PRESS RELEASE

Young Journalists Met Veterans at Inkblots 2008
16 January 2009

Campus journalists, editors, advisers, and journalism educators from all over the country filled the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Thomas Aquinas Research Complex for the Inkblots 2008: the 10th UST National Journalism Fellowship held last October 20 to 22, 2008.

Organized by The Varsitarian, the Official Student Publication of UST and oldest Catholic campus paper in the country, Inkblots 2008 aims to mold aspiring writers through a series of journalism seminars and workshops from the country’s veteran journalists. Since 1998, the three-day workshop has integrated lectures on news, features, sports, opinion writing, book reviews, Catholic journalism, investigative journalism, broadcast journalism, cartooning, and campus paper management.

This year, the event gathered several respected journalists in the country which include Ces Drilon, host for ABS-CBN’s Evening News Program Bandila; Romeo Gacad, Agence France-Presse (AFP) chief photographer, and Pulitzer Prize nominee; Michael Coroza, PinoyPoets consultant and Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards recipient ; Sandra Aguinaldo, host for GMA-7’s I-Witness; and Arlyn Dela Cruz, Net-25 reporter.

The roster also included Nestor Cuartero, Philippine Panorama writer and Tempo entertainment editor; Vergel Santos, Chairman of Editorial Board of Business World; Felipe Salvoza III, Business World sub-editor; Quinito Henson, sports commentator and The Philippine Star columnist; Manuel ‘Manix’ Abrera, comic strip artist for Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI); Volt Contreras, PDI reporter and Catholic Mass Media Awards recipient for Best Investigative Report; Ruel de Vera, Associate Editor for the Sunday Inquirer Magazine; John Nery and Conrado de Quiros, PDI columnists; and Alice Colet-Villadolid, former New York Times correspondent.

To conclude the event, and mark the 10th anniversary of Inkblots, current Varsitarian editor-in-chief Anthony Divinagracia and adviser Lito Zulueta blew 10 candles on the Inkblots ‘birthday’ cake. Fireworks at the UST Football Field lit up the night. And finally, local rock bands 6cyclemind, Urbandub, and Hale performed at the UST Quadricentennial Square.