Student publications in many universities around the Philippines have experience having

their freedom to express their opinions, barred by the university administrations. In accordance
to such situations, organizations aimed to protect and uphold students’ press freedom and
democratic rights have been established.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) is the oldest alliance of student
publications in the country. CEGP continuously support and defend member student
publications inhibited by their own universities to publish. CEGP publish these cases in their web
page.

One of the cases the CEGP had a word in, was the extermination of University of the
East’s official student publication, Dawn, November 2011. The Dawn faced multiple issues at
that time. The Dawn’s editor-in-chief allegedly withdrew P120,000 from the publications
account and ‘disappeared’. The university’s student council also complained about a satirical
issue released by the Dawn, saying it damages the university’s image.

The administration then stopped the collection of P50 from students to fund the
student publication, saying that the Dawn editorial board and staff are in charge of fund
collection. The administration also took charge of the Dawn and cleared out the entire staff.
They then held an exam to those who want to be part of Dawn but no one passed the exam,
before officially abolishing the publication.

Another case of campus press freedom ‘assault’ was done to UP Baguio’s official student
publication, Outcrop. Professor Ma. Rina Locsin-Afable filed a libel case against then editor-in-
chief, Jesusa Paquibot, for allegedly prosecuting the professor’s character in the satirical column
of the publication. Paquibot was prosecuted by the Baguio Municipal Trial Court in accordance
to Article 360 of the Revised Penal Code.

Students and organizations collected P6000 to pay for Paquibot’s bail. According to
Outcrop’s editorial board, the satirical article did not contain the professor’s name and was not
attacking a personality but ‘acts of persons’. According the board, if the Prof. Locsin-Afable
insists that she is the main character in the article, then she is guilty of using her authority to
abuse students, as were the actions in the satire.