104 YEARS OF CAMPUS JOURNALISM

GOING BEYOND SCHOOL PAPER
AND A STORY OF PEN, WORDS AND TRUTH

Hundred and four years of existence may seem too long for a school publication. It means it had witnessed the country's survival to the challenges of history. Hundred and four years means 1903 - just little time after the Spaniards packed their baggage and left the country after three centuries of colonization. The paper was there to take part as the Americans took control over the country, it experienced the ravages of Japanese inhibition, and it became a victim of dictatorship that lead to its temporary closure. Hundred and four years and the paper are still alive and breathing. Its mantras are still the same – towards a progressive campus press – and serving as avenue for students’ voice and story that is fueled with the values of service, fairness, and truth.

At the height of the American’s power over the Philippines, the alleged first campus publication in Negros Oriental, and most probably the whole country, was launched in January of 1903. The periodical was named the Silliman Truth, and the project of putting out this newspaper started off when philanthropist Dr. Horace Brismade Silliman supplemented the ‘small job press’ that Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard acquired during his trip to Japan, with a $400 grant for the purchase of a ‘real’ school press.

Being the first publication of the province, Silliman Truth was not only for campus but also for public or community use as well.

The Silliman Truth was a multilingual newsletter. It used English, Spanish, and Cebuano interchangeably. It contained articles in English, Beatitudes in Cebuano, and a number of other bilingual personal items. For some years the back page of Silliman Truth was given over to Sunday school lessons which were in the vernacular.

In 1920, Silliman Truth was replaced by the bi-weekly The Sillimanian, with the first issue released during the school year 1920-1921. Silliman Truth still existed though, but it was turned as the official publication of Silliman’s Board of Trustees, and came out once a month.

The first issue of the new Sillimanian did not necessarily depart from the original format of the Silliman Truth. Though it was a little bigger in size, it still contained similar items as its predecessor.

The Sillimanian didn’t have a consistent number of pages when it came out fortnightly in the first half of the 1920s, and bi-monthly in the later part of the decade. The pages varied from four to six pages, depending on who the editor was, or how much fund they got to sustain a regular campus paper. Interestingly, the paper was even circulated around the world at that time, especially to the alumni, with a subscription of P1.00 for a year.

The outbreak of the Second World War caused fear all over the province, as the Japanese found its feet on the shores of Negros.

The Sillimanian, together with people from the University, fled to the hills at the height of the war, to avoid the Japanese juggernaut which came to occupy the island, and to settle in the campus.

From the start of the war to when the Japanese started occupying the campus and until the liberation in the mid-1940s, daily dispatches were published by The Sillimanian. It carried wires about what was happening in the warfronts of Europe, Australia, and the Pacific Rim. The paper was used as propaganda to update the citizens of the province. It also published items of encouragement for the troops, and for the Filipinos who were beginning to lose hope.

The 1940s eventually saw the end of the war, the liberation of the Philippines, the subsequent establishment of the Third Philippine Republic under Manuel Roxas, and after almost forty-eight years of American dominance, the Philippines became a newly independent nation on 1946. In Silliman, there was not that much war damage and people began rebuilding the once glorious University, finally coming down from the mountains to reestablish the foremost Christian university in Asia.

To ease the trauma caused by the war, The Sillimanian came up with an ingenious plan to sponsor a contest by recognizing the beautiful faces on the campus. Later on, this became the prestigious Miss Silliman, which was claimed to be the oldest beauty pageant in the country, if not the world.

A lot of things were happening all over the world during the 50s. The Cold War was brewing between the United States and the Soviet Union, and 1953 saw the inauguration of the third president of the new Republic with Ramon Magsaysay.

Meanwhile, in the island of Negros, The Sillimanian continued to be newspaper for the community as well as for the campus. Subscription at that time was P2.00 a year.

To show the multilingualism of the newspaper, the 1950s issues of the paper had a Spanish section. Editorial cartoons lifted from international newspapers with hard-hitting themes about the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union was a mainstay of the paper then.

The lay-out of the paper changed monthly. There were editors for each of the Literary, Society, City, and Spanish sections of the paper. An added feature of the paper was a column titled Pitak sa Wikang Pambansa, where writers wrote in Filipino.

The year 1957 was a significant year of the rise of The Sillimanian. This was the year when it was awarded a First Place certificate by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). The publication was not a member of the Association but it won on its first try.

Being awarded a First Place certificate was one of the highest honors bestowed to a campus publication, and The Sillimanian bested other contestants from the United States and other college publications from all over the world.

Headed by Editor Samuel Occena, The Sillimanian made its presence felt among other campus newspapers by featuring articles that the CSPA considered “very expressive and thought-provoking.” It was truly the dawn of the new The Sillimanian. It was both member of the College editors Guild of the Philippines and the CSPA. It affirmed the status of The Sillimanian as one of the leading campus newspaper in the country.

The mid 1960s saw the ascension of Ferdinand Marcos to the highest office of the land. The following years of the Marcos’ administration changed the whole course of Philippine history, and The Sillimanian was there to play the role of a very vigilant campus press.

The Sillimanian has evolved from a paper that students read for its interesting tidbits about campus personalities and campus life, to a paper that promoted student activism upon entering the dark years of Marcos’ dictatorship.

With martial law declared, the students’ main tool for expressing their thoughts on matters pertaining to the dictatorship of Marcos was through The Sillimanian. A section in the paper, “Ang Bayan,” was devoted to Marxism-Leninism-Kaisipang Mao Tse-tung. This particular section elicited complaints from students, especially from the Student Government, asking why The Sillimanian was being a frontline for the National Democratic Front (NDF) when they should be catering to the students’ needs and interests. The staff retorted that the students should be aware of the present situation. Activism was the fad of the 70s.

Silliman University was at the height of student activism at that time that it paved way to the eventual closure of the University, with no exception to The Sillimanian. Many students were put behind bars and The Sillimanian staffs were not speared.

“There used to be an airy Sillimanian office behind the SU press where we used to spend hours and hours writing reports on heavy-duty Underwood typewriters, discussing trivia, as well as earth moving events and issues—Armstrong’s walk on the moon, Philippine claims on Sabah, the First Quarter Storm, Dumaguete Times, Ferdinand Marcos campaign trail and others.... The significant thing was that everything was significant, and university was life,” recalled current Silliman University Member of the Board of Trustees, Noel Villalba, and former The Sillimanian associate editor (1969-1971)

Former The Sillimanian staff (1975-1976) then later on associate editor of the Weekly Sillimanian (1976-1977), Cecile Madronal Genove shared: “Our journalism class of 1977 has always been a trailblazer. We were privileged to have been tasked with the challenge of comprising the editorial board of The Sillimanian (it was a fortnightly, not yet a weekly) when it was finally revived during the Martial Law. After a year, the paper came out on a weekly basis. The years spent writing for and editing tWS were very memorable. It was in the campus paper that we found an avenue for our creativity. The regiment that we imposed on ourselves as members of the staff taught us discipline. The wisdom that we got from our mentors and advisers has served us in good stead until today.”

The mid-80s ushered in the end of the Marcos dictatorship. The Filipinos had finally awakened from being passive and afraid, joining hand in hand in a bloodless revolution, the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

Sillimanians, on the other hand, especially the staff of the Weekly Sillimanian (the new name of The Sillimanians after it regularly came out in a weekly routine), went to the mountains and had interviews with rebels and military people. The Weekly Sillimanian still wielded its pen in staving off the power being forced upon the people by Marcos.

The 1990s saw the emergence of a new breed of writers for the Weekly Sillimanian. The pages of the paper were full of creative writing articles, spearheaded by creative writer Timothy Montes.

Being part of the Weekly Sillimanian gave not only the values of hard-work, teamwork, and perseverance to its staffers, but it also gave memories and sweet nostalgia.

(1996-1997 staff)
tWS Editor-in-chief Ian Rosales Casocot (1997) recalled: When I became part of the feature staff together with firebrand Dinah Rose Baseleres, I gained entry into a period of the Weekly Sillimanian that would remain to this day its last golden age…. We were also scandalous bunch: we fired two editors-in-chief for various reasons, and transformed the office into a cabaret. I remember Jade Yamut climbing on top of tables to grab the hanging electric fan switch, which she would use as a microphone to sing the songs of Alanis Morrisette. I remember our eternal battles with a crafty midlevel administrator otherwise known as The Witch. I remember Dinah Baseleres making endless prank calls to radio jockeys with irritating American accents. I remember a Christmas party where we all trooped Irma Pal’s house, all dressed in futuristic costumes. Being in the Weekly Sillimanian with that old bunch is one of the best parts of my life. I can even say that that privilege transformed me, and made me what I am today.”

The Weekly Sillimanian did not only became a witness to our nation’s history but it was also there to record it. But a hundred and three years of existence is enough to make the paper an institution and a history in itself.