The news of the University of Mindanao demanding its student publication Primum to take down a literary piece about Vice President Sara Duterte was not the first time that a school administration in Davao had tried to silence the campus press.

That brings me back to those memories back in my college years, as a member of the student paper in Ateneo de Davao and of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines, witnessing fellow writers from other publications being confronted for their writings.

In 1993, a student editor in chief wrote a short story using a first-person view of a student experiencing sex with a prostituted woman, which ended up with him hospitalized for STD.  The story had a lesson to tell, but what the college administrators saw was a reckless story that tarnished the school.  He was called to a college assembly and in front of the students made to apologize. Take note, his story was fiction, it did not even mention the school.

In 1994, the New Mindanao Collegian, the predecessor of UM’s Primum, published its lampoon issue filled with satire about the students’ woes and jokes on the school administration.  Its front-page photo was attention grabbing, a screaming headline with the words: “Hoy, Mga Ungas!” and a photo of an anti-Vietnam protester flashing his finger.    That issue was seized, some of it burned, and became a collector’s item.

In 1995, the editor in chief of another conservative college was expelled for expressing his support to faculty members who staged a strike.  He was told to retract his position, he stood by his principles, bravely.

Looking back, I imagined how these experiences happened within a decade after People Power 1.  Imagine when school administrators and students were united before fighting a dictatorship, fighting for freedom, but later administrators tried to stifle the student press.  Our lesson then was to fight, as we, the Martial Law Babies generation, have learned and valued the power and freedom of the press to express a collective voice searching for fairness and of better things for the community.

Thirty years later, these young Gen-Zs and Gen-Alpha in student pubs are continuing that journey.

Thirty years later still, administrators like UM, try to stifle the student writers.

UM’s Primum published the story “Ang Alegorya ng Mananakbo” (Allegory of a Runner), written by someone under the pseudonym Silakbo. It alludes to the Vice President who announced she will run for the presidency, that she could run faster than the late Asian Sprint Queen Lydia de Vega, and run away from all the problems she caused and thrown at her.

That four-paragraph allegory was sarcastic, but that’s what allegories are about, short tales that talk about morals, and politics.

But the school officials reacted in a way that wanted to stifle the young writers.

In a MindaNews report, school officials approached editors of Primum, asking them to take down the literary post on their Facebook page, reminded them to “be apolitical”, and then a threat: “face the risk of scholarships and the shutdown of Primum.”  (the details of the story here: https://mindanews.com/top-stories/2026/03/how-an-allegory-on-the-dutertes-led-to-the-shutdown-of-ums-primum/)

The editors and staff of Primum resigned on March 6.  Its Facebook page was suspended.  The page was re-opened earlier this week, with a call for applications for new staff and editors.  That allegory post is no longer there.

That story may have been erased, but one cannot erase the damage done by an administration towards its student body.

The administration’s reason that a publication should not write anything political, besides being outdated, misses the essence of what a student publication is all about.

The existence of student journalism is to develop critical thinking, responsible citizenship, and most importantly, learning to think and argue with facts.

Student journalism will tackle anything that concerns its community, its city and the country. 

That the vice president with roots in Davao expresses her intent to run for the highest position, but still has to answer over allegations of corruption and competence, is a matter that students need to discuss, as the youth comprise a large population of voters, and their future is at stake.

Denying the essential role of the student paper, it reduces Primum to a publication of school activities, in short, a promotional and marketing page.

Denying the right to discuss politics on its paper, the administration deprives the student body of a venue to do so, and makes biased FB pages filled with disinformation and emotions to take over.

I hope the administration understands this; the students have done no wrong.

I hope they listen to members of the UM community, organizations, alumni, and even publications from other schools, who have shown solidarity to the resigned Primum editors and staff.  By standing by their story and by the principles of journalism, they showed they have independence and integrity.

If there’s any lesson to be drawn here, it’s not the students who need to be taught about journalism, about restraint or anything.  It’s the administration that needs to understand that the kids are alright, questioning things through creativity and collective thought.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Tyrone A. Velez is a freelance journalist and writer.)