Abstract

Historical accounts of the Philippine postwar press remain skewed towards the story of the national weeklies and dailies, illustrating a press culture heavily concentrated in the metropoles. Such histories have also been ungenerous in their accounting for the rural press, often appraised as “anemic,” “neglected,” “poorly developed,” or “may not even be in existence yet.” However, the mimeo newspapers that sprouted in the old Mountain Province, particularly in its education centers, reveal that the public spheres in rural areas also involved print media. One such print media was The Sagada Postboy. The Postboy, a mimeo newspaper that found its widest circulation in Sagada during the postwar years, is a campus-cum-community newspaper produced by students of St. Mary’s School of Sagada. This paper reconstructs the Postboy’s formation and operations from 1952 to 1972, examining its production methods, circulation practices, and evolving editorial content against the backdrop of missionary education and postwar nation-building. Through a postcolonial and poststructuralist framework, the analysis reveals how the newspaper functioned as a discursive site where colonial legacies were simultaneously reinforced and contested, while also constructing a contemporary Igorot identity positioned within both the national body politic and an increasingly globalized world.

Keywords: The Sagada Postboy, Philippine postwar press, rural press, Philippine journalism, William Henry Scott, Sagada, Igorot identity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64743/LSUV2056