Bulacan campus journalists decry

closure of school paper

  | Updated August 9, 2005 - 12:00am
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MALOLOS — Editors of the school publication in Bulacan’s

largest public university have decried the closure of their newspaper.

Sheena dela Cruz, editor-in-chief of Pacesetter, the official student

publication of the Bulacan State University, told The STAR that the
decision of the school president, Rosario Pimentel, to padlock their office
and stop their operations is a serious attack on press freedom and a
repression of academic freedom and civil liberties.

In an office memorandum dated August 3, 2005, Pimentel ordered Dela

Cruz, Rose Ann Sanciangco, Chrismil Maning, Glesselle Adona, Don
Johnson Manlapig, Lester Bryan Tonga and Lourland Paul Delumen and
all other persons acting in their behalf, orders and instructions, to
physically vacate the office of the Pacesetter and cease from operating it
on grounds that the editorial board organized themselves without any
sanction from the university administration as provided for by the Campus
Journalism Act of 1991.

Pimentel added in her order that the editors "used the Pacesetter as a
vehicle in attacking maliciously the good image of the university and its
responsible officers."

Dela Cruz said that with what happened, the students felt a little less
secure about the system of education in the school, since they have
nowhere to go when the administration curtails their right to expression to
seek redress from grievances.

David Michael San Juan, former managing editor of the campus paper,
said that the editorial board would continue to fight for their right to
expression and be the vanguards of democracy in their school.