Tell it to SunStar: CCPC mourns loss of journalists Luis Teodoro and Pegeen Sararaña

Luis V. Teodoro, former two-term dean of University of the Philippines 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 (CMFR), 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 (CDN) 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 Monday night, March 13.

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 Sunday afternoon.

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