A letter from the editor

The stories of 2024 were not just news, but calls for accountability and an unyielding fight for truth.

As we collect threads of significant and defining chapters of the year, we reflect on the moments that tested our spirits and the stories that spared conversations. We’ll look back at the events that shaped the community, acknowledging the obstacles that persist and commemorating the strength that carries us forward.

Even we here at TomasinoWeb became news, instead of just merely chronicling news. Just two days after Valentine’s, our simple photo of two students entering a convenience store has sparked conversations on press freedom, campus journalism, freedom of expression, and censorship not only within the University but also in the Congress.

The call for press freedom is still an on-going battle, like the long-standing fight of jeepney drivers against the jeepney modernization program. Many Christmases have passed, yet they still fight for something that should not be a battle in the first place.

The country has also grappled as inflation rose for four consecutive months. With this, can we truly live with 64 pesos in our pockets for a day? Can it really deliver in three filling daily meals for an individual?

We continue to fight for survival everyday while the arrests of Apollo Quiboloy and Alice Guo took a long while. This should remind us of another significant chapter in politics, the 2025 midterm elections.

All of these tested us, but the year did not end just like that. As the nation tried to get up from one storm, we had to brace ourselves for another, and another, and another…and so on for four weeks as six typhoons hit the Philippines.

These stories are just a glimpse of what truly transpired throughout the whole year. It might not have been the year we were hoping for, but may we never lose hope and faith in the little courage within us.

Let us never give up on asking difficult yet significant questions and find answers for them. Let us not ever forget the lives claimed and the lives that continue to struggle. We’ll continue fighting and standing for truth, justice, and love.

Take some time to breathe, and together, let’s look at the stories that made it to this year’s #TWenty: TomasinoWeb’s year-end special.

Keeping a strong faith in love and justice,

MJ Jadormio
Executive Editor