The Philippines’ first newspaper
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- The Philippines’ first newspaper
- Creator
- Rebusora, Alexander R.
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1968
- Subject
-
Del Superior Govierno (Of the High Government)
- Newspapers -- Philippines.
- Journalism -- Philippines.
- Rights
-
- Abstract
- From The Weekly Nation, August 7, 1968.
- Fulltext
- THE PHILIPPINES' FIRST NEWSPAPER AUGUST 8 is a forgotten date. Few of us know that on this date in 1811, the first Philippine newspaper, Del Superior Govierno, (Of the High Government) came out in Manila, marking the birth of journalism in this country. Many historians considered this event highly significant since the 19th century was regarded as the most deca dent period of the Spanish regime in the Philippines. Although an accurate ac count of how the newspaper got ■ started is unknown, a major event in Europe which had a relative proximity to the Spaniards in the Islands, as well as the Filipinos, seemed to have motivated the eventual publication of the paper. This major event was the invasion of Spain by the French army of Napoleon in 1809. The Spaniards in the Mother Country fought for their homes and their inde pendence. Hence the event had a close consequence to the colony. To satisfy the Spaniards’ and Filipinos’ solicitude and quench their thirst for news about the invasion, the colo nial government put out Del Superior Govierno with Gov ernor-General Manuel Fer nandez de Folgueras as edi tor. “The High Government is desirous,” the editor wrote on its front page, “that all the inhabitants of the Phil ippines, who have been loyal and patriotic, should also hear the good news in the English gazettes that were received from Bengal. For this reason, the High Gov ernment has procured them in order to extend to all who made possible their victory over the French Army. Be cause of this victory both Andalucia and the Island of De Leon have been reco vered.” August 1968 47 The maiden issue con tained 15 printed pages with a blank last page, and mea sured 138 by 232 millimeters in size. After the first three num bers, the editor announced that the newspaper would appear once a week; but the schedule was never followed. Only when European news was available did it come out. Besides the irregular date of its publication, the pre mier newspaper had no de finite number of pages. Each issue contained seven 15 pages with the last page always blank. The embryo of Philippine newspapers lasted only six months with 15 issues pub lished. On Feb. 7, 1812, the last number came out with the potice: “If new and in teresting materials are re ceived, this newspaper will be continued weekly. In the meantime it will be suspend ed until some correspondence is received.” The “meantime” suspen sion proved to be forever, for the paper never appeared again. But its end did not mean the demise of Philip pine journalism. In less than a decade, five other newspapers came out. They were La Filantropica, El Filipino Agraviado, Noticioso Filipino, Ramillete Patriotico and Ramillete Pa triotic© Mpnilense. Years, later, still more newspapers came into being but disap peared like ghosts. Today, the difference bet ween Del Superior Govierno and a modern metropolitan daily is big. In the status quo of contemporary society, the principles and tech niques of news gathering and presentation, and in physical appearance, the differences are conspicuous. But like blooming flowers, modern newspapers started from a sprouting seed. — By Alexander R. Rebusora in The Weekly Nation, Aug. 7, 1968. 48 Panora ma