To write is already to choose.

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

• Jose Cosido
NATIONAL PRESIDENT
(The Catalyst, PUP)
brown_rimbaud@yahoo.com

• Rowie Madula
SECRETARY GENERAL,
(Matanglawin, ADMU)
rowimadula@atenista.com

• Jason Valenzuela
DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL
(The Catalyst, PUP)
JasonValenzuela@gmail.com

• Leo Angelo Nery
VP FOR LUZON
(Matanglawin, ADMU)

• Kristine Marie Musni
VP FOR VISAYAS
(Tug-Ani, UP Cebu)

• Paolo Dumayac
VP FOR MINDANAO
(Atenews, Ateneo De Davao)

NATIONAL SECRETARIAT

• Shineth Fabian Kiram
(The Catalyst, PUP)

• Frederick Dabu
(Manila Collegian, UP Manila)

E-MAIL US
cegpnational@yahoo.com
guilders_2001@yahoogroups.com

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines is an alliance of tertiary campus publications nationwide. Founded on 1931, CEGP is a patriotic and democratic alliance of over 750 student publications nationwide. It is the national center for the advancement of campus press freedom.

CEGP is considered to be the largest, oldest existing, and the only student organization of its kind in the Asia Pacific Region.

An alliance of tertiary student publications.

Membership is open to all tertiary student publications.

It has over 750 student publications as members from more than 500 schools in 68 (out of 78) provinces and cities nationwide.

A patriotic and democratic organization.

It is patriotic. It ardently struggles against foreign domination and control in economy, politics, culture and all spheres of national life.

It is democratic. It upholds and defends the interest and welfare of the Filipino people.

This commitment has kept the CEGP as one of the oldest- existing and widest youth organization in the country.

The national center for the advancement of campus press freedom.

It is steadfast in advancing and protecting the right of every student to seek, receive and impart information to any medium without any interference.

Structure

The biennial National Student Press Congress is the highest policy- making body of the CEGP. It is composed of member publications. It adopts the Two-Year General Program of Action, elects new national officers, accepts new members and adopts positions on issues.

The biannual National Council meeting is the second highest policy- making body composed of elected and appointed local and national leaders.

The best collection of new and read books.

105-A Scout Castor Street, Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City 1103, Philippines

Wednesday, 10 November 2004

Attention: NCR PUBLICATIONS and BLOGGERS

We are inviting all NCR publications and bloggers for a night of music, poetry and camaraderie. This activity is dedicated for the continuing efforts of the youth in expressing and airing their voices on different spheres of life including economy, politics and culture and maximizing all forms of media in upholding the interest of the people.

Poetry and acoustic performances from guilders and bloggers are highly encouraged.

Registration fee is pegged at P20.00 per person

See you there!

posted by: tarantadingerzee at 10:47 | link | comments |

Saturday, 06 November 2004

Attention Publications: LUNDUYAN PRESS RELEASE

Around 200 campus journalists, college students, and budding writers
participated in the 6th Luzon-wide Lunduyan journalism and arts
workshop held at the Casa Marinero, Intramuros from October 25 to 27.

The Lunduyan skills training, which coincided with the 27th National
Capital Region Student Press Congress, was organized by the College
Editors Guild of the Philippines in cooperation with The Lance, the
official student publication of Colegio San Juan de Letran.

Founded in 1931, the CEGP is a patriotic and democratic alliance of
750 tertiary student publications based in more than 500 campuses
nationwide. It is the oldest existing inter-school organization in
the country and the only one of its kind in Asia. It has also
remained and has been acknowledged as the only national center for the
advancement of campus press freedom.

"To be a campus journalist in such highly controversial and
challenging times is the best training for future leadership," Rep.
Teodoro A. Casiño of Bayan Muna stressed in his keynote speech.

"As campus journalists, we should not only know what is right and what
is true. We should also have the guts and the skills to tell other
students and the public what is right and what is true. And more than
that, we should be active in fighting for what is right and what is
true," added Casiño, who previously served as CEGP national president.

In its aim to develop the writing skills of the youth and likewise
raise their social and political awareness, Lunduyan featured 32
classes on basic, intermediate and advance journalism skills training
as well as forum discussions on contemporary socio-political issues.

For the first time, the workshop also offered a course on short
filmmaking through the efforts of non-profit media group Sine
Patriyotiko. SIPAT also screened "Mula 3rd Avenue Hanggang sa Dulo,"
a documentary on the lives of three young gangsters who found a route
away from hopelessness. Shot in an urban poor community, the film
also presents the bleak situations, cutting contradictions and
discounted thrills of the dwellers living amid abject poverty.

"The basic theme of Lunduyan, `A writer's sanctuary is with the
people,' is not detached from our general orientation, `To write is
already to choose.' Lunduyan aspires to link the personal and
political struggles of a campus journalist with the marginalized
sectors of our society," CEGP National President Jose Cosido
explained. Lunduyan is a Hiligaynon term for sanctuary.

Cosido, former editor in chief of The Catalyst, official student
publication of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Sta.
Mesa, stressed that the CEGP "believes that the campus journalists are
not isolated with the broad masses. They exist with them, suffer with
them, and therefore, fight at their side."

Among the speakers were Prof. Bobby Tuazon of the Center for
Anti-Imperialist Studies, Carlos Conde of The New York Times, Inday
Varona of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and
former CEGP national presidents Ruth Cervantes – Casiño and Ronalyn
Olea.

Also lending their time and resources were representatives from the
Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights, Amado V. Hernandez
Resource Center, Anak ng Bayan, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan,
Bulatlat.com, Gabriela-Youth, Gabriela Women's Party, Health Alliance
for Democracy, Ibon Foundation, Kabataang Artista para sa Tunay na
Kalayaan, Kabataan ng Migranteng Pilipino Para sa Bayan, Kilusang
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Kilusang Mayo Uno, League of Filipino
Students, National Union of Students of the Philippines, Pinoy Weekly,
Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines, Promotion of
Church People's Response, Samahang Nagtataguyod ng Agham at
Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan, Student Christian Movement, Tunay na
Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa Katutubo, and Tinig.com.

"Aside from Lunduyan, where the skills of campus journalists are being
developed, we also have other campaigns and projects in line with our
continuous struggle for the advancement of campus press freedom," said
CEGP National Secretary-General Rowie Madula.

Madula, former researcher and finance officer of Matanglawin, official
Filipino publication of the Ateneo de Manila University, added that
the CEGP is currently supporting the cause of Ang Pamantasan of
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, where the administration expelled
two editors and suspended 11 staff members for allegedly publishing an
article about the Statements and Liabilities of top school officials.
The CEGP is also campaigning for the re-opening of The National of
National University, which, ironically, is one of its four founding
members.

Aside from Letran, PUP, and Ateneo, other participants came from the
Asian Institute of Maritime Studies, Aquinas University of Legaspi
(Albay), Bulacan Agricultural State College, Catanduanes State
College, Colegio San Agustin – Biñan, Eastern Quezon College, Emilio
Aguinaldo College, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and
Technology, FEATI University, Leon Guinto Memorial College, Mapua
Institute of Technology, Philippine Christian University, Philippine
Normal University, Quezonian Educational College, Republic Central
College (Pampanga), San Beda College, University of Makati, University of Northern Philippines
(Ilocos Sur), University of the Philippines – Diliman, UP Manila, and
Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation (Pangasinan).

The CEGP also held its first National Council Meeting under the 32nd
National Student Press Congress at the Loro Training Center, Benggao,
Bakakeng Central, Baguio City from October 28 to 31.

_____________________

The role of the campus press in these trying times

BY REP. TEODORO CASIñO

Bayan Muna Party List
October 25, 2004 (Lunduyan Keynote Speech)

I would like to congratulate the College Editors Guild
of the Philippines and its present leadership for organizing this
annual Lunduyan Luzon-wide journalism and arts workshop. Thank you
very much for inviting me. Alam n'yo namang CEGP will always be close
to my heart not only because I was its former president but because my
wife Ruth was also a former president of the Guild. In fact, our love
story can be traced to a CEGP workshop in 1999. Kaya mag-ingat kayo,
ha. Hindi lang journalistic skills ang nade-develop sa mga CEGP
workshops. Baka pati kayo magka-developan.

Kidding aside, I am indeed honored and happy to be part of this
gathering of campus journalists from whose ranks I'm sure will arise
our country's future leaders. Why am I so sure of this? Because to
be a campus journalist in such highly controversial and challenging
times is the best training for future leadership, be it in journalism,
politics, literature, economics, law, business, the academe. Name it,
the Guild has it. Our roster of Guilders, starting from CEGP founder
Ernesto Rodriguez, is a virtual who's who in national leadership.

Indeed, we are in one of the most trying times of our history. People
are starting to say we're ripe for another EDSA. A few months ago,
Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself admitted that the country is in
a fiscal crisis, meaning the government does not have enough money to
support its operations and pay its debts. Her officials corrected
her, saying we are not exactly there yet, but no one believes them.
The last time an economic crisis of this proportion happened was in
1983, three years before the dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in
the first People Power uprising.

Because the government is so desperate for funds, so many solutions
are being floated, many of them knee-jerk, half-baked and even
harebrained. Nariyan ang patawan ang mamamayan ng mga panibagong
buwis at bayarin. Nariyan ang bawasan ang internal revenue allotment
ng mga gobyernong lokal. Nariyan ang huwag munang mag-sweldo ang mga
pulis. Ang mag-ambag ng piso-piso ang bawat isa sa atin upang
maipantustos sa kakulangan ng badyet ng gobyerno. As usual, taumbayan
na naman ang papasan ng mga kapalpakan ng ating mga opisyal.

Our youth and students are affected by this so-called fiscal crisis,
especially since this is the main reason why the budget for education,
health, housing, and social services will once again be reduced. At
siguradong may epekto sa atin ang mga solusyong hinahain ng gobyerno,
mula sa pagtaas ng pamasahe sa pagtaas ng presyo ng text, mga libro at
iba pang bilihin at serbisyo.

The nation is in crisis and the youth and students, the campus
journalists especially, have to be part of the solution. We will,
after all, reap whatever it is that will be done to solve the problem
so as early as now, we have to be part of that corrective process.
The question to be asked of us one day is, what did you do to improve
the situation? What did you do to change the rotten system in
government and society at large?

Pero teka. Bago tayo bumunot ng piso para iambag sa gobyerno. Bago
tayo pumayag sa pagtaas ng buwis. Bago tayo magsulat, gumuhit,
magsalita o umaksyon, kailangang mag-isip muna tayo. Tandaan, ang
solusion na hindi pinag-isipan at hindi nakabatay sa tamang pagsusuri
ay malamang na magpapalala ng problema, sa halip na magbigay lunas.
As the doctor says, a correct diagnosis is already half the cure.

And that is one big role of the campus journalist: to analyze the
problems in our schools and in society as well as the solutions to
these problems. Alam n'yo kasi, kapag tayo'y tumanda na, wala na
tayong oras halos para pag-isipan ang mga ito. Magiging masyado na
tayong busy sa paghahanap-buhay. Sa pag-iisip kung saan kukuha ng
perang pambayad sa bahay, sa tubig at kuryente, sa tuition at baon ng
mga bata, sa panggastos sa gamut at ospital. But as students, you are
lucky because you are expected to do nothing but think most of the
time. You are in school precisely to study, analyze and learn not
only in the classroom but also outside the classroom.

Kaya't kung pinag-aaralan natin ang pangalan ng iba't ibang halaman at
hayop, o kung bakit E=mc2, siguro nama'y tama lamang na pag-aralan
natin kung bakit patuloy ang gera sa kanayunan, o kung bakit tumataas
ang presyo ng langis, kuryente, tubig at iba pang bilihin. O kung
bakit naganap ang World Trade Center bombing noong Setyembre 11, 2001.
O kung bakit may paulit-ulit na fiscal crisis sa Pilipinas.

Just a few points about fiscal crisis. First of all, this not the
first time that this has happened. The fact is, since the Marcos
dictatorship, we have been perpetually in a fiscal crisis. Two things
show this: first, the chronic budget deficit since the 1970s; and
second, the ballooning public debt. Do you know, for example, that
since 1981, there were only four years that the government did not
have a budget deficit? This was in 1994 to 1997. Why? Because this
was the time the government sold Petron, the Manila Hotel, Fort
Bonifacio, MWSS, Philippine Air Lines and a host of other valuable
assets. Pagpasok ni Erap, wala nang mabenta, that's why nag-budget
deficit na naman. And that's why the government is so keen today in
selling the National Power Corporation.

Do you also know that more than $80 billion have been paid to our
foreign creditors, yet the debt keeps on piling up, now reaching more
than $57 billion? And that next year, 52% of all government spending
will go to debt payments? Kulang daw ang nakokolektang pera ng
gobyerno sa buwis, but the fact is, for every peso that the government
will collect, 85 centavos will go to paying our gargantuan public debt
which has reached P5.3 trillion! We are, in fact, going to pay our
creditors P1.8 billion pesos a day next year! That's equivalent to
6,000 classrooms or 1,800 two-story day-care centers every day for the
next 365 days.

So you see, the problem is not in the low tax collection. Even if we
pass GMA's eight tax measures, the chronic fiscal crisis will not
disappear. In fact, and this is the worst cut of all, the President
wants the tax measures approved to assure the banks that we are doing
something about the problem so that they will lend us more money.
Ibig sabihin, ita-tax na nga tayo, mas lalo pa tayong ibabaon sa utang.

Why won't the eight tax measures work? Because they don't strike at
the roots of the problem. The reality is that our economy has been so
designed as to be a constant hemorrhage. Since we gained independence
in 1946, we have been importing more than we have been exporting. We
have been paying more than we have been earning. We've pinned our
development on foreign capital, blinding ourselves to the fact that
when foreign capital comes in, four or five times the profits go out.

Our industries are oriented towards the needs of other countries. Our
main export used to be abaca. Now it's people.

The sad truth is, for so long now, we have been the dumping ground for
the excess products and capital of the US and other imperialist
countries, as well as their source for cheap raw materials, cheap
semi-manufacturers and cheap labor. This semi-colonial, semi-feudal
character keeps our economy in perpetual crisis as the multinational
corporations and international banks keep on bleeding us of profits
and usurious interest payments. That's globalization for you. To
keep this evil system in place, a system of corruption is needed to
make our officials tow the line while deception and state violence are
used to quell the people's dissent.

Sa ganito kalaki at kalalim na problema, sa tingin n'yo ba'y tatalab
ang piso-pisong patak? As long as we don't change economic policy, as
long as our government officials and business leaders continue to be
willing pawns in the game of imperialist globalization, no amount of
tax measures can get us out of the rut.

But now that we know the problem, it will be easier to know what the
right solutions are. Kadalasan, simple lang po ang ating pagpipilian:
ang tama o ang mali. Ang interes ng karamihan o ang interes ng iilan.
Ang interes ng dayuhan o ang interes ng mamamayan. Ang interes ng
iba o ang interes ng sarili.

At this point of our lives, it is still easy to choose what is right.
So let us train ourselves to do the right things. When we grow older,
the pressure will not be in choosing what is right or wrong. It will
be in making what is wrong right. Ang pinoproblema ng marami sa ating
opisyal ay hindi kung ano ang tama o mali, kundi kung paano gagawing
tama ang mali. In more journalistic terms, the choice, once you are
up there, is not between the truth and a lie, but how to make that lie
a truth.

As campus journalists, we should not only know what is right and what
is true. We should also have the guts and the skills to tell other
students and the public what is right and what is true. And more than
that, we should be active in fighting for what is right and what is true.

In our society today, there is an ongoing struggle between right and
wrong. Between truth and lies. I do hope that your two-day workshop
helps you make the right choices and arms you with the right skills to
fight for those choices.

Perhaps I have said enough. Ang masasabi ko na lang, magpakatotoo
tayo! Makibaka, huwag matakot! Dream, believe, struggle with the people!