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The Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) on
Friday night handed down the industry’s peer awards, with The
Manila Times figuring prominently in the most-coveted special
reports or features category.
The Times outdid all other newspapers, with six
entries making it to the shortlist for the feature category. But the
Philippine Daily Inquirer, the only other paper that had
short-listed entries, took home the top prize.
Times Reporter Darwin Amojelar, last year’s
winner in the special reports category, however was awarded as the
industry’s best telecom beat reporter.
Two of Amojelar’s entries, “Oil at $100 per
barrel” and “Complains vs. telcos,” were shortlisted for the
top prize this year. Joining him were two other Times reporters,
Maricel Burgonio and Likha Cuevas-Miel.
Burgonio’s story—“Will your complaints
ever be settled?”—delved into credit-card woes and was among the
shortlisted entries, as were Cuevas-Miel’s stories, “RP housing
booms as US slumps,” “Stock market players taking their
stride,” and “Property firms’ foreign sales seen to weaken.”
Inquirer’s Daxim Lucas, a former Times staff
member, won the top prize for his three-part series on the conflict
between state-run Philippine National Construction Corp. and the
British Virgin Islands-based Radstock Securities Ltd.
The scores of the shortlisted entries were kept
secret.
Milwida Guevara, Synergia Foundation president
and chairman of the award’s board of judges, said the
special-reports entries were judged on content, clarity and style.
“The features this year [were] kind of
different because [they were] judged on the basis of present data,
the depth and the different angles that were investigated,” she
said.
As with previous awards, the names of the
qualifying newspapers and their reporters were withheld from the
judges so as to assure impartiality.
Besides Lucas, two other former Times staff—Cai
Ordinario and Max De Leon, both of whom had since moved to
BusinessMirror—were also feted as best reporters for their
respective beats, macroeconomics and trade.
Globe Telecom Inc. sponsored the event, which
was held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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