issues detected during the demonstration were given
monitoring to ensure such issue won't be something majorly on the Election Day proper.

Finally, discussions on essential work needed to be done on the election day were made and
finalized in order to be fully prepared for the event and for the facilitators to ready their-selves for
action.

Election Day Proper

All facilitators and election heads arrived at the school as early as 6am in order to prepare for
the Election Day to be held at 8 am.

As early as 6:30 am, the election area was organized - the covered court was prohibited to be
accessed by students; tables and chairs were organized to stand as different areas such as waiting area,
reception area, election area, help and information desk and the post-election area; and the hardware
necessary for the election were brought and organized to the election area, with Medina in charge.

As early as 7:20 am, the first batch of students was already brought to the election area to start
the election process, thus starting the election proper.

The election process starts with students receiving stubs given by COMELEC facilitators,
containing their name, grade and sections, along with their Learner’s Reference Number (LRN) and a
unique code, and then wait until a tablet has been available for voting.

The tablet will ask for a username and a password – in this case, the voter will use their LRN
as their username and the attached unique code as their password. Once accessed, they have to tap one
candidate of their choice from each position namely President; Vice President; Secretary; Treasurer;
Auditor; Public Information Officer (PIO); Peace Officer (PO); and Grade Level Representatives,
where they are assisted by the SSG facilitators.

After confirming their votes, they have to proceed to the table containing the list of voters
where they are obliged to sign with their signature then their right thumb mark, and get marked with
ink in their index finger, signifying that they have already voted and are not allowed to vote again.

Stubs were prepared from as early as time-in until afternoon by the facilitators in order to be
able to cater the arriving students as soon as they entered the election area.

Additionally, specific facilitators were chosen to report the current events of the election
event, also conducting interviews of different students and teachers regarding their opinions and
feedbacks from the election from time-to-time. Such reports and interviews were posted to the official
Facebook page of the school.

Hourly updates regarding the partial unofficial number of votes garnered by candidates from
the President to Peace Officer position were also posted on the official Facebook page of the school
for transparency and for the awareness of anyone who is concerned.

The flow of the students has been sustainable enough for the election flow to continue
functionally. However, the smooth flow of the election was interrupted throughout the whole day with
three issues: a sudden massive inflow of students in the election area, minor connectivity issues and
students that turned out to be not registered yet.
 Individually, each problem affected the quality of the election in terms of time, where
students stay in the election area longer than the expected period of time. However, it imposes a huge
delay of time when two or all three problems occur at the same time. An example of this happens
around 10 am - 12 pm where a huge load of students went to the election area in order for all morning
shift students to vote. However, it turns out that specific students were not registered yet to the
database, receiving no stub from the facilitators in order to be able to vote. Meanwhile, students who
were able to vote experienced connectivity problems as they had to wait a long time for the program
to load and for their vote to counted, with some even failing to reload. All in all, a huge delay caused
the students to stay in the election area as late as the first period of afternoon shift, giving only a little
break for the facilitators and no break at all to the election heads.

Despite the occurrences of these issues not just around that time but also all around the day
(especially the problem of unregistered voters around the Grade 7 students), the flow of the elections
continued to assess all present students. Students who were absent on the day of the election will be
void of getting the chance to vote as pursuant to OUA Memorandum Number 01-0120-0609, which
only gives one day for the election to be conducted. Meanwhile, present students, even unregistered
ones, were taken care of in order to give everyone the chance to vote.
While the issues presented earlier still imposed delays, the election flow on the afternoon shift went
better than expected as the facilitators and election heads went double-time with their work and were
already experienced enough to handle issues which occurred many times enough.

The final set of students were brought to the election area at 5:30 pm, and the last student
voted and were inked on the nail around 6:10 pm, thus completing and accomplishing the whole
election day.

As any event, facilitators and election heads spent the remaining time of the last session of the
afternoon classes by cleaning the event area and finalizing the votes and eventually posting the
official tally of votes in the official Facebook page of the school.

Proclamation of Winners

As pursuant to the timetable in the OUA Memorandum, the winners are proclaimed at the
same day of the Election Day. With this, a public post has been made through the school's official
Facebook page, issuing the results of the elections, displaying all the candidates from President to
Peace Officer, with the number of votes they garnered individually, giving awareness to who wins
each position displayed.

The public post can be seen in https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fb

id=2934159973313013&id=165275553534816. On the other hand, the published results do not
include the Grade Level Representatives in order to ensure that the results regarding the position will
be accurate once published.

Post-Election Events

After clarification of data, the new set of SSG officers were declared as listed, as sorted by
number of votes garnered (for positions to be occupied by more than one person):

Position Candidate
President Danielle Tabora
Vice President John Renz Latumbo
Secretary Althea Baculi
Treasurer Alex Lorene Cyrish Carino
Auditor Ace Clark Escoto
 Hope Salonga
Public Information Officers
Giane Danielle Pios
Faye Roco
Peace Officers
Yumi Gen Jamito
Faye Marie Ello (Governor)
Stevhen Mark Santos
Grade 10 Representatives Raiza Mae Ibay
Shaina Labreno
Hazel Mae Gardian
Princess Anne Dican
Raine Pillarter
Grade 9 Representatives Cezel John Panuncio
Jashana Mercader
Phoebe Hipolito
Grade 8 Representatives Alexa Jona Mariano
Athron Quira Sena
Vincent Adame
Julia Alvarez
Divine Barrios

SSG will take its designation of its Grade 7 Representatives and its assignment of different
Committees and its members on the opening of the next school year in order to complete the roster of
the government head, to be under Mrs. Anna Marie Rogelio as the new SSG Adviser for the next
school year.

Following the OUA's memo mentioned above, it is expected the school's SSG will participate
in the Election of Division Federation Officers to be held at March 9, 2020, who will proceed to
participate in the Election of Regional Federation Officers to be held at March 23, 2020, given that
there will be no schedule changes due to the threat imposed by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-
nCoV) outbreak or other events that can trigger a change in schedule.

IV. FEEDBACK AND CONCLUSION

As the election program ended with all sections visited and brought to the election area; all issues
of the students that impose a hindrance to the quality of the election were solved and all problems, big
or small, were resolved or took care of with swiftness and carefulness, it was a success for the whole
program to be done.

"Maayos naman yung eleksyon ngayong taon. Sakto lang rin sa oras yung pagboto naming lahat.
Mas maganda nga ngayon kumpara last year kasi makabago yung paraan ng eleksyon ngayon. Hindi
sya hassle sa mga estudyante tsaka sa mga magbibilang ng boto," James Andre Rejano, a student
from 10-Galilei, stated.

A lot of students are satisfactory with the process of the election, as it is not hassle and not too
complicated. Also, compared to the elections held before this automated election, this election saves a
lot of paper that won't be wasted just for vote-casting of each student.

The most common good comment of the election is how modern it is - it follows the mainstream
use of technology that fascinates the students, with the lower levels hoping to be able to use the
technology and vote digitally again in the next SSG elections.

Other positive comments include accommodating facilitators and teachers, minor issues solved
fast and quick and the instructions are explained well on some cases.
 While there are a lot of positive comments, there are also a handful of negative comments and
complains from some students, especially those who have pending school work interrupted by the
election process.

"Okay lang naman po yung buong eleksyon kaso po ang problema ang haba ng pila sa pagboto
tsaka sa pagpirma," Christian Lloyd Alipio, from 9-Pilot, shared.

A lot of students' main concern on the election progress is that it consumed more time than
expected, with others consuming significantly more time that it had completely destroyed their
timetable. These occurrences were very common when multiple sections were brought to the election
area in one similar time, making a conflict on their time schedules and wasting a little bit of time that
was supposed to be used for learning in the classroom.

Other critical comments include comments regarding the organization of the place, bad
environment (too hot and too noisy) and unclear explanations on some cases.

"Para sakin, the election is overall good. I feel like it's revolutionary to have a digital election.
And, I also understand na it's just the first time, and there will be a lot of problems encountered since
this is like a trial. Sana in the next years, maging less and less yung problems na naeencounter kasi
dun natin malalaman kung nag-iimprove talaga yung performance ng school sa paghohold ng
ganitong klase ng eleksyon or the opposite," Kency Marquez, from 10-Pilot, commented.

As the students express their feedback and opinion on the event, facilitators also observed some
pros and cons on this election.

"As a facilitator and part of the COMELEC, masasabi kong napadali ang trabaho namin. Kung
last year, inaabot ang COMELEC ng magdamag para lang magbilang ng boto, kami natapos bago
pa mag-uwian ang mga pang-hapon. Doon palang, kita mo na ang improvement," Angelica Joei
Jamito, one of the facilitators of the election, said.

Facilitators told that the students were more enthusiastic on voting as the feeling of voting
digitally is something new and unique. They also followed their orders on how to vote very well, as
they were attentive when they were instructed on how to vote. However, the facilitators also shared
that they went through a lot of problems more than what is expected to be.

"Personally, we have experienced connectivity issues and some issues here and there, pero
naayos naman natin agad para magtuloy-tuloy lang ang flow ng election," Mrs. Michelle Ann
Medina, ICT Department Head and Election Head, shared.

Medina also shared that the encoding process of each student into the voter's system had major
problems especially when two students conflict for having the same LRN in their SF1 record, the
basis for the list of each student's LRNs. Thankfully, each student's issue of this has been solved at the
midst of the election day, as they were guided to provide information needed in order to have a chance
to vote.

Furthermore, facilitators have shared difficulties at locating students who were not in their room
or was supposed to be absent but no one classmate knows. They also shared that some of the students'
behavior are unbearable, as they turn out to disturb the flow of the election process, with some even
left trash on the election area.

Overall, these minor issues were solved accordingly, and any major issues to be solved by the ICT
teachers were also given a solution during the Election Day, so there were no present issues when the
Election Day ended.

V. DOCUMENTATION
 Photos courtesy of: Jhoanna Marie Badong

VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We dedicate the success of this program to all the students of Tagumpay National High School
who whole-heartedly participated and voted, and made the election program successful, as they will
bear the fruit of this program's success and hopefully would be able to develop a successful election
program in the following school years.

With this, we would like to give a big thanks to the stakeholders of this event, for providing aid
and supporting the program that undoubtedly made the program more possible than ever; the loving
and supporting teachers, parents and guardians that guided each student and running officer in order
to make the election program fair, safe, consistent, time-bound and successful.

We also give our uttermost gratitude to the facilitators and the heads of this program: the
Grade 10 withdrawing officers of SSG, the selected Grade 10 COMELEC officials, the assisting
student teachers, Mr. Celedonio Borricano, current adviser of SSG and all the ICT Department
teachers under Mrs. Ann Michelle Medina, ICT Department Head and Election Head, all under the
supervision of Dr. Maria Cristina S. Marasigan, principal of TNHS.

We would also like to express our greatest gratitude to the Department of Education, for
implementing such a wonderful program and provided the most support for this program not just in
TNHS but to all the schools nationwide who also succeeded in conducting a program that needs such
hard work. We would also like to add that we are grateful for having the opportunity to be one of the
chosen schools to implement the pilot automated election, given that the capability to handle such is
also a root of the never-ending support of the department.
 And most of all, we would love to give our best gratitude to ALMIGHTY GOD, who didn't
just made the program possible to happen, but also successful, for it is GOD who guided us in order to
overcome such a challenge and supported us not just in this program, but throughout our lives.

Prepared by:

JOSHUA ANGELO DM. SAN CARLOS MITZI HEART A. VICENTE

SSG Secretariat Committee, SSG Secretary & Event Interviewer
COMELEC Officer & Event Interviewer

JHOANNA MARIE M. BADONG RICA MAE G. BALINGIT

COMELEC Officer & Event Documenter COMELEC Head

Noted by:

CELEDONIO B. BORRICANO KRISHA G. PERNITES

SSG Adviser SSG President

Approved by:

DR. MARIA CRISTINA S. MARASIGAN

Principal IV