Combining the collected fees from the students and the remaining balance from the previous semester, the SAMAHAN Central Board (SCB) assumed a total budget of P966,483 for the second semester budget, an increase of over P200,000 from the approved budget last semester.

Unlike the previous semester where clusters took the budget’s largest portion, the offices and departments were granted the largest chunk of this semester’s account with P345,692 allocation.

The initial SAMAHAN budget was only P692,700 from the SAMAHAN Fee of P100 collected from 6,927 enrollees this semester but was amassed to P966,483 from the balance of P273,783 forwarded from the previous semester.

Under the SAMAHAN offices and departments, the Commission on Elections, which is an autonomous organization, were approved of P70,000 from its proposed financial plan of P90,000.

As presented by SAMAHAN Treasurer Chyna Marie Legaspina, the COMELEC had the largest funds out of the other offices and departments as it will be utilized in the upcoming SCB Elections.

The Commission on Audit, and Students Rights and Welfare Office had a budget of P11,000 and P8,248, respectively.

Likewise, the departments under the Office of the President, Vice President, Secretary General, and Treasurer were considerably allocated a budget to utilize.

On the other hand, clusters were granted P308,291 and were divided accordingly into nine clusters, dependent on their number of enrollees.

The voting system for the clusters transpired during the budgeting hearing with the choices of P10,000, P15,000, and P18,000 as the base budget. Consequently, a base budget of P15,000 was approved.

The Computer Studies cluster had the largest portion of the budget, amounting to P66,426.58, from the base 15 budget of 18,185.43 and a balance of P48,241.15.

Upcoming events for the semester

EcoSummit, Loyola Awards, AdDU To Cart, Jumpstart, SAMAHAN Upskill, and Ateneo Parliament 2023 were the events to look forward to this semester.

The SCB laid out the budget allocation for all the events where the approaching face-to-face EcoSummit event was appropriated a P60,000.

On the other hand, the Loyola Awards and SAMAHAN Upskill had a budget of P50,000, AdDU to Cart and Ateneo Parliament 2023 with P40,000, and Jumpstart with P35,000.

Accordingly, the Council of Class Presidents was allocated P37,500 of the funds.

The summary of the SAMAHAN 2nd semester budget can be viewed here.

The Office of the SAMAHAN Treasurer Budget Hearing was held on January 7, 2022, via Zoom.