The 3rd Plaridel Awards Winners

October 2, 2014

South San Francisco

South San Francisco, CA – The Philippine American Press Club, USA announced the winners of the Third Plaridel Awarda excellence in Filipino American journalism at a gala dinner at the Fort McKinley Restaurant in South San Francisco, California. Run-Away publisher with the most Plaridel winners was Positively Filipino which garnered six crystal wedge trophies in 6 categories namely: Best International Reporting, Entertainment Story/Mila de Guzman’s “Indie with a Mission”; Best Sports Story/Joseph Bautista of Escabo Daan Martial Arts with “A new path thrugh Eskabo Daan”, Best Personal Story/Lotis Key’s “White men can’t jump start”, and Best Profile Writing/Titchie Tiongson with “The thoroughly modern Sofia de Veyra” . Ken Kashiwahara, former ABC TV Anchor, won the Best Feature Writing Award with his piece “Ninoy’s Final Journey” published with the two year old e-zine Positively Filipino. Philippine News and The FilAm LA came second both winning two categories; Investigative or In-depth Story/Neil Gonzales’ “A Force in State’s Energy Battles Part 1 & II, and the Best Food Story/ Cherie Querol Moreno’s “Adobo may have French Roots”. One year old online gazette, The FilAm L.A. won two categories, The Best Youth Voice/Lawrence Ochoa, “Somethings stand the test of time from the boomers to milliennials”and Best Tourism Feature Story/Cecile Ochoa with her article “ World Traveller Odette Ricasa: 247 countries and counting.”

Atty. Ted Laguatan, a columnist of Inquirer.net won the Best Commentary Category with his opinion piece “China’s military base in Philippine territory must absolutely be blocked.” Joseph Lariosa of Philippine Daily Mirror received the Best News Story with his article on “ CHP Report: Limo Fire an Accident.” Power ng Pinoy TV won the Plaridel for Best Television Community Reporting with their “Million People March” broadcast. Laurel Fantauzzo, won the President’s Choice award with her article on “How to survive a super typhoon: Batanes” which appeared on Buzzfeed.com.

Esther Chavez, PAPC President said that this year’s entries was three times more than the first year and was pleased to report that the Plaridel Awards seems to be taking traction. She looks forward to seeing more entries from FilAm journalists all over the US next year. Entries must have been published in a bona-fide media company. Entry Guidelines and other information can be found at www.papcusa.org/plaridel-awards.

The Plaridel Awards was launched in 2012 to celebrate the work of Filipino American journalists as they chronicle the lives of their kababayans in the US or the communities they live in. Much like Marcelo H. Del Pilar, 19^th Century Filipino hero and expat-publisher who pursued his career as a journalist while in exile. The word Plaridel was his nom de plume.

San Jose Native Azenith Smith, KTVU general assignment reporter, was keynote speaker. Consul General Henry S. Bensurto, Jr. also spoke about the synergy between the consulate and the press club- which they so appreciate.Two outstanding leaders in the community were presented the “Torch Bearer Award.” They were former Philippine Tourism Director for the San Francisco North West Area, Rene de los Santos and Rudy Asercion, until recently, executive director of the WestBay Pilipino Multi-Service Center. A posthumous award for “Outstanding Community Service through radio broadcasting” was presented to the widow of Robert Henry, East West Radio Host, who passed away this year.

Prior to the start of the proceedings, Rick Rocamora, acclaimed Filipino Photojournalist, did a presentation on his work to encourage more journalists interested in presenting their coverage with compelling pictures. Emcees for the evening were father-daughter tandem, Ness Caroline Ocampo – host and producer of the Filipino American Network Radio that produced the FilAm Now – FilAm Ngayon.

The 4th Plaridel awards is scheduled for October 8, 2015, a Thursday. Venue to be confirmed.

 List of Winners