The ‘Newspaper of Destiny’ in the Shadows of Martial Law: Historicizing the Varsitarian’s Coverage of the Marcos Years (1970-1981)

Abstract

Newspapers are arguably the “rough draft” of history. The same aphorism holds true for the Varsitarian, the official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas. This paper discusses how the Varsitarian, the official student paper of the University of Santo Tomas, viewed and understood the events attended the Marcos years from 1970 to 1981. Using phenomenological hermeneutics, the paper examines how the Varsitarian as one of the eminent school papers in the country navigated through the dark years of the Marcos regime, from the First Quarter Storm to the end of Martial Law. The paper utilized phenomenological hermeneutics to determine the historically lived experience of the Varsitarian through the textual and contextual interpretation of its staff members’ writings, in effect preserving to the present its relevance in the past in what Hans-Georg Gadamer calls as a “fusion of horizons.” This fusion can be gleaned from the melding of UST affairs with relevant national events during the Martial Law years. Selected Varsitarian articles served as narrative lenses to facilitate this fusion of horizons. By also utilizing the descriptive-analytic approach, this paper examined the circumstances behind the Varsitarian student writers’ works, which also looked at how students at the University of Santo Tomas coped with the key national and university events that shaped the Martial Law years.