Cebu Citizens-Press Council: Reaching out
Media facilities, projects doings
Cebu Citizens-Press Council: Reaching out
Oct. 19, 2017 ( CJJ12 )
We do a lot of consulting. Before CCPC speaks out.
CONSULTATION is the core of CCPC’s work: as forum for media issues, platform for grievance, advocate of free speech and free press, and catalyst for journalists’ welfare.
The Cebu press doesn’t isolate itself within its media platforms. With its citizen partners, the press reaches out and listens. Person-to-person, up close, in forums outside of the newspaper or broadcast station and its vehicle.
Prosecutors and Judges, June 19, 2008. Dialogue between justice beat reporters and prosecutors, judges and the deputy ombudsman on access to information.
Media representatives sit down and talk with government leaders. Or with law enforcers, bishops and imams, prosecutors and judges, election officers and poll guardians, publicists and P.R.O.s, future journalists, among others. Of diverse interests but with the shared ideal of having a vigorous yet responsible press. And in turn they listen to media, in a continuing conversation that, each side hopes, will bring some public good.
Drafts of resolutions and public statements of CCPC are circulated among its members and vetted on legal points by legal adviser Cemla (Cebu Media Legal Aid) before they are submitted to the en banc membership and then to the authority or sector concerned.
Religious officials, Dec. 5, 2006. Consultation with priests, pastors and an imam on the coverage of religious officials.
Understanding of a contentious issue begins with the consultation, in a cluster meeting or at the full-body CCPC assembly. Even before the authority or sector addressed by a CCPC document, acts or chooses not to act on it. At times, that’s rewarding enough. – Pachico A. Seares. 
CCPC resolutions, statements, standards and advisories
2006 Standards on describing or identifying crime suspects | Sept. 21, 2006
2006 Standards on covering priests and religious officials | Dec. 5, 2006
2006 Resolution making appeal to media and public officials on Asean Summit | Dec. 5, 2006
2007 Resolution on media coverage of the May 2007 elections | March 20, 2007
2007 Resolution reminding the press of standards of law and practice on the coverage of women and children | March 20, 2007
2007 Resolution opposing Senate and House bills legislating right to reply | Dec. 14, 2007
2008 Resolution on decriminalizing libel | March 24, 2008
2008 Resolution on promoting journalists’ welfare | March 24, 2008
Publicists, Dec. 2, 2009. Consultation with media handlers, PR practitioners and political strategists ahead of the 2010 elections.
2009 Resolution on improving media coverage of the 2010 elections | Dec. 2, 2009
2010 Statement on slapping of reporter Lesley Caminade | Aug. 12, 2010
2010 Resolution on twin issues of prosecuting broadcast networks and broadcasters and legislating standards on covering hostage crises and other emergencies | Sept. 23,
2010 Resolution on the issues raised about the documentary “Corruption of Media: the Cebu Setting” | Nov. 16, 2010
2011 Joint CCPC-Cemla statement on the complaint filed by CDN correspondent Carmel Loise Matus and publisher/acting editor-in-chief Eileen Mangubat against Police Supt. Henry Biñas | Feb. 22, 2011
2011 Statement on the murder of broadcaster Marlina Flores-Sumera | March 25, 2011
2011 CCPC-Cemla resolution on the policy on summons from local legislatures | June 30, 2011
2011 Statement on CCAIB move vs. Superbalita and Banat News | August 4, 2011
2011 Resolution on House Bill 2901 proposing amendments to provisions on libel in the Revised Penal Code | Dec. 6, 2011
2011 Resolution on the proposed ordinance, originally titled Anti-tabloid Ordinance but already overhauled and re-titled, seeking to ban obscene printed materials in Cebu Province and to create an Anti-Obscenity Board | Dec. 6, 2011
2012 Statement on death of Isagani Yambot | March 6, 2012
2012 Resolution reiterating support for libel decriminalization | March 29, 2012
2012 Resolution requesting approval of consolidated bill on the Freedom of Information Act of 2012 | Sept. 20, 2012
2012 Resolution questioning provisions on internet libel in the new Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 | Sept. 28, 2012
2012 Statement on FOI and Sotto law | Nov. 29, 2012
Police, June 30, 2011. Discussion with police officials on guidelines for media coverage during crisis situations.
2013 Personal statement of Pachico Seares on Sugbo TV closure | Jan. 3, 2013
2013 Statement on the death of June Kintanar | Jan. 4, 2013
2013 Personal statement of Pachico Seares on the suspension of Bobby Nalzaro’s column in SunStar Cebu | Jan. 10, 2013
2013 Statement on CCPC lauding policy on parading suspects | Jan. 30, 2013
2013 Resolution reiterating support to, and urging passage of, bills that aim to benefit community journalists and media | July 18, 2013
2013 CCPC-Cemla joint statement on Leo Lastimosa’s conviction of libel | Aug. 30, 2013
2013 Statement on the murder of Jesus Tabanao | Sept. 16, 2013
2013 Statement on the journalists affected by typhoon Yolanda | Nov. 14, 2013
2014 Resolution congratulating and expressing appreciation for journalism honors won by Nini B. Cabaero and Eileen G. Mangubat | Dec. 5, 2013
2014 Statement on the FOI bill | March 12, 2014
2014 Resolution expressing the stand of the CCPC on the decision of the Supreme Court declaring online libel as constitutional | April 10, 2014
2014 Statement on Caib raids | July 8, 2014
2014 Resolution repeating and clarifying stand of CCPC on obscenity and confiscation of printed publications by the anti-indecency board | July 17, 2014
2014 Resolution on proposed amendments to Cebu City ordinance on anti-obscenity | Sept. 25, 2014
2014 Resolution encouraging the community press to help curb impunity through vigilance against conditions that promote it | Dec. 11, 2014
2015 Statement on Paris massacre | Jan. 8, 2015
2015 Statement on Sotto Law amendment regarding media accreditation | Jan. 20, 2015
2015 Statement on ombudsman policy of releasing information, documents to media | April 20, 2015
2015 Statement on declaration of Sept. 21 as Cebu Press Freedom Day | Sept. 9, 2015
2015 Statement on House, local legislatures approving Press Freedom Day | Sept. 17, 2015
Election stakeholders, Dec. 10, 2015. Consultations with the Commission on Elections, and election watchdogs C-Cimpel and Dilaab Foundation.
2015 Statement on death of Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc | Dec. 26, 2015
2016 Statement on the death of Napoleon Rama | Jan. 11, 2016
2016 Statement on President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s views on media killings | June 1, 2016
2016 Statement on the executive order on FOI | July 24, 2016
2016 CCPC resolution #1, Series of 2016 requesting local governments to help fulfill the intent of Freedom of Information (FOI) as initially provided by Executive Order No. 02, series 2016, signed by President Duterte July 23, 2016, and as proposed in an FOI law to be enacted by Congress. | Sept. 22, 2016
2016 Opinion on the proposed Freedom of Information Ordinance of the Cebu City Council | Nov. 6, 2016
2016 Opinion On Gov. Junjun Davide’s Executive Order #15, S. 2016 | Nov. 24, 2016
2016 CCPC resolution #2, Series of 2016 on Mandaue’s gag order | Dec. 1, 2016
2017 CCPC Advisory on news feed from Malacañang | March 3, 2017
Pachico A. Seares
Atty. Seares is former editor-in-chief of SunStar Cebu, Superbalita [Cebu] and SunStar Yearbook. He writes for SunStar, including Explainer news, opinion columns News Sense and The Short of It, Bzzzzz, and the media column Media’s Public. He’s also SunStar public and standards editor, editor and founder of Cebu Journalism and Journalists Magazine, and executive director of Cebu Citizens-Press Council.