It was the fourth one. It is celebrating journalism excellence in many categories. I was elated to see a good long-time friend, Dr. Jorge Emmanuel win for his frontlines work in Ebola intervention, practically stopping the epidemic by teaching others how to autoclave the medical waste and training technicians on how to operate the autoclave. It was such a breakthrough and such a humanistic gesture to sacrifice in order to save lives. Hooray for him!
I was glad to also see Allyson Escobar score three awards for best youth voice, best food and best news story. It was good to also see Agnes Constante get it for best profile and best feature while Christina Oriel got the Plaridel for best tourism feature.
I was nominated in four categories: best commentary, best personal essay, best in-depth and best profile writing. While disappointing to me personally, I was happy that I lost to great writers. That I was nominated in the same field as great writers, I was validated in a big way. Thank you for this Philippine American Press Club!
I heard the best acceptance speeches from Cecile Ochoa and Christina Oriel. To Cecile, she equated these awards as honoring true journalism of writing original stories that matter, and not the “cut and paste journalism” that we have seen in the community papers in the past.
I also appreciated Christina Oriel’s acceptance speech, delivered in her absence, by AJ’s office manager, and in her speech, she highlighted the best parts of what makes it more fun to be in the Philippines and a challenge for all of us to emphasize those aspects: its people, its beaches, its landscapes, its food.
