STAR bags 4 journalism awards from Rotary Manila
On its 45th year, the Rotary Club of Manila (RCM) awarded four Journalism Awards in the Print Category to The
Philippine STAR in a ceremony held yesterday at the New World Hotel in Makati City.
The awards include the Newspaper Female Reporter of the Year given to Christina Mendez; Male Opinion Writer of the Year to Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez for Babe’s Eye View; Female Opinion Writer of the Year to associate
editor Marichu Villanueva for Commonsense; and Regional Newspaper of the Year to The Freeman in Cebu.
RCM described Mendez as a “senior political writer who eats political intrigues for breakfast and chews the morsel details of policymaking for lunch, hammering away at the keyboard to turn up at the least six news stories to her editors before calling it a day.”
It described Villanueva as having “extensive experience and expertise in the political field and such skills she parlayed with equal ease, even in the think pieces that she turns up to throw light into the goings-on at the halls of power in the land.”
Romualdez’s column was cited as “lean yet meaty prose which becomes his trademark think piece that is a joy to read.”
RCM said the community-based daily The Freeman, founded in Cebu in 1919, “covers beyond the Eastern Visayan geography, taking stock of both national and global developments” and “speaks a distinct voice reflective of the socioeconomic sphere in which it operates.”
The other winners in the print category were: Provincial Reporter of the Year – Rene Michael Baños, Mindanao Daily News; Newspaper Male Reporter of the Year – Charlie Manalo, Daily Tribune; Investigative Columnist of the Year – Ramon Tulfo, Philippine Daily Inquirer; Business Magazine of the Year – Biz News Asia; Glossy Lifestyle Magazine of the Year – ENCLAVES; Business Newspaper of the Year – Business Mirror; Newspaper of the Year – The Daily Tribune; Journalist of the Year – Jose “Joey” Maria Nolasco, PDI.
In radio, the Female Broadcaster of the Year award went to Cely Bueno of dwIZ while the Male Broadcaster of the Year was given to Orly Trinidad of dzBB. Lawyer Elias “Ellie” Espinosa of Cebu’s dyCM was awarded the Regional Broadcaster of the Year. Also, dzXL won the Radio Station of the Year award.
For the TV category, CNN TV 9 Network was named Television Station of the Year; Television Male Broadcaster of the Year – Noli de Castro, ABS-CBN 2; Television Female Broadcaster of the Year – Pinky Webb, CNN Philippines; Television Female Reporter of the Year – Marisol Abdurahman, GMA-7 and Television Male Reporter of the Year – Ron Gagalac, ABS-CBN 2.
Launched in 1966, the Rotary Club of Manila Journalism Awards was organized to honor outstanding contributions of individuals in the tri-media: print, television and radio.