Two fellows in the Master of Arts in Journalism program of the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ) bagged honors at the 17th Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism announced last week in a program held in Makati City, Philippines.
Luz Rimban, broadcast director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) who is on her last semester in the master’s program won first and third prizes in the investigative reporting category for non-dailies. MA Journalism alumna Jofelle Tesorio was a finalist in the daily category.
Rimban won the plum prize for her article, “Running on taxpayers’ money,” an exposé on the alleged use of government funds to finance the 2004 presidential campaign. The piece ran in iReport, PCIJ’s bimonthly magazine, in September 2005. She won the third prize for “Major players elude government’s anti-logging drive in Aurora” on violations of anti-logging laws, including rampant bribery, in Aurora province, the scene of a massive landslide last year.
The article was carried by BusinessWorld, Cebu Daily News, Malaya, Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) and Sun.Star Daily on January 31-February 1, 2005. This is the fourth time that Rimban has won in the Ongpin investigative journalism competition. In 2001 she was co-author of ” The Estradas’ Three Dozen Houses: First Family’s Firm Flouts the Law,” one of the three first prize-winning Erap Reports . In 2003, she also won first prize for her PCIJ article ” Trail of power mess leads to Ramos.” She was a finalist in last year’s competition.
Tesorio, PDI correspondent, was recognized her piece, “Palawan’s gas pains” run by PDI in January 13, 2005. Tesorio is also a radio commentator for the Palawan Broadcasting Corporation and a staff at the weekly local publication, Bandillo ng Palawan . She was among the first group of ACFJ fellows in 2003 and finished the MA Journalism in 2005.
Fe Zamora and Gerry Lirio of PDI won the top prize for investigative reporting for a daily. Their article “Tracing the trail of the tape” chronicling the alleged election irregularity involving Philippine President Gloria Arroyo was carried by PDI on September 17-18, 2005. Dave Llorito received the first prize in the daily explanatory division for his report “Confrontation to cooperation? Labor-management relations evolve in globalization era” carried by the BusinessMirror on November 2, 2005. Rimban’s colleague at PCIJ, Cheryl Chan, won the top prize in the non-daily division with “Focus on Filipino youth: Perils of generation sex”. iReport ran the article in September 2005.
Among the judges were senior journalists, academics and professionals including Dr. Violet B. Valdez, ACFJ executive director, and Vicente Tirol, ACFJ faculty member.
The Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Awards, a project of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR),seeks to promote investigative and explanatory reporting in the Philippines.
