Chronicles: Newsbreak, Vera Files’ Chua and GenSan-based Rebollido
Newsbreak articles make the final cut to 2010 DAJA
Newsbreak has announced that two of its stories have been chosen as finalists in the 2010 Developing Asia Journalism Awards (DAJA) conferred by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).
The two finalists from Newsbreak are online editor Gemma B. Mendoza’s “Flooding in Metro: Who is to blame?” and writer Purple S. Romero’s “Demand for tobacco harming Ilocos forests?” The articles were published on Newsbreak.ph and abs-cbnNEWS.com.
Mendoza and Romero will go to Tokyo, Japan to join other DAJA finalists. In a forum from November 17 to 19, the finalists will discuss how their stories reflected some of the key development issues in their respective countries. The forum has been part of the awards since 2008.
Published on Oct. 2, Mendoza’s article discussed how factors such as climate change and poor governance worsened the effects of typhoon Ondoy in flood-prone Metro Manila. Romero, discussed in her April 23 article how rampant tree-cutting due to tobacco production made areas in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur prone to flooding.
The categories under the 2010 DAJA include urbanization, the environment, rebalancing economic growth post-Global Financial Crisis, and cooperation and integration among Asia-Pacific countries. Judging was mainly based on how the writers integrated any of the said issues into reports on their country’s poverty problem.
Winning journalists from each of the four categories and two other special categories—Development Journalist of the Year and Young Development Journalist of the Year—will receive US$1,000 from the Tokyo-based ADBI.
Last year, Filipino journalist Imelda Abano won one of the two special prizes (Developing Journalist of the Year), for her environmental story “Scorched Earth” published in BusinessMirror. Yasmin Lee Arpon of Asia News Network was also a finalist (2nd runner up) in the Government Responses to the Global Financial Crisis category.
GenSan journalist wins photography award
A General Santos City-based photojournalist’s documentary on the lives of the abandoned elderly has won him the first Alex Baluyut Masterclass in Documentary Award.
Rommel Rebollido’s work bested eight other photojournalists who enrolled in the 10-week course in Advanced Documentary Photography mentored by veteran photojournalist Alex Baluyut.
Rebollido’s work, “Crumpled Dreams, Wrinkled Realities” looked into how the elderly in an institution in General Santos City were coping with life away from their relatives and loved ones. His photos were displayed, along with the works of the eight other photographers, in an exhibit (Una: Nine new Photo Stories) that ran until Sept. 8 in Cubao X (formerly Marikina Shoe Expo) in Quezon City.
He received the award in time for the exhibit’s opening last Aug. 25.
Rebollido is an editor of the Peace and Conflict Journalism Network’s PECOJON Online Magazine and an editorial consultant for the General Santos-based magazine Business Adzone. He completed a diploma program in photojournalism at the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University. Baluyut founded the program and has since resided as faculty member.
Baluyut worked for the Associated Press before embarking on photo-documentary projects. His photo-books, one on the New People’s Army in Mindanao (Kasama: A Collection of Photographs of the New People’s Army of the Philippines) and another on acts of brutality by the Manila police (Brother Hood) won him National Book Awards in 1987 and 1995, respectively.
VERA Files founder named 2010 Aquino Fellow
University of the Philippines journalism professor and VERA Files co-founder Yvonne Chua has been named 2010 Ninoy and Cory Aquino Fellow for Professional Development for journalism. The Embassy of the United States in Manila and the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation cited Chua for her work as a journalist and educator.
Prior to joining VERA Files, Chua was a writer and the training director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) . She started her journalism career as a reporter for the Philippine Daily Express in 1981. In 1985, she joined Malaya (then Ang Pahayagang Malaya), and was managing editor by the time she left it in 1994.
One of her works (the investigative article “Up to 65% of Textbook Funds Goes to Bribes”) looked into the large-scale corruption involved in the procurement of textbooks in public schools. For the article, she won first prize in the CMFR’s Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism (JVOEJ) in 2000. Chua’s book on the same topic, Robbed: An Investigation on Corruption in Philippine Education, won her the National Book Award in 1999.
In 2005, Chua was elevated to the Hall of Fame of the JVOEJ after winning three times in five years (2000, 2001 and 2005) under the investigative report category. Chua has also co-authored books such as The Rulemakers: How the Wealthy and Well-Born Dominate the Congress and Cockfight, Horserace, Boxing Match: Why Elections are Covered as Sport.
Aquino fellows travel to the United States where they meet with American and other foreign counterparts.
The US Embassy and the Ninoy Aquino Foundation have awarded individual fellowships for journalism and public service through the Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Fellowships for Professional Development since 1988. Following the death of Aquino’s wife and former President Corazon Aquino in 2009, it was renamed the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Fellowship for Professional Development.
Other Aquino Fellows were VERA Files co-founder and JVOAEJ Hall of Famer Luz, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility Executive Director Melinda Quintos de Jesus, and ABS-CBN News Channel producer Mary Ann Francis Toral.
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