Titus Brandsma Award-Philippines for Journalism

FOUR JOURNALISTS, two of them killed for their work, will be honored on July 29, 2009 for commitment to their craft and advocacies to press freedom.

Slain journalists Marlene Esperat and Edgar Damalerio will be given posthumous recognition by the Titus Brandsma Award Philippines for Press Freedom while broadcast journalist Howie Severino and columnist Patricia Evangelista will receive the Titus Brandsma Philippines Award for Journalism (Leadership in Journalism and Emergent Leadership in Journalism, respectively).

The Titus Brandsma Award Philippines is the local version of the international Titus Brandsma Award given by the Union Catholique Internationale de la’ Presse, the world forum of professionals in secular and religious media.

The Award honors Blessed Titus Brandsma, who was a Carmelite priest, journalist, educator and mystic who defended press freedom and the right to education during the Second World War even in the face of death.  He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on November 3, 1985 and is known as a “Martyr of Press Freedom.”

Members of the Titus Brandsma Award Philippines board are Florangel Rosario Braid, who serves as chairperson, Carolina “Bobby” Malay, Vergel Santos, Fr. Artemio Jusayan, O.Carm., Fr Bernard Roosendaal, O.Carm. and Fr. Christian Buenafe, O.Carm.

Esperat and Damalerio will be honored because they “…stood for the truth in times of threats, compromises, despite odds and reprisals from the powers that be.”

Esperat, who was killed on March 2005 in her house in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat province, was a columnist for the Sultan Kudarat-based The Midland Review and a host of a blocktime program at a local radio station. She was known for her exposés on alleged corruption at the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other local government offices.

“Based on the exposés and cases filed by Esperat before the Ombudsman when she was still alive, the corruption inside the DA, not only involves the two suspected slay masterminds, but also several high-ranking national officials—including former DA undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante and former National Food Authority administrator and now Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Arthur Yap—in connection with the P1.1-billion fertilizer scam,” the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists said in a 2008 statement.

Damalerio, who was a radio commentator for a local station, managing editor of the Zamboanga Scribe, and host of the cable TV program Enkwentro (Encounter), was killed on May 2002 for reporting the alleged involvement of police, military men, and even fellow journalists in anomalous transactions and illegal activities. He had even filed a complaint against officials in November 2001 who were allegedly involved in the anomalous purchase by the city government of six passenger jeepneys.

The gunman, Guillermo Wapile, was convicted by a Regional Trial Court in Cebu City for the murder of Damalerio. Only three cases of the 79 work-related journalist killings have resulted in the conviction of killers since 2001—those of Marlene Esperat, Edgar Damalerio, and Armando Pace. (For a list of Filipino journalists killed, please click here)

On the other hand, Severino and Evangelista “were chosen because they have effectively used media to respond to people’s clamor for truth on issues and concerns affecting them.”

Severino is the editor in chief of GMANews.TV, the GMA Network affiliate in charge of online news operations. He also writes, produces and hosts television documentaries which have appeared in GMA-7.

Evangelista, a television program host and producer, writes a column for the Manila newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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