DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 28 Sept) – Two Mindanawons are among five alumni of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications (UPCMC) who will receive the 2019 Glory Award for excellence in their communication discipline and for making a significant impact on society through their body of work.
The two Mindanawon awardees, both graduates of AB Journalism at the UPCMC, are Davao City-based journalist Carolyn O. Arguillas, editor-in-chief of MindaNews and peace advocate Samira Ali Gutoc of Marawi City.
The UPCMC Alumni Association in a press release said the five who will be honored during the UPCMC alumni homecoming on November 9 are Arguillas for journalism, Gutoc and Nona Andaya-Castillo for social advocacy, Jeffrey Jeturian for film and visual communication, and Florencio “Floy” Quintos for performing arts.
Mindanawons Samira Ali Gutoc (in red hijab, seated second from left) and Carolyn O. Arguillas (behind Gutoc) are among five alumni of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communications who will receive the 2019 Glory Award on November 9: Gutoc for social advocacy and Arguillas for Journalism. Both are graduates of AB Journalism. Photo taken after the Basic Documentation and Reporting Training for Monitoring Marawi’s Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction held at the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao at the Mindanao State University in Iligan City on March 27, 2018.
The award is named after Gloria D. Feliciano, the first dean of the UP mass communication program who served from 1965 to 1985.
The Glory Awards will be held on Saturday, November 9, at the Film Studio of the UP Film Institute, beside the UPCMC’s Plaridel Hall in UP Diliman.
The seven-member jury for this year’s awards was composed of former UPCMC Dean Luis Teodoro, acclaimed screenwriter and journalist Jose “Pete” Lacaba, advertising industry leader Venus Navalta, public relations expert Joy Buensalido, broadcaster and former Senator Orly Mercado, UP Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Wendell Capili, and former CNN Philippines and ANC news chief Jing Magsaysay, who also represents the family of the late Dean Feliciano.
The UPCMC Alumni Association’s notes on its 2019 Glory awardees:
Carolyn Arguillas, a veteran journalist based in Davao City, is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of MindaNews, dedicated to stories about Mindanao. She has won the Marshall McLuhan Fellowship Prize from the Canadian government, Investigative Reporter of the Year award from the Rotary Club of Manila, the Catholic Mass Media Award and Jaime V Ongpin Investigative Journalism Award. Arguillas also organizes workshops and conferences for Mindanao journalists. She was the first Mindanao bureau chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer before she led a group of community journalists in establishing the Mindanao News and Information Center Service Cooperative (in May 2001; now the Mindanao Institute of Journalism) which publishes MindaNews. In 2015, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility honored MindaNews with an Award of Distinction “for the value of the information and analyses it provides so Filipinos can understand the particularities of Mindanao and its people…not limited to issues of war and peace.”
Samira Gutoc is a longtime advocate for peace in Mindanao. She has been a print journalist, a legislator in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and part of the 21-member commission that helped draft the Bangsamoro Organic Law. Though she was unable to realize her dream to become the country’s first veiled woman broadcast journalist after being rejected by big media companies, she nonetheless was able to shatter Muslim stereotypes, promote interfaith dialogue, and assert the rights of women, marginalized groups, and communities displaced by conflict. A resident of Marawi City, Gutoc was thrust in the public eye in 2017 when she delivered an impassioned appeal before Congress on behalf of 200,000 suffering people during the Marawi siege. Gutoc ran unsuccessfully for a Senate seat in 2019 but won wide admiration for her articulate command of the issues as the only female and Muslim senatorial candidate of the main opposition.
Nona Andaya-Castillo has tirelessly championed breastfeeding and the welfare of Filipino mothers and children. Her national and international campaigns were featured by BBC, Time Magazine, Retuers and the Associated Press. She was awarded the Bill and Melinda gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges and Explorations international research grant, which seeds unorthodox ideas for addressing persistent public health and development problems. She lobbied to establish breastfeeding and lactation stations in malls and offices, an advocacy that became a law in 2010. Andaya-Castillo is the first Filipino non-medical doctor to be internationally certified and accredited as a lactation consultant. Her website www.nanaynona.com teaches earth-friendly parenting and lifestyle, joyful childbirth, extended breastfeeding, and plant- based nutrition using evidence-based scientific information. Her lessons are adapted to local nurturing practices and resource-poor populations.
Jeffrey Jeturian has directed feature films that foreshadowed a vibrant Philippine independent cinema. He made relevant social themes and issues appeal to wider audiences beyond the arthouse aficionados. The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino included 3 of his films – Pila Balde (1999), Tuhog (2001), and Kubrador (2006) – in its list of 20 important Filipino movies produced in the past 20 years. Kubrador, widely perceived as Jeturian’s most accomplished film, was exhibited in more than a hundred international festivals, including a US premiere at the New York Museum of Modern Art, winning over 40 national and international awards. Pila Balde also received numerous awards and citations abroad. Locally, Tuhog and Kubrador were Urian best picture winners while Minsan Pa (2004) was named best picture by the Golden Screen Awards. Bisperas (2011) and Ekstra (2013) received the best film awards from the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival.
Floy Quintos is a well-known writer and director of plays and musicals. He has won 9 times in the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, including three first prizes. Among his acclaimed theatrical works are the 2018 hit Kundiman Party, St Louis Loves Dem Filipinos, An Evening at the Opera, Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna, Fluid, and Shock Value. For the past 3 decades, he has written memorable, intelligent plays in English and Filipino that are strong socio-political commentaries spiked with his prickling wit. Vanguards of local theater, such as PETA, Dulaang UP, and The Virgin Labfest, have staged his innovative and visionary dramatizations. Quintos also devotes time to studying the cultures and artifacts of Philippine indigenous peoples, curating international exhibits and publishing essays on their traditional art. (MindaNews)
