Newsbreak receives awards for Spratlys reports, mining magazine
By Lilita Balane, Newsbreak | 06/25/2009 7:00 PM
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MANILA - Newsbreak on Thursday received two Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism (JVOAEJ) for its series on the highly questionable oil exploration deal near the disputed Spratly Islands, and its special magazine edition on the state of the mining industry in the Philippines, all of them published in 2008.
Managing editor Miriam Grace A. Go received a merit award for “A policy of betrayal,” a three-part series on how the Arroyo administration, with the aid of her allies in Congress, sacrificed the country’s territorial interests in the name of oil exploration.
The series discussed the policy, security, and political ramifications of the government’s agreement to allow China and Vietnam to survey for possible oil deposits in waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and to even concede these as “disputed.” The series was also published on abs-cbnNews.com and the Philippine Star.
The citation for Go’s stories reads: “For her documentation and analysis of a major pillar of government policy that calls attention to the often missed connection between the country’s foreign relations and its domestic needs and interests.”
Newsbreak also received a special citation for the special edition of its magazine on mining. Called “The Big Dig,” the compilation of in-depth reports was the first journalistic assessment of the Philippine mining industry since the Supreme Court upheld the mining act in 2004.
The magazine looked into the expected economic benefits of mining operations, as well as their effects on the environment and health of communities. It tackles mining’s dirty past in the Philippines, and proposes solutions and policy reforms. Roel Landingin, a trustee of Newsbreak, led the team that produced the special issue.
The citation for Newsbreak magazine reads: “For an inclusive inquiry into the environmental, economic, political, and social impact of large-scale mining, which has become one of the most contentious and most relevant policy issues in the Philippines today.”
Landingin, meanwhile, won one of the two grand prizes in this year’s JVOAEJ for the story “Aid inflow sparks scandals for GMA, debt woes for RP,” which he wrote for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
The other top prizewinner was “Quedancor swine program another fertilizer scam,” written by Diosa Labiste, Luz Rimban, and Yvonne Chua of VERA Files. Labiste, who did Iloilo part of the Investigation, was chosen as this year’s Marshall McLuhan fellow of the Canadian Embassy.
Newsbreak’s Go and board member Glenda Gloria were also named McLuhan fellows in 2001 and 2008, respectively.
Other merit awards were given to “Squatters and the city” of Sun.Star Cebu’s Cherry Ann Lim and Rene Martel, and to the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s “Less than 10 people in plot, 5 core, 5 other ‘in the know’” by Fe Zamora.
The winners received cash prizes and plaques.
The JVOAEJ are held annually in honor of the late Jaime Ongpin, a press freedom advocate during the Martial Law years. This year’s JVO awards recognized outstanding journalists who provided in-depth analysis and investigation on pressing issues of governance and corruption, human rights, the environment, and the financial crisis.
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