THE OUTSTANDING contributions of Ateneo campus journalists were recognized through the 15th Raul L. Locsin Awards for Student Journalism held on February 11 at the Eugenio Lopez Jr. Center for Multimedia Communication.
The awards are eponymously named after Locsin, a journalist who donated the prize money from his 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism to the Ateneo.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award honors individuals in various fields who offer service to the people of Asia.
For the Raul L. Locsin Awards, students may submit up to three articles published in 2013 in any of the following categories: News, features, explanatory journalism, investigative journalism and photojournalism.
Each category had different criteria, with all articles judged based on social impact.
The entries were evaluated by a board of judges with this year’s panel composed of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Social and Mobile Media Head Arlene Burgos, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation Research Head Leo Laparan II and Rappler multimedia reporter Pia Ranada.
School of Social Sciences Dean Filomeno Aguilar Jr., PhD and Communication Department Chair Severino Sarmenta Jr., PhD conferred the awards.
Impact on society
Sophomores Tristan Gamalinda and Bianca Martinez, and junior Billy Poon were recognized for their news article, “Ateneo leaders weigh new pork reform,” published in The GUIDON in September 2013.
The article presented the opinions of several Ateneo administrators on President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s proposal of a new budget system in place of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
It was published at the height of the PDAF scam, where members of the Congress allegedly misused millions of pork barrel money.
“We never thought we would be here when we wrote the article. Knowing it was a big issue and that the Ateneo holds a great influence in the country, our aim, our belief, was to be able to clearly show the stance of the Ateneo community,” Poon said in his speech during the awarding ceremony.
Senior Pia Posadas, junior Jasmine Ting and sophomore Vicah Villanueva also won for their feature article “East of Eden,” published in The GUIDON in August 2013.
Their piece explores multiculturalism in the Philippines through the different food neighborhoods present in Metro Manila.
Posadas expressed gratitude for the award, saying that she often felt people do not consider feature writing as relevant as news or investigative journalism.
“But I think it’s equally relevant because [feature articles] express something about the way we live, about the way we express ourselves, about the way we interact with one another,” she said.
The awards also recognized juniors Elise Apilado and KD Montenegro, and alumni Jan Frederick Cruz (Eco-H ‘14) for their explanatory piece, “Struggling for words: Adjusting to basic education’s new language policy,” published in The GUIDON in August 2013.
The article tackles the effectiveness of the mother tongue-based multilingual education system in the Philippines.
Explanatory journalism presents ongoing news stories in an accessible manner.
Cruz said that he and his co-writers wanted to introduce the issue through a story that students can relate to. “To us, abstractions and empirics are intellectually stimulating but these often fail to move people.”
“Narratives, on the other hand, inspire, disturb and question one’s understanding of what is actually happening without losing the critical perspective,” he added.
Alex Bichara was also recognized for her investigative piece, “Standard of care,” published in The GUIDON in December 2013.
The article focuses on the Ateneo’s policies, processes and programs for the welfare of students with special needs.
Bichara recounted that she got the story idea when her coursemates were making fun of one of their classmates in class, not knowing that said classmate had Tourette syndrome.
She said that the experience made her realize that journalists do not just consider relevance when pitching stories.
“We write them because we think that we need to. We write for a purpose. We don’t just write for the sake of things,” Bichara said.
No award for the photojournalism category was conferred.
Scholarship
Aside from honoring the efforts of student journalists, the Raul L. Locsin Awards also conferred the Raul L. Locsin Scholarship in Journalism to communication junior Regine Cabato.
It provides a tuition and fees scholarship, either partial or full, to one to two juniors or seniors of the Loyola Schools of Humanities and the Social Sciences who wish to pursue a career in journalism.
Cabato thanked the Ateneo and the Communication Department for the scholarship, saying that it was her Jesuit education in Ateneo de Zamboanga that first pushed her to pursue journalism.
“[It was the] exposure trips and lectures on social injustices that made me bent on becoming a journalist in the first place,” she said.
Cabato said that journalism has always been about “going out of [her] comfort zone” and that she is enriched with every experience.
“It has always been an exertion of magis even as my knowledge about the plight of the agricultural sector for example, or the plight of the inmates in New Bilibid, or the plight of patients with cancer, can only be equated to that of a thumbnail,” she said.
“It’s never about us. It’s never about the reporter. It’s always about the story,” Cabato added.
Editor’s Note: Pia H. Posadas is The GUIDON’s Features editor. Regine D. Cabato and Bianca N. Martinez are members of the Beyond Loyola and News staffs, respectively. Alex A. Bichara and Vicah P. Villanueva are members of the Inquiry staff, while Jasmine P. Ting is a member of the Features staff. Tristan B. Gamalinda and Billy B. Poon were News staffers last school year.
