NOTE ON STATUS. Pending before the Cebu City Council is an ordinance filed by Councilor Rey Gealon, which seeks to provide "a framework for students' rights and welfare." A second public hearing on STRAW, its acronym, was held last February 1, 2023, where support mostly was expressed and concerns, surprisingly, did not include money. It's due for second reading, according to Atty. Chappy Piramide, chief of the Sanggunian secretariat, said Monday (February 20).
OFTEN AN IRRITANT. Bits of conversation by campus journalists often include the matter of funds. Money for the operations of the student council and the school publication is sometimes used or withheld by the school administration to control student participation in the affairs of the school, particularly on pronouncements of student leaders and writers on sensitive issues in the campus.
Control over funds may lead to control over management of the student government and the student press. Without the money, student government activities may be hamstrung, the school paper may be silenced.
The reason is that the money can be efficiently collected only by the school administration, which has the power to withhold tests or grades to exact payment, along with tuition.
PRESS FREEDOM IN CAMPUS is provided in the two measures. Both the national law -- Republic Act No. 7079, Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991 -- and the pending ordinance in the Sanggunian profess to guarantee the right of students to publish a newspaper or similar publication and determine its editorial policies.
The CJA provides that the publication published by the student body shall be run by an editorial board and staff selected in a "fair and competitive examination." And its editorial board "shall freely determine its editorial policies and manage its publication's funds."
The pending ordinance grants the same rights to publish and run the newspaper according to its own policies.
IS ORDINANCE NOT A DUPLICATION of the national law? There's no "specific enabling law" and in its absence, Councilor Gealon told me last January 22 (2023), "Local government powers may be upheld as an implied power incident to an explicit grant of power pursuant to the general welfare clause and grant of autonomy in the Local Government Code."
The local ordinance supports the national law in, at least, its persuasive influence. The ordinance expresses the local will as the congressional act expresses the national will.
Local ordinances are presumed to be valid until an aggrieved person assails its constitutionality or legality court and the highest court upholds the complaint. Duplication by itself is not a defense but conflict of provisions may lead to a legal battle.
STRINGENT RULES ON STUDENTS' MONEY. The national law CJA identifies the sources of funds for the school paper, namely, "savings from the school's appropriations, student subscriptions, donations and other sources." DepEd or Department of Education is prohibited from withholding school savings and other funds intended for the school publication, while subscription fees collected by the school administration "shall be released automatically to the student publication concerned."
The Gealon ordinance expressly requires that the school publication "shall be financially autonomous from the school administration" and any "student publication fee" shall be collected from the students and shall be held in trust by the school administration." And the school shall not impose any policy that will "hamper access" of the editorial staff to the fund. Plus, the school administration "shall be prohibited from using such fund." What can be clearer and tougher than those rules?
The Gealon ordinance is even more strict and precise on the handling of the "student council or student government fee." The administration is required to collect the fee and turn over the collected amount to the student council or student government "within 15 days from the start of the semester or school period."
Interestingly, while the national law is silent on accounting of funds, the city ordinance tacks on the requirement of a financial statement to be published by the editorial board at the end of each term. Similarly, the student council is required under the ordinance to "release a financial report at the end of each term." No provision though on how the student journalists may question the correctness of the amount of money held in trust for the students by the school.
SECURITY OF TENURE. Another interesting area of comparison is the security of tenure of the editors and their staff. Under CJA of 1991, a student editor or writer "shall keep his status as student in order to retain his membership in the publication." That's a crack in the law that a school administration may use to kick out an offending campus journalist. But wait: another provision says that no student shall be expelled or suspended "solely on the basis of articles he/she wrote or on the basis of performance at the student publication."
The city ordinance, in comparison, provides that the campus journalists shall have "security of tenure for the duration of (their) prescribed term" and may be removed only "for cause and with due process."
PENALTIES. The CJA of 1991 does not provide for penalties in case of violation while the Straw ordinance – far wider in scope of student's rights and welfare, including controversial subjects such as right to protest inside the campus and a say on increase of fees – has penal provisions.
Gealon's ordinance punishes "any person who shall willfully interfere with, restrain or coerce" any student in the exercise and enjoyment of rights guaranteed by the ordinance. The penalties are a fine of from P3,000 to P5,000, escalating as the number of offenses rise (up to three; after that, it's no longer punishable?).
Officials in government whose duty includes investigating any complaint on a violation of the city ordinance may be charged administratively. The ordinance doesn't say if the City shall initiate the filing of charges, a final straw in protecting students' rights and welfare.