Friday, July 24, 2009

ZPPO holds 2nd summit for scribes

THREE campus journalists came out as over-all winners in the recently concluded 2nd Summit for High School Editors and Writers sponsored by the Zamboanga del Sur Police Provincial Office (ZPPO).

The said activity is one of the highlights of the PNP’s celebration of its 14th Police Community Relations (PCR) Month.

President Gloria Arroyo’s Proclamation No. 74 declares every July as PCR month, which aims to develop closer interaction between the community and the police in handling peace and order problems.

Police S/Insp. Teresita Paclibar of ZPPO’s Police Community Relations (PCR) office, informed this paper that for this year, the ZPPO-PCR initiated an on-the-spot Feature Story writing contest participated by 12 campus writers and editors.

The content of the feature story was based on the theme: “PNP Facing the Challenges of the Transformation.”

Paclibar said that ZPPO-PCR’s conduct of the press summit with journalists from secondary schools is to give importance to campus journalism’s role in schools.

Judges of the half-day competition composed of Ann Lu of the Pagadian Times, Ramil Bangues of RMN-DxPR and this paper’s editor.

The winners, in order, were Virren Leigh Duray of St. Columban High School (SCHS); Rachel Alvarez of Pagadian City National Comprehensive High School and Jose Virgel Herrera of SCHS.

It was learned the winning entries of the students will be published in the PNP journal.

Police S/Supt. Ramon Ochotorena, when visited at his office, commented that campus journalists should be taught to focus on both sides of the issue while using their school papers a venue to voice out their concerns.

REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA