The Student Publications Unit (SPU), composed of its two student-journalists’ organizations namely the Benildean Press Corps (BPC) and Ad Astra, won six awards in the 15th National Campus Media Conference (NCMC), organized by the School Press Advisers’ Movement Inc. (SPAM) in collaboration with De La Salle Lipa (DLSL) at the Angels’ Hills Retreat and Formation Center in Tagaytay City from Sept. 18 to 20.
On Sept. 19, more simultaneous journalism competitions occurred; from News Story Writing Contests (For students and School Paper Advisers), Editorial Writing, Editorial Cartooning, Copyreading and Headline Writing (For School Paper Advisers), to Backpack Journalism. The viewing and awarding of the submissions of the iDokumento competition immediately followed.
Winning as a team
The iDokumento competition, a group documentary competition, with the theme “AI: A friend or a foe?” tasked the participants to create a documentary within the span of 30 hours.
BPC’s representatives, consisting of ID121 Architecture student and Video Editor Jasper Garcia, ID123 Governance and Public Affairs sophomore Bonn Andrei Cajuday, and ID122 Multimedia Arts students Benjamin Seth Jose Buenconsejo and Mariah Grezelle Corpuz—who is also the organization’s Patnugot ng Filipino—were crowned champions for their submission titled “AI: Sino nga ba ang kalaban?” Meanwhile, the Ad Astra team, composed of ID122 Multimedia Arts students Irish Cristobal, Acting Associate Editor Limmy Limbo, and Video Editor Shane Picardal, secured 4th place with their video titled “Kahduwa.”
In the evening, the National Federation of Campus Journalists (NFCJ), a subsidiary of SPAM, commenced a solidarity night. Each school sent a representative for the election of the new set of officers, and an election between the representatives was held after their speeches. Cajuday, who was De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde representative and BPC’s newly minted Assistant Managing Editor, was elected as President of the NFCJ for Academic Year 2024-2025.
Individual achievements
The last day featured the awarding ceremony, which began with the induction and oath-taking of the newly elected NFCJ officers. Winners of each category from English to Filipino were then called on stage for the awarding of certificates, medals, and trophies.
Ad Astra delegates reigned as the 1st placers of the Editorial Writing Contest in English and Filipino categories, with ID122 Governance and Public Affairs student Max Soliman, who is also the yearbook organization’s Editor in Chief, in the Filipino category and Limbo in the English category. For the Backpack Journalism in the English category, BPC Acting Photo Editor Hans Chua, ID121 from the Architecture program, secured 4th place.
Lastly, for the School Paper Advisers’ division, SPU Head Ms. Dayanara Cudal won 2nd place in the News Story Writing English category.
Aligned with the theme “Championing Accountability Campus Journalism for a Positive Societal Impact through eXpanding and Venturing the Digital Horizon” featured plenary sessions of resource speakers, Patricia Mae Bermudez, a digital content producer for the Philippine Information Agency, and Bryan Gomez Ocampo, the City Information Officer Head of the San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan local government unit.
Their talk titled “Breaking the ICE: Writing Innovative, Creative, and Engaging News and Feature Stories” enriched the knowledge of student journalists about creating news and feature stories.
It was then announced by the organizing body that the 2025 NCMC will be hosted by National University Clark. They also teased the hosts for the following years, naming Romblon for 2026 and Cebu for 2027.
To formally close the three-day event, the top performing schools were awarded to De La Salle Lipa as the top performing school in the JHS and SHS divisions, while Don Honorio Ventura State University triumphed in the tertiary division.
