Cebu Citizens-Press Council

March 14, 2023

Luis V. Teodoro, former two-term dean of U.P. Diliman College of Mass Communication and newspaper columnist, was regarded by his colleagues as a press freedom stalwart. He taught journalism and helped produce journalists skilled in their craft and faithful to its values.  He was both educator and practitioner. Seventeen years ago, working with Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Teodoro  and Melinda Quintos-de Jesus, CMFR’s executive director helped three Cebu editors found the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC).

Pegeen Maisie Sararaña , a Cebu Normal University graduate, was described  by her paper as a “budding journo” who reported mostly crime stories for Cebu Daily News and Inquirer.net.  CDN said she was in Negros Oriental “as part of her assignment to document the Pamplona massacre.”  Pegeen told a friend she couldn’t leave journalism “for now  because  somehow ka feel sad ko nga  I belong here.”

Dean Teodoro, 81, died of heart attack Sunday midnight, March 12.  News reporter Sararaña, 24, died on a motorcycle Monday night, March 13.  She died after an Elf truck crashed into the motorcycle she and her boyfriend rode on, while they were waiting at a street corner in San Jose, Negros Oriental.

Circumstances of their death differed hugely, although the grief of those who knew and loved Luis Teodoro and Pegeen Sararaña cannot differ much.