“Ayoko magtunog-trapo (I don’t want to sound like a traditional politician),” said Partido IBIG Agila presidential bet Jauro Castro (II AB MEco) as he wrote his platform.

“We have to be more specific,” vice presidential bet Dustin Balictar (III BS MIS) told Castro. “’Wag puro ideology (It should not be just about ideology).”

IBIG Agila is a merger between the five-year-old Partido Agila and the newly formed IBIG (Isa-buhay, Isa-gawa) party.

Bea Gomez (III BS Psy), the party’s secretary-general candidate, explained that the parties merged when they realized that they share similar vision-mission statements. They also wanted “to strengthen both sides [of the parties].”

“Go down to the floor”

The merged party also plans to strengthen the relationship between the Sanggunian and the students. “Go down to the floor,” Balictar said.

“Isama mo [ang mga estudyante] sa iyo (Bring the students with you),” he added. “Assure them that you can do it.”

Castro also said that they want to build a stronger connection between the School Boards and the Central Board to bring everyone together.

Executive Director Gio Tingson (II AB Philo) also reminded candidates to create platforms stemming from IBIG Agila’s ideology, ‘Buklod Atenista alay sa Sambayanan’.

“There are only three important things here: the party ideology, the leaders, and their platforms.”

Shift in campaigning

“The admin has been [telling] us to stop the politicking and all,” added campaign consultant Wen Batocabe (IV AB-MA PoS), in a meeting with other two party members.

Anne Silva (II BS CTM) also questioned the party’s strategy in distributing print materials, saying that in the last elections, they had a tendency to put too many posters in some places.

“They weren’t able to meet the quota last time so maybe they should think of another [method in campaigning],” Silva said.

This year, instead of focusing on print materials in its campaign, IBIG Agila has shifted to a more interactive approach.

“Ang focus talaga natin, at ang gagawin ng mga candidates natin is ‘yung actual campaigning (We will focus on the actual campaigning),” said Batocabe.

Included in their hands-on approach are table-to-table campaigns in the cafeteria, org rooms, and room-to-room campaigns.

Tags: IBIG Agila, Sanggu Election