Appointments, by-default wins, and a thin pool of candidates have become familiar whenever May rolls around for Societatis Lingua Artes (SOLARES), the election season for the mother co-curricular organization of the Department of Communications, Linguistics and Literature of University of San Carlos. This had reportedly been the norm since 2024, and the last true elections conducted for SOLARES were for the academic year 2022-2023, where K-Jay Remoto, one of three key initiators of DCLL’s capstone event Sulyap sa Sining, emerged victorious.

Since then, SOLARES elections embodied a process quite unlike the democratic nature of elections. This brings about a question that must trouble the department more deeply: if no one steps forward, who exactly are DCLL supposed to vote for? 

DCLL welcomes the next school year fine and dandy, without a trace of the battle it took to ensure that a proper succession took place across the summer, and the freshies arrive in August none the wiser on the struggle. But COMELEC will be built again for the struggle to seek out the successors of SOLARES, and the same cycle shall return. The student organization specifically built to represent the communicators, poets, and linguists of USC is repeatedly left waiting for a few from the pool of these very students to see themselves as capable of leading it.

The pressure became even clearer after Remoto’s administration, whose strong performance set a difficult standard for those who followed. When Gian Capitan’s administration entered, the question was not only whether they could lead, but whether they could fill the “shoe sizes” left behind by their predecessors. That image captured the anxiety of continuity. How does one inherit an organization after a successful administration without being crushed by comparison?

Capitan’s administration also faced its share of criticisms, including concerns raised over the 2024 acquaintance party, the perceived lack of activities despite a semestral fee increase, and workload imbalance to name a few. These concerns may have contributed to the push for a new slate under Vallar’s “Sinag” — the Tagalog word for rays of sun, attributed to hope and change — which dominated the 2025 elections.

If Remoto’s successes encouraged Capitan, and Capitan’s shortcomings encouraged Vallar, then the present question becomes unavoidable: what will encourage the next set of leaders?

Does the hesitance stem from the fear of failure? Fear of judgment? An inkling that there is always someone else to take it up, or a belief that our actions do not matter in the grand scheme of things? 

Or is it comfort of staying outside the work, where one can criticize freely without ever becoming the responding body? The comfort of holding the safe choice?

That comfort may feel safe, but it has consequences. It becomes visible when students scroll past acquaintance parties, workshops, exhibitions, and department activities organized elsewhere, only to wonder why their own organization seems absent. It will be visible on Affinity Week, USC Days, and SAS Week, when other organizations show up while the one meant to represent DCLL struggles to do the same. An empty slate is not just an election problem. It is a warning sign.

In truth, leadership is difficult. Our national leaders attest to that. But it is hard because it is a hardened skill — not a talent to be born with, but a skill to be honed. Infants are not born with the label of confident, witty, intelligent, charming, or any configuration of adjectives amounting to a leader. Your preceding leaders also thought themselves lacking, but because comfort is fleeting, they had to step up.

Every preceding administration had every reason to reject the call. Capitan inherited the pressure of a towering legacy. Vallar inherited an organization that needed repair and rebuilding. They had very few similarities, but the most important part is that they both rolled their sleeves, and rebuilt what had to be.

The next leaders will not be perfect either. The confident will doubt. The witty will be wrong. The intelligent will be confronted by what they do not know. And the charming will fail to appease every single constituent. But leadership is not proven by the absence of mistakes; it is proven by the willingness to correct them, and to keep deciding on matters that matter.

Maybe when you’re in the position, you will post the masterlist of unsettled dues of your peers, some of which are incomplete or incorrect. But at least, you are handling the funds of the next Sulyap sa Sining. Take the willingness to be accountable, and you will already be doing more than those who leave the work to someone else.

DCLL does not need to vote for a messiah who will never falter. It needs leaders who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work.