Philippine Collegian Explained

Philippine Collegian
Type:Student publication
School:University of the Philippines Diliman
Format:Tabloid
Foundation:1922
1917 (as Varsity News)
1910 (as the College Folio)
Headquarters:Student Union Building, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Custom Label:Layout Editor
Custom:Andrea Isabel F. Medina
Chiefeditor:Rona Q. Pizarro
Assoceditor:Gretle C. Mago
Maneditor:Sean Marcus L. Ingalla
Newseditor:Daniel Sebastianne B. Daiz
Language:English, Filipino
Political:Left-wing

The Philippine Collegian is the official weekly student publication of the University of the Philippines Diliman. It is also commonly known to the university's students as Kulê (in Tagalog kʊˈleʔ/). It is known for its radical, national democratic, often anti-administration views, and gives critical views on the policies of the UP administration and the Philippine government.

History

First known as the College Folio (1910) and Varsity News (1917).[1] As the College Folio, it was one of the first undergraduate journals in the Philippines.[2] The Philippine Collegian was officially established in 1922. Since then, it has become a symbol for academic freedom, critical thinking, and journalistic integrity and excellence.[3] In 1935, the Collegian published Teodoro Agoncillo's review of Ricardo Pascual's book Dr. Jose Rizal beyond the Grave, despite threats of excommunication from the Catholic Church. And in 1951, editor in chief (EIC) Elmer Ordoñez exposed the government's intervention in UP affairs, particularly in the aftermath of UP President Bienvenido Gonzalez's resignation. That period also saw the accommodation of the Filipino language in its content. During the post-war years, the Collegian became increasingly progressive in tackling university-based issues, particularly on "sectarianism" and favoritism in the administration. Despite the widespread conservatism, which equated nationalist sentiments with "communist threats", the Collegian continued publishing articles from socialism to the Hukbalahap movement.

During the Japanese Occupation, the Collegian was largely silent, since many of the university's units were shut down. In 1946, the Collegian resumed publishing, maintaining an anti-colonialist perspective.[4] The 1950s brought to fore issues of academic freedom in the university, heightening the clash of beliefs between the Collegian, the university administration, and the national government. Then EIC Homobono Adaza, for example, was expelled for an editorial criticizing the UP administration.[5]

Articles on the emergent revolutionary movement gained ground in the 1960s, complementing the rise of the student movement against the dictatorship of then President Ferdinand Marcos. During Martial Law, the Collegian defied the media blackout by going underground. The publication formed the radical press together with the other student publications such as the Ang Malaya of the Philippine College of Commerce, now Polytechnic University of the Philippines and Pandayan of Ateneo de Manila University and the publications of various national democratic groups.[6] By the time Martial Law as declared in 1972, the Collegian's nationalist orientation was already established. The publication continued to operate underground, exposing realities that were vastly different from what was presented by government-controlled media. Subsequently, several Collegian staff, including Enrique Voltaire Garcia and Antonio Tagamolila, faced imprisonment and death. While the regular Collegian headed by EIC Oscar Yabes in 1973 headlined UP President Salvador P. Lopez's campus beautification project and weekly UAAP updates, the Rebel Collegian decried the 20-percent tuition hike and the dissolution of student institutions like the Office of Student Regent and the UP Student Council. The Rebel Collegian issues brought to the fore the students' demand for lower tuition and dorm rates, among others, while "taking up the oppressed masses cause in exposing the corruption, servility, and violence of our semi-colonial and semi-feudal society". Meanwhile, the regular Collegian of then EIC Oscar Yabes served as a diversionary propaganda tool with its emphasis on counter-revolutionary literary pieces, with nary a critique of the atrocities under the US-Marcos regime. Yabes would also later come under fire due to his alleged malversation of the newspaper's funds.[7]

The paper remained vigilant even after the collapse of the Marcos regime. In the 1989 editorial "EDSA and UP—Three Years After", EIC Ruben Carranza, Jr. noted that "social injustice and foreign domination" remained entrenched in Philippine society. In the euphoria following the end of People Power, this viewpoint was decidedly unpopular.[8]

The conflicts experienced by the Collegian, however, were not entirely external. Power struggles and challenges in editorship roused many controversies in the past. For instance, the Rebel Collegian came into existence in 1996 after the battle between Voltaire Veneracion and Richard Gappi, rivals for the EIC post that year.[9] The UP community saw two contending Collegians—Gappi's Rebel Collegian and the regular Collegian under Veneracion. The articles in the Rebel Collegian in 1996 bore no byline, although it was an open secret that Gappi led the publication's operations. The newsprint became an arena of the opposing camps from the ideological rift that characterized the Left movement then. On the one hand, Veneracion and the editor before him, Ibarra Gutierrez, espoused social democratic politics, Gappi and most of his colleagues from former EIC Michael John Ac-Ac's staff embraced national democracy. The 1980s and 1990s spurred additional internal disputes as staffers and editors fought to assert competing philosophies.

To the tune of new media’s rising popularity, the editors of the Collegian created kule.upd.edu.ph in the early 2000s, which would later evolve into philippinecollegian.net, and then philippinecollegian.org. The publication posted its issues through DeviantArt until 2013, and later migrated to Issuu. The Collegian introduced real-time news coverage in 2009, when the circulation of live updates on pressing campus goings-on like the student council elections became an exigency.[10]

At the height of the campaign against the 300 percent tuition hike, then UP President Emerlinda Roman insisted on a public bidding for the Collegian's printing press, based on the administration's interpretation of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Act, and thus withheld funds for four months—the publication's longest hiatus since World War II.

In 2018, the fourth iteration of the Rebel Collegian (Rebel Kulê) was released.[11] The controversy began when the Board of Judges of the Philippine Collegian Editorial Examinations, headed by UP College of Mass Communication Dean Elena Pernia, released the list of qualified takers but excluded two Collegian writers, Marvin Ang and Richard Cornelio, on the grounds of their graduating statuses. Law student Jayson Edward San Juan topped the four-part test and the decision was upheld despite appeals from the Collegian[12] and student councils in UP to hold another examination.[13] Sheila Ann Abarra, the managing editor of the past editorial term, served as Rebel Kulê's EIC.[14]

In March 2020, in the wake of pandemic, restraints foisted both on writers and the Collegian’s printing capacity. Thus, the publication transitioned into a fully online one. The exclusively online arrangement made way for long, broad-gauged writing—in June 2020, the Collegian published a 48-page special online issue on the first three months of the lockdown. Now, the publication continues to publish content and news updates on its Facebook, Instagram, and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, pages, as well as its official website, phkule.org.

After a two-year print hiatus, the Collegian, in its centennial year, published a physical magazine in May 2022, in time for the presidential elections that led to Marcoses's return to Malacañang. The magazine format highlighted the Collegian’s slow journalism thrust–a means for the paper to offer incisive commentary for the readership amid the breakneck pace of the pandemic news cycle. Released monthly, a premium was put on long-form pieces with expository analyses. Just this year, the publication has since returned to its traditional weekly tabloid format.

Since the ouster of Marcos during the EDSA Revolution, the Collegian has regularly undergone changes in format and withstood controversies regarding the selection of its editors.[15]

Collegian Editors-in-Chief

Notable alumni

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Valenzuela, Jesús Z.. History of Journalism in the Philippine Islands. Jesús Z. Valenzuela. 1933. May 30, 2008. 22.
  2. Book: Chee, Tam Seong. Essays on Literature and Society in Southeast Asia. National University of Singapore Press. 1981. 9971-69-036-5. May 30, 2008. 148.
  3. Web site: History of the Philippine Collegian. mickeyjagger.tripod.com.
  4. Web site: History of the Philippine Collegian. mickeyjagger.tripod.com.
  5. Web site: History of the Philippine Collegian. mickeyjagger.tripod.com.
  6. Book: Franco, Jennifer Conroy. Elections and Democratization in the Philippines. Taylor & Francis. 2001. 0-8153-3734-5. May 30, 2008. 105.
  7. News: Cornelio. Richard. September 21, 2018. This is not your regular Collegian. Rebel Kule.
  8. Web site: History of the Philippine Collegian. mickeyjagger.tripod.com.
  9. News: Dela Cruz. Ma. Rosa Cer. June 13, 2008. Penned Dissidence: The Philippine Collegian's Tradition of Defiance. Philippine Collegian.
  10. Web site: 2023-09-14 . The Philippine Collegian’s Print Formats Through the Years . 2023-09-24 . phkule.org.
  11. News: The Editorial Board. September 21, 2018. Up the revolution (Editorial). Philippine Collegian.
  12. News: The Editorial Staff. July 28, 2018. A Response to Chancellor Michael Tan's Final Decision to Reject Calls for a Second, Fair Editorial Examination. Philippine Collegian.
  13. News: Singh. Jose Martin. July 23, 2018. TIMELINE 2017-2018 News Round-up. Philippine Collegian.
  14. Web site: Which is UP Diliman's student paper: 'Philippine Collegian' or 'Rebel Kule'?. September 25, 2021. Rappler. en.
  15. Web site: History of the Philippine Collegian. mickeyjagger.tripod.com.
  16. Web site: Philippine Collegian Editorial Exam – UPD Office of Student Projects and Activities.
  17. Web site: May 5, 2018. Jayson Edward "SJ" San Juan named 96th Philippine Collegian EIC. February 16, 2021. UP College of Law. en-US.
  18. Web site: Philippine Collegian Editorial Exam – UPD Office of Student Projects and Activities. February 16, 2021. en-US.
  19. Web site: Puente. Beatrice. September 6, 2020. Editor's Note. https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/128615437219412/3238309142916677 . February 26, 2022 . limited. live. Facebook.
  20. Web site: Philippine Collegian. April 26, 2021. phkule.org.
  21. Web site: Biography of Senate President Drilon - Senate of the Philippines. www.senate.gov.ph.
  22. Web site: Ninotchka Rosca . February 28, 2007 . March 12, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070312010309/http://home.comcast.net/~gayle.mayor/Rosca.htm . dead .
  23. Web site: Profile of Justice Leonardo Quisumbing . August 20, 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070929084245/http://jbc.supremecourt.gov.ph/profiles/quisumbing_profile.htm . September 29, 2007 .
  24. Web site: Untitled Document . April 25, 2006 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050901172049/http://www.supremecourt.gov.ph/profiles/j_puno.htm . September 1, 2005 .
  25. Web site: Supreme Court of the Philippines . January 9, 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070329091721/http://www.supremecourt.gov.ph/news/courtnews%20flash/2006/12/12070601.php . March 29, 2007 .
  26. Web site: Sheila Coronel - Journalism - Philippines - Worldpress.org. www.worldpress.org.

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