School papers flood 1st-day-of-class protests with ‘Pubs Baha’

Campus publications flooded today’s opening of classes as the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) welcomed students with their traditional ‘Pubs Baha.’

‘Pubs Baha’ is a customary protest activity for CEGP’s member publications. It is characterized by the distribution of old and new issues of a campus publication to students by editors and staff, especially if the publication is experiencing campus press freedom violations.

CEGP member publications simultaneously distributed their respective campus papers today in different colleges and universities as ‘a symbol of the campus press’ renewed commitment to uphold youth and students’ rights and welfare, and to be instruments of social change.’

“For this year’s school opening, we are giving ‘Pubs Baha’ a twist. Our message is for students to meet the school year aware and vigilant of past and present issues that have hounded them as published in our publications, ” said CEGP national president Vijae Alquisola.

Alquisola said that among the most pressing issues that students should address head on are the yearly education and tuition woes, press freedom violations, the economic crisis, corruption in government and human rights violations.

Among the publications which participated were the University of the Philippines‘ Philippine Collegian, UP Manila’s Manila Collegian, Ateneo’s Matanglawin, Polytechnic University of the Philippines‘ The Catalyst, the EARIST Technozette, University of Makati’s The Makati Collegian, Philippine Normal University’s Torch and the Arellano Herald.

The ‘Pubs Baha’ was the CEGP’s main participation in the Youth Action Day planned by different youth and student organizations for today’s school opening.

Simultaneous protest actions commenced at lunchtime today along Taft Avenue, the University Belt and Katipunan consortia of schools with the theme, ‘Balik-Eskwela, Balik-Sigla ang Protesta.’

Alquisola also announced that the CEGP is set to release a pooled editorial calling for ‘renewed youth vigilance and action for truth, accountability and social change’ to be published by CEGP’s 700 member publications nationwide in the first weeks of classes. ###