The SAMAHAN Central Board (SCB) decided to recall the draft of the SAMAHAN Constitution from the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) last May 18, Saturday, according to SAMAHAN President Ralph Robin Tongcua.

In an interview, Tongcua told Atenews that the SCB has decided to push for the recall as it wants to review and revise last year’s draft. He said that the SCB asked last year’s Constitutional Commission last April to present the drafted constitution. After reviewing last year’s draft, the SCB has decided that it would be fair and appropriate for the draft to be thoroughly reviewed before proceeding with the plebiscite, he said.

“The intention din naman to recall it is since it is a new board and new studentry, it has to undergo proper review because the one who benefited from the constitutional draft nitong last year is the students at that time. In other words, it is appropriate that if you sit as the new board, before you proceed with the plebiscite, you need to review everything,” Tongcua said.

Before the second semester ends, a new draft will be presented after a review of the previous and the new draft will be ready for plebiscite, he said.

Nevertheless, Tongcua clarified that the process of writing the new draft will not go back to zero yet it will still go through three readings before it will be presented to the student body. In fact, the process will be easier this time since they will use last year’s draft as a template for this year.

But was the Constitutional Commission informed about the planned recall? He answered that they should have known about the recall since some of the members of the previous Constitutional Commission were present in the meeting last April.

However, he admitted that there was a misunderstanding as the SCB did not issue a board resolution before they called for a recall.

To settle things, the SCB will conduct a dialogue with the Constitutional Commission tomorrow.