Cagayan de Oro, Philippines- The MSU-Marawi Senior High School Suwara Publication Team, took part in the 2020 Sibya: The Ninth Northern Mindanao Student Communicators Congress held on March 7, 2020 at SM City Cinema 1. The congress featured three journalists as guest speakers across three topics, which focused on how media enable people to participate in journalism and explore the trends found in citizen and media engagements. The said congress, which gathered audiences throughout Northern Mindanao, carried the theme, "Public Engagement: Piecing Together the Media's Influences." The event was organized by The Crusader Publication, the official student publication of Xavier UniversityAteneo de Cagayan. Sibya, according to The Crusader Publication, "primarily aims to increase interest in journalism and communication, provide venue for intellectual discourse, and present communication trends and relevant issues." It is an annual student-run, non-profit communication congress that was established in 2012. This year's Sibya focused on talks from three key-note speakers who are known in the pedestal of journalism. In a session on Advancing Community Media's Influence on Suicide Prevention Among Youth, Cagayan de Orobased Mindanao Gold Star Daily special correspondent, Lina Sagaral Reyes discussed at length about Papageno and Werther Effects. According to her, "Beware of the Werther effect; strive for Papageno effect." Reyes highlighted the use of "responsible media creation" and not "media creation" alone. It was followed by a discussion on Media and Civic Engagement Amid Digital Challenges to Democracy by journalist, media trainer and press freedom advocate, Tess Bacalla. Media, prior to her statement, "is the fourth pillar of democracy" which is "independent to legislative,
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executive, and judiciary." She affirmed, "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," as according to her, "Freedom of the press is under attacked." Bacalla ended her lecture by encouraging the young journos to give attention to what is going on in the community. Then, a discussion by visual graphics designer and freelance journalist, Alvin Hizon was carried out. He said that information is the world's most valuable thing. "In the battle of truth, journalism is always an advocacy. We are campus journalists, the best stories are in our community," shared Hizon. Another highlight of the congress was the Open Forum. Journalists of different delegations were given a chance to share their queries to the lecturers; however, due to insufficiency of time, only few questions were recognized. The second part, which also comprised the last part of the event, was the Awarding of the Certificates and Medals to the winners of Essay Writing and Photojournalism Competition. Amer Hassan Usman, Associate Editor of The Suwara Publication, was hailed 3rd place for Essay Writing Contest for Junior Division. Delegates were then recognized. Raheemah Hafsah Pangarungan, Aiquisah Alia Guro, Najmah Macarambon, Norhashnie Curo, Jannah Reeham Macaumbos, Amer Hassan Usman, Farouk Macalayo, and Richard Domagtoy represented The Suwara Publication Team on behalf of all of the members, bringing the knowledge they acquired from Sibya to do "responsible media creation“ as public's source of relevant information. In his closing remarks, Abdel Rafi Lim, Associate Editor of The Crusader Publication, thanked the journalists from different delegations for attending this year's Sibya 2020.
