THE CAMPUS Journalism Act (CJA) is supposed to protect campus press freedom in the country. But violations appear to have been committed in schools nationwide since the law was enacted in 1991.
UST, despite having a vibrant campus press tradition, is no exception. Recently Hiraya, the student publication of the College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) found itself financially paralyzed because of the refusal of the Dean’s Office to release the college journal fund.
“Hiraya has never released an issue because the dean never returned our proposed articles for publication,” Masajo told the Varsitarian. “The office also has not given us the actual amount of our relatively unspent publications budget which has accumulated for two years now.”
It has been more than a year since the publication was formed but Hiraya staffers have yet to touch the publication fund, which has ballooned to P563,000 as of the first semester of the academic year, according to the financial index of the UST Budget Office.
Masajo suspects that his criticism of the CFAD student council’s inability to address a nearly month-long water crisis at the Beato Angelico building in his blog led college officials, particularly Dean Jaime de los Santos, to restrict the college publication.
Sought for comment, De los Santos said Masajo’s blog had nothing to do with the non-release of publication funds. He clarified he was only being “cautious” because the previous batch of staffers did not produce any output despite having been given money. The dean said Hiraya staffers have yet to account for funds released last school year.
“The University only entrusted me the money,” De los Santos said. “We see to it that it is spent properly through the submission of liquidation reports by the recipients of the funds,” he said. “I haven’t seen a copy of any liquidation report from the previous (Hiraya) batch.”
But Masajo’s predecessor Jonathan Gamalinda said that his staff needed to train first, being the first batch of writers for Hiraya. Staffers requested P20,000 for a journalism seminar and workshop.
“We requested an amount of P20,000 to cover all the expenses of the seminar workshop, which the editorial board that time felt necessary to help the staffers in (coming up with) articles,” he said.
The expenses were declared in a liquidation report dated December 20, 2006 and later submitted to the Budget Office.
Gamalinda’s staff later requested another P20,000 to come up with the maiden issue. But time fell short for the staffers, who were also busy with academic requirements.
Masajo now claims the Dean’s Office has asked him to make a liquidation report on the previous staff’s second request for P20,000. But Masajo and Gamalinda said not a single centavo from that second fund request went to Hiraya.
These circumstances led Masajo to consult University comptroller Diomedes Yadao regarding Hiraya’s finances.
Masajo said he was surprised to find out that the CFAD Dean’s Office was able to disburse P1,350 (control number 19944), for the subscription of Adobo Magazine, a quarterly advertising magazine, aside from two P20,000 requests.
The first P20,000-entry in the Budget Office’s records pertains to the journalism-seminar workshop. The other P20,000 was requested by Gamalinda as initial funding for Hiraya’s first issue. Records show money was released but remains unliquidated.
According to the law
Masajo filed a complaint against De los Santos before the Rector’s office last November 9, citing Section 6 Rule 5 of the Implementing Rules and Regulation of the CJA to wit: “Publication fees, savings, donations, grants and other funds collected from other sources for the student publication shall be for its exclusive use. The money collected shall not be spent for purposes other than those cited in Section 2 of this Rule. Violation of this rule by the editorial board, any student-staff, faculty-adviser, and/or school administrator/official shall be caused for administrative and/or criminal action against the violator.”
On the P1,350 spent for Adobo Magazine, the complaint stated that “the dean said that he is going to be responsible for it (P1,350) since he considers it valid because (the) budget office released the fund.”
Masajo pointed out that based on the law, at least two signatories from the publication’s editorial board must approve the fund releases.
“The dean was able to disburse the P1,350 without the knowledge of last year’s editorial board. Despite the dean’s argument that he was trustee of the publication fund, still the action is considered illegal because it did not have the concurrence of the previous editorial board (of) which he was not even a member in the first place,” Masajo said.
Gamalinda affirmed Masajo’s statement, saying he was surprised to learn of the purchase of a magazine subscription that the Hiraya staff did not ask for.
Paragraph 2, Section 4 of the CJA states that once a publication is established, the editorial policies and management of the publication’s funds is freely determined by the editorial board.
“In the case of Hiraya, it has not given the dean any authority to withdraw the funds on our behalf,” Masajo said.
The CFAD dean’s Office did not entertain the Varsitarian’s subsequent requests for interviews regarding the college publication.
Journal fee
Assistant chief accountant Marissa Gonzales said college publications get their funding from the so-called “journal fee,” which is part of miscellaneous fees charged during enrollment.
“The University gives these college publications the right to publish and provide funds for their needs,” Gonzales said.
“It is to assure that the journals would have a fund (from) where they would get money for their expenses.”
The amount of the fee collected from each student depends on each college’s discretion. Apart from deciding how much the publication fee is, the dean is also tasked to oversee the management of the publication fund, she said.
But Masajo insisted that the dean’s function is only limited to being the overseer of funds, which means that “he has no power to request any amount of the funds at his own behest, without consent from the members of the editorial board, who directly manages the funds.”
Gonzales explained that college publications may choose to produce a journal or not. If a college publication is unable to produce a journal, their publication funds simply accumulate.
“The excess funds would be part of the next academic year’s allocated budget which will again be used by the journal,” she said.
Where to stand?
Co-authored by UST alumnus and former senator Jose Lina, Jr., the CJA was enacted on July 5, 1991 as part of the government’s policy of promoting campus journalism.
“The student publication, as the term stands, should be for the students to take care of and the zeal of the students in reporting should not be suppressed,” said lawyer and constitutional law professor Rene Gorospe, who is also publication adviser of the UST Law Review, the Faculty of Civil Law’s college journal.
Section 3 of the CJA describes a student publication as “an issue of any printed material that is independently published by, and which meets the needs and interests of, the studentry.”
