CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has reiterated his unwavering commitment to safeguarding and advancing press freedom and campus journalism, stressing that he has, in his over two decades of service as an elected official, never stifled the dissemination of information in the media, let alone suppress the rights of professional and student journalists as purveyors of news to the public.

In fact, said Villafuerte, he has long called on the Senate to pass a measure already passed by the House of Representatives, and of which he was lead author, that seeks to protect and promote the welfare of Filipino journalists and other members of the media by granting them their deserved economic benefits and creating an environment more conducive to their safe, productive and free work.

“House Bill (HB) No. 454, which the House passed in November 2022 yet, aims to ensure benefits such as security of tenure, hazard pay, night shift differential pay and overtime pay in recognition of the perils and hazards that media persons are exposed to on a daily basis in the course of their delicate jobs of providing needed information to the public,” Villafuerte, who is president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said.

“It is unfortunate that media workers are usually the ones whose labor rights are ignored, hence the need to institutionalize for them a package of comprehensive benefits at par with the current benefits enjoyed by those in the labor force in both the government and the private sector,” Villafuerte said.

Thus, he said, “It seems far-fetched for me to take any action, as claimed by certain groups, that would undermine press freedom or campus journalism, given that this runs counter to my longtime advocacy for safeguarding press freedom and advancing the welfare of journalists and other members of the media.”

Villafuerte issued this statement in dismissing allegation that he was behind the takedown of a report in The Spark—the official student publication of the Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC) in his province—about a mock election whose results supposedly showed that the outgoing three-term congressman, and three-term governor previously, was trailing his rival in the race for the gubernatorial seat in the May 12 elections.

According to disgruntled individuals, the CSPC administration had tried to censor The Spark for its report on the outcome of this campus survey on candidates for local seats in the midterm balloting.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and local student groups supported The Spark and called on colleagues in the province and the rest of the region to stand with the campus press on this issue.

“In keeping with my advocacy for upholding press freedom and the independence of campus journalism, I recognize the right of student publications to report on developments, including the outcome of local surveys that are conducted with the proper methodology,” Villafuerte said.

“But while I acknowledge such rights of professional and campus journalists, I also have the right to question certain reportage or the presentation of news, such as on the outcome of locally done opinion polling, and I certainly hope that they would similarly recognize my right to respond to such reports, particularly those that concern me and my family,” Villafuerte said.

“I am simply wondering why certain quarters have tried to blow this issue out of proportion by branding as an attack on press freedom my right to express concern over the authenticity of the survey,” he said.

“What I have legitimately raised, though, in response to the report on the survey results is my concern about the accuracy or veracity of the methodology used in the polling, and my fear that the students behind this undertaking—young and guileless as they are—could have unwittingly been used by, or fallen prey, to certain quarters with insidious political agendas in the May midterm elections,” he added.

“In the first place, I have never contacted anybody in the CSPC administration to take down the report in The Spark. The protesters are barking up the tree, and should ask those running The Spark why they took down the report. Or perhaps those who decided to do so did it on their own volition because they belatedly found something was not right about the report or the poll,” he said.

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Ryan Ponce Pacpaco