The Philippine Collegian - Brief History

Brief History

First known as the College Folio (1910) and Varsity News (1917). As the College Folio, it was one of the undergraduate journals in the Philippines. 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.

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.

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 editor in chief Homobono Adaza, for example, was expelled for an editorial criticizing the UP administration.

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 communist and socialist-led groups. Several of its editors, including Abraham Sarmiento, Jr., Antonio Tagamolila, and Enrique Voltaire Garcia III, were either killed or died prematurely on account of their harassment by the Marcos government.

Since the ouster of Marcos during the EDSA Revolution, the Collegian has regularly undergone changes in format, withstood controversies regarding the selection of its editors, and remained a critical voice as part of the alternative media.