Cebu Daily News (CDN), the local affiliate of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, bagged three major awards during the 2013 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) for best editorial page, best in photojournalism and the Coke Bayanihan award for best in disaster reporting.
Among all the awards, the Coke Bayanihan award seems to have struck a responsive chord in CDN publisher and acting editor in chief Eileen Mangubat, who had been going around the country’s major cities to share the paper’s experiences of reporting in the time of Yolanda.
This was part of her obligation after having been chosen as the 2013 Marshall McLuhan awardee early this year.
Civic journalism is at the heart of the Coke Bayanihan citation and I’m happy for everybody in this paper for bagging the very first special award, courtesy of PPI’s institutional partner, The Coca Cola Export Corp.
Their joint efforts in raising the profile of the community press are very laudable.
The Coke Bayanihan award is well-thought of because the community press is the first to respond, together with local and national government agencies in times of calamity.
Our country has been experiencing extreme weather conditions for at least half a decade now and I don’t remember a time when this paper and the competition were unseen or unheard in times of crisis.
The idea of putting out a paper during times of extreme calamities may be unthinkable, but CDN was on its toes. The thing is, the paper did not just focus on warnings and calamity updates that became topics of discussion in tri-media, but also highlighted stories of resilience, cooperation, heroic deeds big and small which underlined the faith of our people in very difficult times.
The back-to-back calamity was a test of how far community papers would go to show their commitment to serve, and among many who passed the acid test, CDN stood out for “consistently giving readers a very professional, very sober account of the various disasters that hit the Visayas region in 2013 – and there were a lot,” according to the PPI board of judges led by Dean Antonio La Viña.
I have always been proud of my affiliation but the PPI’s recognition of CDN’s editorial page, photo essays and disaster reporting has made me even prouder. Kudos, CDN.
Congratulations as well to the community press in general.
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Cebuanos are looking forward to the visit here of Pope Francis in early 2016 for the International Eucharistic Congress, but some lucky people may just get to meet him a year and three months earlier.
The occasion is the centennial celebration of the International Schoenstatt Movement, founded by German priest, Fr. Joseph Kentenich on Oct. 18, 1914 in Vallendar, Germany.
In the runup to the jubilee celebration, people from other parts of the world will congregate in the Vallendar shrine, built in honor of the Virgin Mary, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt. From Germany, the pilgrims which include some 15 Cebuanos will proceed to Rome on Oct. 25, 2014.
The date is significant for Schoenstatters who earlier requested an audience with Pope Francis. I have a feeling this will come to pass and who knows, the Pontiff will make an important announcement: the beatification of Fr. Joseph Kentenich.
Needless to say, the centenary of the founding of Schoenstatt is a major event in at least 200 countries around the world where a replica of the original Schoenstatt shrine is located. In the Philippines, the daughter shrine is located in Lawaan 3, Talisay City.
The Schoenstatt Movement in the Philippines successfully held its second national convention to mark the centenary.
The three-day assembly was graced by Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, whose diocesan leadership enabled the Schoenstatt family to build the shrine in a lot formerly owned by the Archdiocese. The construction of the beautiful shrine was completed in 2003. Five years later, Cardinal Vidal decreed the shrine a place of pilgrimage in the Archdiocese.
Cardinal Vidal presided over the Eucharistic celebration last Saturday. He looked well although his frail health showed in the way he moved slowly. During a conversation with some delegates and the Schoenstatt Sisters, I heard Sr. Maria Isabell, ISSM, a theologian and Mariologist thanking Cardinal Vidal for all his support to the movement, calling him the Schoenstatt family’s “guardian angel.”
By the way, the Schoenstatt Movement in the Philippines is grateful to Smart Communications for its generous support for the 2nd National Congress. Big thanks to lawyer Maria Jane Paredes, (Vis-Min) senior manager for public affairs.