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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.