Student paper Today’s Carolinian, born by the struggle of the student movement in USC
By Marivir R. Montebon
Today’s Carolinian, the student paper of the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, came alive because of the anti-Marcos student movement in Cebu. In 1981, when Pres. Marcos technically ended Martial Law, progressive-minded students immediately began to resurrect organizations that had been shut down in 1972.
My alma mater USC witnessed the rise of the student government, primarily through the STAND party in 1981. Two years later, the student publication was established in 1983 also upon the effort of the STAND party.
Known as Today’s Carolinian, after the defunct The Carolinian (shut down in 1971), the student paper formally came to life when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated and the Philippines was a smoldering volcano. It chronicled the fierce political sentiments of students at that time and mirrored our typical college life.
I was in my freshman year in 1983 when I saw the billboard posting of the competitive entrance exam for the editorial board. Without hesitation, I took the test and passed.
Of the 200 entrants, I was one of the 20 pioneering campus journalists for Today’s Carolinian. To say that I was happy when I got in the paper was an understatement. I was joyful! I always wanted to take up Journalism, but my father opposed it vehemently, citing the dangers of being a journalist.
But fate would have its way. I practiced journalism on campus. I became the journalist that I wanted to be without having to pay tuition.
Dr. Jose Eleazar Bersales was the first editor-in-chief of TC, in 1983-84. I was then a News Reporter. Noel Flores became the EIC in 1985-86 while I was the Managing Editor. I became the first female EIC in 1986-87, coinciding with the presidency of Cory Aquino after the historic EDSA uprising.
In those years, the student movement in USC witnessed and actively pushed for the fall of Marcos. Cebu and the entire country were in a delicate state of gathering itself from economic and political turmoil. There was so much to be done on all fronts. It was the worst of times, but the best of times for my personal and political growth. I look back at it with awe that I was there, bearing witness and actively contributing to the healing of my suppressed nation.
I remember with a heavy heart the activism of Fr. Rudy Romano, a desaparecido Redemptorist priest, who a few days before his disappearance, spoke in a political forum in USC. He borrowed my ballpen to scribble some notes and was unable to give it back to me. Romano was abducted by the military a few days after. He was never to be found again.
As a young journalist, I reckon that I heeded the greatest advice from National Artist Dr. Resil Mojares, then our editorial adviser, who told me to try to be a journalist, not a propagandist. That sank into me deeply and eventually embraced his advice. But it took years to sharpen the art of storytelling from the people’s perspective.
Journalism meant having to write based on what people felt and experienced and doing research without outrightly imposing my own political perspective on their stories. In short, to write about life as it unfolded into journalistic pieces, without editorializing it.
Today’s Carolinian and STAND provided me the environment for a robust political and personal growth, and lasting friendships too. #
