The Gifts of Twenty Five Years

By Dr. Romola O. Savellon

How does one sum up in a few sentences the toil, the joys and struggles, the little successes and disappointing failures, the sparks of triumph and the depressing letdowns of the past twenty-five years?

The days just sped by, and now I realize: I’ve been acting as adviser to the Ang Suga staff for that long!

This is my last article for the paper as its adviser. Early on, I decided to write a regular column for the student magazine to provide the students some lessons in writing through osmosis, and I believe the technique has borne fruit.

When I accepted the job in 1985, I tried to infuse as much professionalism as I could into that bunch of raw but eager youngsters who ran the publication, and their successors.

I insisted on talent: hence, passing the difficult competitive qualifying examination was a requisite for the budding writer.

Technical training was another requirement. Just like the qualifying exam, the annual Journalism Seminar-Workshop had become a part of the routine of the publication.

Perhaps the students learned their lessons too well. Initially, some quarters in the school grumbled that their ordinary, non-news worthy activities were not given space in the paper, or that some news accounts featured the students who won contests prominently in the lead, while they, the teacher-trainers, were relegated to the last paragraphs. Others complained that the news accounts, obviously already stale, were printed on the inside pages, while the feature stories were given more emphasis. But I told the student writers to stick to their guns.

Ang Suga has been a trailblazer in many ways: for one, I believe our paper was the first campus publication to have a permanent Cebuano section, Tudling Sugbuanon, when most of the academe scoffed at the vernacular as being unworthy of an institution of higher learning.

The 1988 writers even had the audacity to publish a lampoon issue, Ang Suka, in the spirit of Harvard University’s Harpoon! This issue ridiculed all and sundry, themselves the most! That really had the poor sedate and ultra-conservative professors shrieking invectives and hurling fire and brimstone on the heads of the staff and its adviser.

Ang Suga was also the first to serve as an outlet for the poetic outpourings of the staff, ordinary students and faculty, through the bi-annual poetry collection, Iridescence, which first appeared on the scene in 1987.

To organize the articles into a more coherent publication, the thematic manner of presentation was adopted with the first issue that the students produced. This was another pioneering scheme.

Going over the themes, one realizes that again the Ang Suga writers served as trailblazers. The students wrote articles on the urban poor (1987); environmental  conservation, also in 1987; the heritage sites of Cebu (1988); local arts and artists (1992); the positive side of government service (1993); disabled persons (1994); women empowerment (1995); the ocean, in celebration of the U.N. International Year of the Ocean (1988); senior citizens (1999); indigenous peoples of the Philippines (1999); working students and their role models (2000).

Timely and controversial issues were also discussed, such as globalization (1996); the global economic crisis (2009); and the RH bill (2010).

Ang Suga has tried to awaken the Cebuanos’ consciousness of their own history, starting with the commemorative issue on the golden jubilee of the liberation of Cebu (1995), and certain aspects of the history of our own school (2000).

Aside from educating their readers, our writers have tried to uphold the code of ethics of journalists by presenting two sides of every controversial topic such as democracy and communism; by resisting the temptation to use the publication for personal glorification and as a leverage to blackmail people, or to use it to campaign for or against others.

Nevertheless, it has not been smooth sailing all the way. There have been bumps and conflicts along the road, especially when some of the editors were lured by the leftist ideology through what the late Leo Enriquez termed “Operation Ligaw”, in order that the school paper could be transformed into another leftist mouthpiece. Conflicts occurred in 1987, 1992, 1998, and 2003. There was even a time when, failing to entice the Ang Suga editor and win her over to their side, a student writer from another university wrote a libelous article against me in THEIR own publication. But, by the grace of God, we surmounted these crises.

As I make my exit, I would like to leave a few thoughts to the staff and the readers:

One, while it is true that Ang Suga is a meritocracy, I would also venture to remind the writers that, as Fr. Ben Villote once said, “Conceit is God’s gift to little men.”

Two, to maintain one’s humility, it is necessary to remember these things, which I got from a former teacher, Dr. Matilde Valdes:

Know thyself.

Be thyself.

To thine own self be true.

Finally, I would like to share this little nugget of wisdome which I received from my own father: “The greatest gift that a son can give his father is to surpass him.”

With that, I take my leave, with my treasured gifts of twenty-five years: Dindin Villarino-Lomosad and her husband Beverly Lomosad, Carmela Villarino-Valles, Alex Badayos, Myke Obenieta, Stella de los Santos, Nona Bacatan-Suerte, Jenifer Villalon-Lising, Jo Ann Maglasang, Jona Bering, Kevin Lagunda, Ofelia Remolino, Rhigel Tan, Warlito Mayol, Genesis Gabriel; and Nora Dotillos, Emma Lu, Gina Mantua-Panes, Merly Gicain, Lea Mae Abcajan, Carmen Tradio, Sheila Godinez,, Rey Inocian, Rhea Lina Gonzales, Jessica Conag, Alma Pavadora, Ferdinand Resuena, Daisiree Cabiles, Gladishmarie Paeste, Flordeliza Sorono, Randy Napuli, Mercury Sitoy-Cacanindin, Beverly Cubillan, Janice Rosani, Francis Lee Montebon, Hanski Garcia, Fritzie Capao, and the present staff, led by Editor-in-Chief Glenn Munez, for love without measure.