Volume 8, Issue No. 8
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . .
Our latest as of Saturday, August 15, 2026
~ Its staying power makes the newspaper Atin Ito a rarity in Filipino community journalism in Canada, specifically in the Greater Toronto Area where it is dominant. The periodical commemorates its fifth decade of service on October 3, a true milestone of achievement, a testament to its ability to survive challenges and pursue goals. "Now marking our 51st year of continuous publication," its August 2026 masthead proclaims. The monthly tabloid has been echoing our voice, if not the voice of the Filipino community in Canada, speaking for us where elected leaders fail.
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GOLDEN YEARS OF SERVICE
At 50 Years, Atin Ito Is a Rarity
in Community Journalism
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“A newspaper is a mirror reflecting the public, a mirror more or less defective, but still a mirror.” — Arthur Brisbane
TORONTO - A feat by itself, unto itself, for the community.
Indeed, by faithfully chronicling events here and in the homeland, Atin Ito newspaper is fulfilling a responsibility essential for the understanding of people and events in the community.
It's an unenviable task, inherent in every periodical, no other Filipino paper of note could match. For that alone, our (as implied in its name) newspaper should be celebrated.
Even in man-years, 50 is not just a number to be counted; rather it's a watershed moment that distinguishes the person, and in this instance, Atin Ito, from the rest of the media rat pack.
Fifty years of resilience ought to be marked, not because the clock says so, but because of the enduring human qualities behind such passage of time.
Half a century of being there, in good and bad times, keeping us abreast of developments here and in the homeland, tracking how we manage to survive and thrive, and to many, triumph over our own adversity - that in a nutshell is Atin Ito.
Whatever its viewpoints on issues here in Canada and in the Philippines, I feel an immense pride in seeing and knowing one Filipino community newspaper has been in the vanguard advancing causes impacting Filipinos.
One example is the controversy Atin Ito ignited and which resulted in drastic changes in processing and hiring of caregivers. That's a remarkable achievement for a community newspaper. (Related story:
I'd reported for Manila newspapers for years prior to a decade working as a foreign correspondent, but the feeling of belonging, of being part of a small community interacting, and at times dissenting, with the mainstream through the practice of journalism is something to be commemorated.
Because that exactly was Atin Ito in its formative years, has been in the thick of it 50 years hence, and in the next 50.
I learn all these in reviewing its early issues compiled in a binder that Eddie Lee had shown me during an informal lunch meeting with friends.
Fifty years past, the paper has stood strong in its commitment to serve despite the idiocy by a competing tabloid minimizing its existence. That tabloid's publisher falsely claimed in a Facebook post last month, and I quote: "Balita is now the only newspaper in the community, out of 24 before the pandemic and after, Balita was the only one left . . . " I for one take issue with that because it's a lie.
Half-a-century of experience is an accomplishment to crow about, not an event to be disparaged by stupidity and ignorance.
Come this October, the tabloid that morphed from a mimeographed newsletter to a reliable, full colour periodical that proudly declares "this is ours" - or in the Tagalog vernacular Atin Ito - marks five decades of service to the Filipino community.
By age, Atin Ito is the oldest Filipino newspaper in Canada, bar none. That it stayed afloat for those long years speaks well of the persistent endeavour that has animated its founders and owners, Eddie Lee and Marita R. Lee.
Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/08/eddie-lee-non-journalist-publishing.html.
Related videos:
Atin Ito's story is a love story in itself, not in a romantic sense, but in one man's - and one brotherhood's - passion to serve.
Through the years, Eddie Lee and his fraternity brothers at Upsilon Sigma Phi, undertook the challenge to apprise the growing Filipino community of every key development, and gave them free access to information through the paper.
Upsilon Sigma Phi, according to Wikipedia, is "the oldest Greek-letter organization and fraternity in Asia. Founded in 1918, it is also the oldest student organization in continuous existence in the University of the Philippines." (Full story:
To digress a little bit. Upsilon is eight years our senior at Alpha Phi Omega, my fraternity founded 100 years ago in Lafayette, Pennsylvania. APO is famous for its Oblation Run (also called Pylon Run or the Ritual Dance of the Brave) where members run completely naked along a designated route inside the Diliman campus and later in other UP campuses. (Full story:
Atin Ito lives up to the fraternity motto "We Gather Light to Scatter" and the slogan "The years cannot break us." Even the contrasting colours in its masthead reflect Upsilon Sigma Phi's identity.
Again, the journalist that I am inspires me to commemorate this blockbuster Atin Ito has weaved into the fabric of our lives in Canada. Salud! (Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved).
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