‘SERVE’: Fearless campus editors of 1969-1972 tell their stories

THE AUTHORS Seated, from left: Sol Juvida, Judy Taguiwalo, Jo-Ann Maglipon, Angie Castillo; standing, from left: Diwa Guinigundo, Sonny Coloma, Rey Vea, Manolet Dayrit, Elso Cabangon, Butch Dalisay, Ed Gonzalez, Jaime FlorCruz, Alex Aquino and Senen Glorioso

Nineteen editors of campus newspapers from the period of 1969 to 1972 are launching “Serve,” a book that tells their stories from the period before, up to, and beyond the country’s martial law regime.

Serve, published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press, will be launched at Fully Booked at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, on Sept. 9, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Karina Bolasco, the country’s premier publisher and immediate past head of the Ateneo Press, is guest speaker at the launch.

Topics covered by the 19 authors go from their individual discoveries about faith and politics to their common epiphanies about economy and government, and from their personal encounters with desecrations of human rights, the environment, children and women to their collected memories about a life and a time that, pared to its minimum, were both unkind and dark.

Staying fearless

“They were fearless college editors from 1969 to 1972,” the book cover reads. “Martial law profoundly changed the course of their lives. Here are their stories.”

It is a testament to their spirit that, today, they choose once again to be fearless and reveal their life’s learnings.

A sequel to the book “Not on Our Watch” (2012), edited by Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon, Serve is also edited by Maglipon, a journalist of 47 years.

COURAGE FOR THE AGES “Not a book about old people reminiscing about old times’’

CEGP activism

“This is not a book by old people reminiscing about old times, like our elders might of the war,” says Maglipon. “Not that there’s anything wrong with personal bits of history, even of a war from just 78 years ago or a dark regime from just 51 years back. These, in fact, may exactly be what we need to get to know us and country better. That said, all the stories in Serve have everything to do with today. Writers have taken care not to indulge. Always, they were aware that others need not be interested in them or their lives, but they offer forward pathways anyway for any budding patriot interested.”

The authors were actively involved in the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), an alliance founded on July 25, 1931, by four college student publications: The National of National University, The Varsitarian of the University of Santo Tomas, the Philippine Collegian of the University of the Philippines, and The Guidon of Ateneo de Manila University.

The book’s authors are: Alexander Aquino, Elso Cabangon, Jones Campos, Sonny Coloma, Bob Corrales, Mercy Corrales, Butch Dalisay, Manuel Dayrit, Jaime FlorCruz, Senen Glorioso, Eduardo Gonzalez, Diwa Guinigundo, Sol Juvida, Derly Magcalen, Jo-Ann Maglipon, Thelma Sioson, Chito Sta. Romana, Judy Taguiwalo, Angie Tocong and Rey Vea.

Copies will be available at all Fully Booked shops and online at the following channels: www.unipress.ateneo.edu; go.ateneo.net/Lazada; go.ateneo.net/Shopee; [email protected]