29th EJAP AWARDS: BM NAMED ‘BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR’
FOR the third straight year, the Businessmirror was named the “Business News Source of the Year”by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP), an honor bestowed on the newspaper that wins the most number of individual reporting awards.
For the 29th EJAP Business Journalism Awards presented virtually—for the first time, because of the pandemic—by the EJAP and the Ayala Group of Companies, four Businessmirror reporters got the judges’ nod for best coverage in their respective beats. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas for Agriculture and Mining; Lenie Lectura for Energy; Cai U. Ordinario for Macroeconomy; and Rea Cu for Finance.
The other individual awards were won by: the Philippine Star’s Lawrence Agcaoili for Banking, Louella Desiderio for Trade and Iris Gonzales for Best Feature Story; and the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Doris Dumlao-abadilla for Capital Markets and Miguel Camus for Telecommunications. The awards are given for the reporters’ body of works for year 2019.
The 3- peat in the EJAP Awards comes barely a month after the
Businessmirror, founded on the promise of providing “A Broader
Look at Today’s Business,” celebrated its 15th anniversary in October. It was founded in 2005 by the late ambassador and business leader Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, whose children have continued his involvement in mass media— the publisher is T. Anthony C. Cabangon; the chairman of the board and of the ALC media group is D. Edgard A. Cabangon.
The 29th EJAP Business Journalism Awards board of judges was chaired by former Finance undersecretary Milwida Guevara. It opened with remarks by the Ayala Group’s John Philip Orbeta, who thanked the media for being a fair and faithful chronicler of Philippine business amid the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The brief virtual awards rites was keynoted by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda chief Karl Chua, who cited the work of media practitioners in helping “bring technical and policy issues” to the awareness of Filipinos, especially in a most remarkable year.
The Neda chief acknowledged the immense challenges posed by the pandemic and the string of destructive typhoons, but noted that economic data of recent months have shown that “the economy is strong enough to recover if we allow it to.”