Central Student Council (CSC) aspirants clashed over each others’ stances during Tagisan 2025 on Saturday, April 5, at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. (BGPOP) building.

During the “Para Sa, Tungkol Sa” portion of the debate, candidate for secretary Nashville Mauricio, auditor aspirant Joseph Coronel, and public relations officer (PRO) candidate Nathan Blaza agreed with the exclusivity of UST festivities for Thomasians. Meanwhile, vice president aspirant Annie Agon disagreed and other PRO bet Heavenly Nerizon voted abstain.

The candidates also had contrary standpoints on some University issues, such as usage of AI in the academe, dress code regulations, student organization requirement of community development projects, presence of activism in the campus, declaration of deadlock of UST Faculty Union (USTFU) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and wash days.

The annual mandatory debate was organized by the UST Commissions on Elections (Comelec) and TOMCAT-UST. It allowed aspiring CSC candidates to introduce their platforms and participate in discussions on pertinent issues affecting society and the student body.

Exclusivity of events

One event that has been exclusive to only Thomasians is the traditional Paskuhan festivities.

Since it resumed in 2022 after the pandemic, the event has remained exclusive only to Thomasians for safety reasons and crowd management.

In October 2022, the UST Office of the Secretary-General announced the return of Paskuhan, three years after it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is limited to the Thomasian community and alumni, adhering to physical distancing policy.

Despite the restrictions, reports of non-Thomasians attending Agape 2022 circulated and became controversial on different social media platforms.

Some Thomasian students shared the alleged security breaches they heard and witnessed during the event, including the QR codes and IDs of students being rented to enter the university.

The Office of the Information and Communications Technology (OICT) discontinued using QR codes for Thomasians’ access to buildings and for identification on April 1 this year.

Following the reports of security lapses, the security office heightened its security measures and conducted an ocular inspection inside the campus to locate the “loophole” spots where outsiders could gain unauthorized access to the University, particularly at the UST Hospital and Carpark.

Similar to Paskuhan 2022, the same security measures of non-Thomasians for Paskuhan festivities were implemented in 2023 and 2024 with a three-stage inspection through the process of bag search, tapping of school IDs and Alumni cards upon entry, and security tagging to ensure the University’s safety and security.

The Campus Safety and Security Office (CSSO) also strictly prohibited harmful objects, such as deadly weapons, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, drugs, lighters, glass bottles, flammable objects, and other items that could harm the community.

The Paskuan concerts usually start in the afternoon with performances from Thomasian and OPM bands and conclude at night with a fireworks display at the UST Grandstand.

As of Paskuhan 2024, the CSSO reported that the Paskuhan crowd increased to 42,655 from 39,638 in the previous year despite the event being off-limits to non-Thomasians.