Category: Philippine Journalism Review

by Ederic Peñaflor Eder

“Erap wil go dwn n hs2ry as d presdnt oustd by txt. Congrats & mbuhay tyong lhat!”

After the ouster of Joseph Estrada, this was one of the messages circulated by young cellular phone users through the short messaging service (SMS).

Text messages and the Internet played important roles in the completion of the people’s struggle for the ouster of an incompetent and allegedly corrupt president. Right after the 10-11 vote on the opening of the second set of PCI-Equitable Bank evidence against Estrada in the aborted impeachment trial, thousands of messages began circulating among cellular phone users in the Philippines.

With democratic space restored during the Aquino government, the alternative press in the Philippines receded into the background of events.

The alternative press — the roots and ideals of which can be traced to the Diariong Tagalog, Kalayaan, La Solidaridad and other publications of the Revolution of 1896 –played an important role in the eventual collapse of the Marcos dictatorship. Like the literatures of the reformist and revolutionary movements during Spanish rule, the alternative press of the late 1970s and the early to mid-1980s challenged the status quo, and served not just as a chronicler but also as an active participant in the Filipino people’s continuing quest for freedom.

When the first few issues of this 16-page black-and-white newsmagazine in tabloid format came out, trying to buy a copy of it in the newsstands in the afternoon would leave one wishing he or she had gone there earlier.

As Pinoy Times Special Edition continue to gain fame for its fearless reporting on the Jueteng-gate controversy, the readers came to know better — they have a better chance at getting a copy if they came in the morning.