Fifty years ago this week, the Philippine Collegian released its last issue before Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. Its banner headline read “Reforms, Not Martial Law,” while the paper’s right ear contained a call “Crush all attempts to impose Martial Law.” Just two days prior–September 19, 1972–opposition Sen. Jose W. Diokno warned the UP crowd against the dangers of martial rule under Marcos. By virtue of Marcos’s Proclamation 1081, the Collegian, along with other UP student organizations, was banned.

It would not be until early 1973 that the Collegian would be restored, albeit severely curtailed and forced to undergo a rigorous clearance process that would ensure no article critical of Marcos would be printed. From 1973 to 1978, the Collegian operated under a strict set of censorship rules just so the publication could continue to function during the period.

The Collegian’s adherence to Martial Law censors did not sit well with most of its staff. In 1973, the Rebel Collegian was launched to expose the atrocities of Marcos’s dictatorship. Rebel Collegian would report events that the regular Collegian ignored, and published articles and commentaries critical of the regime.

Through the turbulent years of the 1970s, the publication tried to stretch the limits of what Marcos allowed to be said. As the atrocities of the Marcosian project to build a “New Society” proved to be a farce, succeeding terms started to report the rampant human rights abuses committed by Marcos’s force.

The paper’s militant stances, however, remained incompatible with Martial Law. As such, and along with the student council, the Collegian successfully lobbied for the passage of the 1978 Philippine Collegian rules. The rules abolished the faculty adviser whose role was to scrutinize the publication’s issue to ensure no anti-administration content was printed.

And even after the sham lifting of Martial Law in 1981, the Collegian continued to oppose and expose the Marcos regime. The publication continued to highlight the people’s growing unrest and massive protests toward the dawn of the Marcos regime.

In this project, we offer our readers a glimpse of how the publication covered and responded to the Marcos regime's autocracy. Indeed, there was no singular Collegian during the Marcos regime. The successive editors and staff of the publication had to make a conscious decision–either to oppose or cozy the regime. And it was no easy decision–some of the paper's editors and staff were jailed by the regime.

Five decades after Martial Law was declared, the Collegian strives to remain critical. It remains that way, especially now that the dictator’s family is back in power. Coinciding with the Collegian's centenary, the publication remains true to its mandate of not only being a mere chronicler of events, but also an active participant in the writing of this nation’s collective history. — Daniel Sebastianne B. Daiz