Tainted Triumph 

The Editorial Board | March 02, 2026

What should have been a moment of honor and recognition, has collapsed into a public display of mismanagement. The 2026 Reconfigured Regional Schools Press Conference (RRSPC), hosted by Rizal Cluster in Region IV-A CALABARZON was meant to restore its journalistic prestige but instead drew widespread public scrutiny from many campus journalists and school paper advisers due to the announcement that did not only fail to execute well but also after the flawed release of official results exposed troubling lapses in organization and quality control. For a competition that trains young journalists to value accuracy and credibility above all else, the mishandling of its results was not merely disappointing, it was unacceptable.

The new format, as explained by Dr. Gilbert Joyosa, Education Program Supervisor and Campus Journalism Focal Person of the Department of Education (DepEd) Antipolo, is as follows: JournCamp composed of Day 1 and Day 2, followed by Performance Task 1 then the announcement of Top 40 for individual events while top 13 for group categories. This followed the region's recent third-place finish at the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) after nine consecutive years of dominance, reflecting a clear intent to raise standards and reclaim excellence. However, the problem was not the reconfigured format itself, but the flawed and disorderly release of official results, an error that contradicts the very principle of reliability and responsibility that journalism upholds.

What followed was a chaotic release of results, which included the announcement of reported lists and the series of erratum releases. There were also some results announced on the official RSPC Calabarzon Facebook page that had to be corrected due to incorrect rankings and misplaced qualifiers for categories such as editorial cartooning, sports writing, copyreading and proofreading, and science and technology writing, which could have been easily avoided if only the results had been cross-checked. This led to the approval rating of the page dropping drastically from 100 percent to 40 percent, which reflected the discontent that the public had with the organization.  However, the multiple revisions did not simply imply clerical blunders but also created an image of the institution's unreliability and the results' validity.

The absence of a clear and consistent release schedule compounded the confusion. Hundreds of student journalists and advisers waited late at night, uncertain of their standing. According to DepEd Regional Memorandum No. 859, s. 2025, Performance Task 1 was held on February 24, with the announcement of winners to follow thereafter in preparation for the Final Performance Task on February 25. Nevertheless, the delayed and staggered announcement of results interfered with the stated schedule, with some categories, such as photojournalism, editorial writing, and feature writing, having to proceed with the finals the following day. An apology was issued on February 26, which promised fairness and accuracy, but it came too late, as confusion had already been sown. In the process, recognition was granted, then withdrawn, leaving merit tangled with preventable error.

While the organizers acknowledged the mistake, acknowledgment alone was insufficient to restore confidence at the moment it mattered most. The reliance on successive erratum posts functioned as temporary fixes rather than decisive clarification. Matters were further complicated when an AI-generated caption appeared in one of the official posts—an oversight that raised concerns about attentiveness to journalistic standards. For the hopefuls whose chances were elevated and then taken away due to typographical errors, thus depriving them of the professionalism and certainty they deserved. Months of preparation were overshadowed by errors that could—and should—have been avoided.

Ironically, instead of being remembered as having a meaningful and enriching experience, the latest RRSPC has resulted in distress among the student journalists, especially the graduating members who attended the event as their final milestone in the field. One elementary student from Dasmariñas Elementary School openly condemned the mismanagement of the event, as seen in the disorganized and erroneous way the results were released. Such testimony proves the severity of the mismanagement on the part of the event organizers, as it has resulted in scars in all levels of campus journalism.

This is not a matter of oversight or a technical glitch; it is a flagrant lack of responsibility. When accuracy is no longer a concern and verification becomes a secondary issue, the ground on which journalism is based begins to slip away. It is the responsibility of the new RRSPC organizers that such mistakes are never repeated again. This failure, in the end, has brought the competition itself into question—no longer the pure symbol of excellence, but a tainted triumph.