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Caption: PCIJ’s Roel Landingin and VERA Files Diosa Labiste, winners of the 2009 JVO excellence in investigative reporting ward.
VERA Files trustees Yvonne Chua and Luz Rimban, and contributor Diosa Labiste won top prize (Award of Distinction) at the 2009 Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism (JVOAEJ) for their investigative report “Quedancor swine program another fertilizer scam.”
Roel Landingin of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism won the other Award of Distinction for his series “Aid inflow sparks scandals for GMA.”
Labiste, a community journalist based in Iloilo City, was also named Marshall McLuhan Awardee at ceremonies held at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City. Labiste is the first community journalist to be named McLuhan Fellow since the awards were given out in 1995.
This is the fourth time that Chua and Rimban, both professors of journalism at the University of the Philippines, have won the top JVO prize.
The three-part report, published in September last year, garnered the Award of Distinction for being “a thoroughly-documented and meaningful report, a substantial contribution to the urgent necessity to understand the link between the country’s continuing poverty and corruption, and which manages to hold reader attention while provoking thought as well as outrage.”
The team got a Plaque of Distinction and a cash prize of P75,000.
The JVO Awards are administered by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) which conducted a seven-month scan of investigative and explanatory reports published in 2008. The scan produced a crop of eight reports considered to be last year’s best.
The other finalists included Newsbreak, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine Star, SunStar Cebu, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Three of the finalists received Certificates of Merit and a cash prize of P25,000. These are “A Policy of betrayal” by Newsbreak’s Miriam Grace Go, “Squatters and the city” by SunStar Cebu’s Cherry Ann T. Lim and Rene H. Martel, and “Less than 10 people in plot; 5 core, 5 others ‘in the know’” by the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Fe Zamora.
The 2009 awards mark the 20th year that the JVO prizes were being given out. It was named after the late Jaime V. Ongpin, who was finance secretary under the Cory Aquino administration. During the Marcos years, Ongpin was a businessman who sat on the board of Veritas, a magazine that tested the limits of press freedom under Ferdinand Marcos’ rule. The JVO Awards were created to encourage journalists to practice in-depth reporting on issues of public importance.
The VERA Files Quedancor series was published in early September by Malaya, Manila Times, Business Mirror, Philippines Graphic. It was made part of the documentation submitted by opposition lawmakers to substantiate the impeachment complaint filed against President Gloria Arroyo in 2008.
Captions:
1. Finalists- :Luz Rimban and Diosa Labiste, VERA Files; Cherry Ann, Sun Star Cebu;Roel Landingin, PCIJ; Des Ferriols, Philippine Star; Nikko Dizon, Philippine Daily Inquirer; and Gigi Go, Newsbreak.
2. Melinda de Jesus, head of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (center) with Lorna and Vic Tirol.
3. Some of the McLuhan fellows with Canadian Ambassador Robert Desjardins: Luz Rimban, Diosa Labiste, Gigi Go, and Ellen Tordesillas
Well done! Admirable, courageous journalists worthy of the highest esteem…
Congratulations…Mabuhay kayong lahat…
Well deserved! Congratulations. We need more like them in our press!
Napatawa ako kanina sa nabasa kong balita..
….si Mike Arroyo kuno ay high risk sa swine flu..tama.the swines in Malacanang are carriers of the flu.
….ang sabi naman ni Lore-lie to Justice Puno…the higher your gov’t position the higher is your responsibility…Bakit ang Diosa niya ay exempted dito? Forgive her Lord for she does not know what she is saying!
Congratulations to the awardees. May their tribes increase. Kudos to the journalists who risk lives to expose the crooks who do not seem to die.
Congrats.
Vera Files. Ellen.
For truth.
Congratulations!!!
Truth Shines.
Maintain speed!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Well done!
wow.. nice one.. CONGRATZZZZZZ
congratulations to the winners, but what happened to the crooks who were exposed.
That’s where the government, if it’s true to its mandate of serving the people, should come it.
As members of media, we do our part of bringing the truth to the public.
The government has the capability and the manpower to prosecute those media have exposed to be responsible for the crime.
The people should compel the government to do its job. If the government fails or refuses to do its part, the people should punish the government. Change it.
Ellen,
Diba McLuhan awardee ka rin? Pati sila Inday Espina, Vinia Datinguinoo, Yvonne C. and Sheila C. rin yata. Did you take the fellowship in Canada?
Anyways, Congrats to Vera Files! Ang galing ninyo!
OO nga norphil, I assume the the journalist’s victory is half satisfying. The fulfillment only comes when justice is served. Sana naman, it will, after Arroyo is out by 2010. Then the journalists can really celebrate.
Tongue, yes. That’s why I’m in that third photo with Amb. Desjardin.
I won the JVO award and Mc Luhan fellowship in 1998 for the PEA-Amari story.
Yes, I took up the fellowship in Canada, which includes speaking at the McLuhan Center at the Toronto University.
In Vancouver, Prod and Eleanor Laquihan arranged a forum where I spoke on the role of media in a developing
democracy.
The Canadian government allows the fellow to decide his or her own itinerary aside from Toronto and they will arrange interviews and meetings depending on the articles you plan to write.
I went to Ottawa, Winnipeg (interviewed member of the parliament Pagtakhan), and Quebec (did interviews on the independence movement).
It was almost a month.
Quebec is beautiful. It’s like a small European city.
Every year, the Canadian embassy holds media related fora in different parts of the country and they tap Mc Luhan fellows to speak. This year it’s about new media. We had it in Davao and Baguio.
Congrats Miss Ellen.Sa halos dalawang taong pagtutok ko sa blog mo,wala akong nasayang na panahon.
Thanks, P A. That’s valued more than those plaques. That’s what keeps us,journalists, going despite odds.
si Ellen bugal kang Antique!
Tama ka. Anong silbi ng magaling na journalist kung wala namang nagbabasa sa iyo? Kahit sa online community patok na patok ka, Ellen. Which means you have been doing a good job. The awards merely formalize the affirmation of the talent and hard work. Congrats uli.
Ellen, a survivor, a winner!
Mabuhay ka!
Hindi natutulog ang katarungan. Bukas makalawa ay magigisnan nating nasa ating paanan na ang hustisyang ating hinihingi at ipinaglalaban.
Asahan mo, kaming iyong mga tagasubaybay ay walang sawang susuporta sa iyong mga adhikain.
Muli, mabuhay ka.
Para sa bansa.
Teka, pano naman masasabing magaling kang writer kung walang nagbabasa syo? hehe…
Dapat talgang pangaralan ang mga taong iilan na lang na nabibilang sa mga taong hindi kayang utuin, takutin at kontrolin ni gloria! Alam naman natin na naghahari ang mapanuksong diablo sa bayan natin ngayon.
Congratulation sa mga winners at syo din Ellen, kailangan kayo ng bansa natin!!!
Every decent Filipino should be thankful that there are still journalists who cannot be bribed and bought. Journalists that stand for what is right and what is true.
My salute to the awardees and other patriotic journalists!
Help sought for 20 abused Pinays in Saudi
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/06/27/09/
Tsk. tsk. tsk.
Mga supermaids. Mga bagong bayani.
Ano’ng ginagawa ng gobyerno? Ng gabinete at ng pangulo?
Nagpapasarap habang ang mga inuutong bagong bayani daw ay inaabuso?
Why was it called “Vera” Files?
Vera is a Latin word meaning true. They report the Truth.
Thanks boyner. Bribery and corruption could be in any form…not necessarily money. So, many journalists do receive favors in one way or another. A good example is during Christmas or birthdays when people give them expensive gifts expecting some favorable write ups in return.
“Vera” is also a variant of “Bira”.