Using a column for a personal agenda

JEERS TO Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Ramon Tulfo for using his column to malign an academic institution for personal reasons.

“Parents who have children studying at the College of St. Benilde (CSB), pay attention!”Tulfo wrote in his “On Target” column. “Prohibited drugs are sold by some CSB students on and off campus.”

The column, which appeared Feb. 17, was given the headline: “Drugs prevalent at College of St. Benilde”.

How did Tulfo learn about this? Mainly through his daughter, a CSB student, whom he found had taken a depressant she and classmates had earlier bought from a fellow CSB student. Tulfo said he and his wife found a sachet of marijuana in their daughter’s room. The daughter told him that she had bought it from a pusher in a coffee shop near their school.

He identified the three coffee shops, claiming that CSB students buy drugs from other students and pushers and that the coffee shops have been raided by the police a few times but are still open.

Tulfo wrote that he had gone to CSB Feb. 16 (a day before his column piece) to inform school authorities about “the drug problem among their students but nobody wanted to talk to me.”

“I called the office of the CSB president and vice president from the lobby of the SBA building,” he wrote. “The person who answered the phone said both officials were not available.”

“I asked if there were other responsible officials I could talk to and stated my purpose, but I was told I would have to wait for 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes turned into an hour so I left disgusted,” he wrote.

Although he left his contact number with school authorities, he did not hear from any one of them, said the columnist . Tulfo wrote. “In another school, authorities would have fallen all over themselves trying to hear the complaint of a student’s parent.”

“Based on the reception they gave me yesterday, it seems College of St. Benilde officials are not concerned about the welfare of their students,” he said.

Many social media users criticized Tulfo for using his column to malign the school for a personal reason without checking the facts and for “humiliating” his daughter. An open letter to Tulfo on Facebook by CSB student Stephanie Jaurigue made the rounds in social media. In her letter, Jaurigue criticized Tulfo for implying, among others, that the CSB condones drug use or is even involved in the sale and use of drugs by some of its students.

“To sum it all up Mr. Tulfo, I believe that you could have done a better job in writing a news article (sic) for the Inquirer. As far as I’m concerned, that piece of writing was more of a family issue rather than a news story. Please do not treat a newspaper website as your personal diary,” she wrote.

“Also, before you write a news article, please make sure you have accurate information seeing as that the reputation and credibility of certain institutions are sometimes at stake. (Do I really need to remind you of this? You’re a journalist right? You of all people, should know this.) As far as I know, a lot of people from the masses look up to you because they see you as a credible source of news and information, and even if you deliver with haphazardly written articles like this, they would still believe you and accept what you wrote as truth. Can’t you consider that fact and not break the people’s trust in you as a journalist?” Jaurigue asked.