The Bayaran’s Truth

​The noise struck loud on June 4, when Senator Rodante Marcoleta used a government institution as a platform to launch baseless attacks and throw unwarranted accusations against the press. More than a month later—today, July 25—the very subjects of his disparagement celebrate National Campus Press Freedom Day. Student journalists across the country return to that moment to ask a fundamental question: has their service to the truth never been enough?

​Throughout the years, media workers and student publications alike have been silently subjugated by suppression. Many in power have threatened the press in favor of self-interest. Yet even amid censorship, one truth stands and deserves to be resounded today: journalists are not “bayaran” simply because they choose to report facts that do not align with personal or political narratives. They are not paid hacks because they choose objective fact-finding over conformity to partisan agendas.

​Perhaps it is not only the senator who must listen, but the ordinary citizens who doubt and the aspiring journalists who fear as well. National Campus Press Freedom Day is not commemorated merely to recognize student journalists; it exists to protect the very mechanism that gives sound to marginalized voices. 

With full honesty, it must be said that the media does not report facts to fit convenient political factions; it reports based on evidence to inform the public and defend democracy. When evidence contradicts a politician's narrative, it cannot automatically be dismissed as bias or paid propaganda. Truth remains objective regardless of whom it supports or exposes.

The vilification of media institutions and student publications that aim to report truth for the sake of public interest is a direct act of censorship. The credibility of journalists must be tested, but not to the point of intimidation that threatens press freedom. There is a clear distinction between the right to free speech and the choice to publicize derogatory statements. Disagreement is valid, but disrespect and harassment are not.

Condemnation from a public official carries an impact far beyond a mere remark; it reduces a critical democratic practice to a cheap political trade. From an individual alone, that is offensive, but from a government figure no less, it is damaging and dangerous. Media networks, journalists, and campus publications are independent truth-tellers by design, not politically motivated paid hacks by pronouncement. 

Government officials must be held to a higher standard due to their inherent power and influence. Reckless attacks do not enforce that benchmark—they diminish it.

At a time of widespread disinformation and narrative distortion, calling those who serve to report facts without bias “bayaran” transcends institutional indignity; it contributes to the denigration of truth itself. A difference in views is personal, but a gap in veracity is pervasive. When facts are reduced to mere opinion, journalism's utility turns futile. Societies, schools, and democratic systems cannot function in a dichotomy of truth.

Political pressure must not intimidate independent voices and institutional postures to the detriment of truth and public information. The irresponsibility of a lawmaker to claim that a fact is distorted simply because it is misaligned with personal beliefs is a deliberate, politically charged sabotage of structural integrity.

Senator Marcoleta is a public servant. Journalists prioritize public welfare. Today, on National Campus Press Freedom Day, he should start asking why he is the one on trial in the court of public opinion rather than the individuals he so carelessly branded as “bayaran.”