The Tatak UP sa Sugbo Awards

DELA CERNA

The Tatak UP 2018 Awards highlighted the 4th season with the Tatak UP sa Sugbo Awards on December 6, 2018 at the Casino Español.

Ten awardees received the Oblation statuettes from the UP Alumni Association Cebu Chapter.

With 25 years experience in (GAD) work and currently the chief of the Policy Development Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Division of the Philippine Commission on Women, Anita Estrera-Baleda (Social Change, Advocacy, Women Empowerment) leads the formulation, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation of GAD-related policies, plans, gender-related laws such as the Magna Carta of Women and international commitments such as CEDAW.

When everyone thought illegal gambling cannot be wiped out, Atty. Carlo Pontico Fortuna (Law, Public Service, Governance) showed it can be done by leading the police.

When the city was experiencing labor conflicts in some companies, he worked hard to strengthen the Tripartite Industrial Peace Conflict.

When the government was clueless on what to do with drug addicts who surrendered, he developed a program that will give them and their families a second chance.

For over 12 years now, Cris Evert Lato-Ruffolo (Social Change, Advocacy, Community Empowerment) has spent most of her time organizing initiatives dedicated to spread the love of reading through storytelling in Cebu and its neighboring towns and provinces leading to her co-founding the Basadours, a group of volunteer storytellers dedicated to reignite children from different barangays in Cebu City as well as neighboring cities and provinces their love of reading because of the stories read and shared by the Basadours.

As Vice Chairperson for the Visayas of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Atty. Ian Anthony Sapayan (Social Change, Advocacy, Community Empowerment) has worked as pro bono legal counsel to student detainees and activists.

He has chosen as a people’s lawyer to abdicate the relative comfort of the sidelines and the accolades of mainstream legal practice in order to stand up for his principles and his Tatak UP calling — “to save what remains of the law for the benefit of our people’s human rights.”

Dr. Jose Eleazar Bersales (Culture and Heritage – Conservation) popularly known as Jobers practiced his profession in Cebu through the excavations in Boljoon, Ginatilan, San Remigio and other towns.

He designed five museums in Cebu and one in Zamboanga.

In 2012, he was awarded the Garbo sa Sugbo Award for Culture and Heritage by then Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for helping set up a province-wide participatory cultural mapping program as well as town and barangay/community museums.

He also hosted “Kabilin” the heritage TV documentary which aired on Sugbo TV in 2010-2012 and won the Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Award for Best TV Documentary in 2011.

Aside from being an educator, Atty. Rose-Liza Eisma-Osorio (Environmental Conservation) is one of the founders and managing trustee of the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) Inc., an organization of environmental lawyers pushing for the implementation of Philippines’ environmental laws, accountability of public officials and capacity building for citizens for the benefit of enjoyment of the fundamental right to a balanced and healthful ecology by the current and future generations.

The expertise of Haidee Emmie Palapar (Communication and Culture) lies in development and corporate communication, actively engaging in advocacy promotion, and literature.

Specifically, she has utilized research, information material generation and media relation in various development arenas such as culture and heritage, education, and environment.

Prof. Raymund Fernandez (Art, Design, and Culture) has provided cultural leadership and contributed significantly in the arts and culture of Cebu through his research project documenting and cataloguing the church-ceiling paintings on some churches in the islands of Cebu and Bohol.

His zeal for writing the art history of Cebu is seen in his coffee table book, Kamingaw: An Impressionist Portrait of the Bisaya Painter Martino A. Abellana.

Architect Michael Torres (Art, Design, Corporate Social Responsibility) is the founder, president and CEO of Archiglobal Inc., an established Philippine-based architectural and design practice in Cebu that provides architecture, interior designs, landscape architecture and master-planning services, conceptualized and designed over 1,000 hectares of land development of residential condominiums, master-planned residential communities and commercial business developments.

Archiglobal’s phenomenal growth is led by Architect Torres whose leadership came at the right timing with the construction boom in Cebu, gaining a dominant position in the field as Mike remains focused, humble and able to inspire and bring out the talents of his staff.

Ma. Teresa Canton (Education) has rendered leadership in the professional development of secondary school administration in Cebu after she earned her M.Ed.in Educational Administration at UP Cebu in 1979.

Abreast of the recent practices and policies in the field of education, she has actively contributed to the work of education-related organizations in the region and continued to advocate for excellence in classroom teaching, particularly in the fields of Mathematics and English, and has provided trainings that have uplifted the status of school administrators for 12 years.

To the Tatak UP 2018 awardees, may your tribe increase!