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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMERALBAY
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Retelling the write stories
“WRITERS imagine that they cull stories from the world,” writes author and activist Arundhati Roy in her magnum opus, The God of Small Things. “It’s actually the other way around. Stories cull writers from the world. Stories reveal themselves to us.”
Iloilo has a rich tight-knit community of student journalists, representing different colleges and universities around both the city and the province. Mostly members of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines – oldest and broadest intercollegiate alliance of student publications in the country – and competing in the annual College Press (COPRE) Awards of the Philippine Information Agency VI, the region’s young scribes have persevered to hone and developed their beloved craft: the art of telling stories.
No voice unheard
I joined the Central Echo, the official student publication of Central Philippine University, when I was a Second Year engineering student – as a way to meet new people and still stay true to my passion for writing, a semester after I shifted from a Communication and Media Studies course.
CE, originally named The Hoe (because CPU was then the Jaro Industrial School for boys and its adjoined Baptist Missionary Training School), was established in 1910 – making the publication one of the oldest in the country, even among the longest running in Southeast Asia. A decade later it would be renamed The Jaro Echo, until eventually taking on its moniker today.
Now with the motto “No Voice Unheard”, CE stands as one of the most competitive and progressive student publications in the region – year after year standing out in the annual COPRE Awards and delivering relevant issues serving the Centralian student body. But more than the accolades, I treasure my time as a staffer and editor of the prestigious student publication, because of the unique and inspiring stories I.have come across and would eventually write and share.
From meeting and being motivated by a deaf-mute trek guide that would lead us through the now popular sights of Iloilo’s “Little Baguio” Sitio Tabionan in Bucari, Leon to hitching a precariously ride on a backhoe to explore the unexpectedly colorful Calajunan Dumpsite, then being stunned and disheartened by the number of children collecting scrap for livelihood instead of going to school.
My favorite stories are two of my most recent, a piece I wrote after an immersion activity with Yolanda teenage victims in Aklan – three faithful years after the calamity struck – and a personal interview with a former peddler of illegal drugs, a mother, who shunned the life of crime when she found out her son was diagnosed with cancer.
“Nakapaminsar ko nga ang bata ko basi nagkabalatian kay ang gina-obra ko illegal kag malain. Nagpangadi ko nga ‘Lord, hatagi ko last chance, untatan ko ni, para nga mabuhi bata ko,” a teary-eyed Nanay Melba share to us in her humble home in city proper. “‘Kon mabuhi bata ko, pangako ko simo, mauntat ko. Kon mabalik ko baligya, kwaa kabuhi sing bata ko, indi ko pagbasol sa imo.’”
I never would have imagined I’d have these exciting experiences or meet people with such compelling stories – but because of an unplanned foray into student journalism, my eyes have been opened to such a diverse world with different points of views. (maverhick.blogspot.com/PN)
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