Biotech awards body cites STAR

The Philippine STAR was one of three newspapers given institutional awards during the Jose G. Burgos Jr. Awards for Biotech Journalism held recently at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan. The other two were Manila Bulletin which placed first and Business Mirror which placed third.

In the individual categories, former STAR reporter Rocel C. Felix who is now with Xinhua Finance News bagged the first and second prizes in the Best News Story award for her stories "SaltUNO or Molobicus: A saline-tolerant tilapia breed" and "Better laws seen to spur biotech commercialization," respectively. Momoy Cardenas of Manila Bulletin got third prize for his story "RP’s iron-rich rice harvested for the first time in Laguna town."

Manila Bulletin’s Melody Aguiba received the first prize for the Best Feature Award for her story "First cloned carabao expected next year." Second prize went to Celeste Llaneta of the Philippine STAR for her article "Going Alternative: A look at some fuel alternatives," while the third prize was awarded to Felix for her article "Dr. Saturnina Halos: Scientist steps out of her comfort zone to become an entrepreneur."

The other finalists for Best News Story were Felix for "Scientists turn to biotech to save ailing seaweed industry" and Jennifer Ng of BusinessMirror for "RP pushes biopiracy in IPR talks."

The finalists for Best Feature Story were Dave Llorita of BusinessMirror for "Change oil," Cher Jimenez of BusinessMirror for "Filipino discovers gene-causing hypertension and Ma. Ceres Doyo of Philippine Daily Inquirer for "Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit RX for life:Use you coconut."

The awards were spearheaded by the Biotech for Life Media Advocacy Resource Center which includes the Department of Agriculture, Biotech Coalition of the Philippines and SEARCA-Biotechnology Information Center, the J. Burgos Media Services Inc and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources and Development.

This year’s board of judges was composed of Prof. Luis Teodoro of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (chairman), engineer Yvonne Agustin of the United Coconut Association of  the Philippines, Dr. Virginia Enriquez of the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development of the DOST, Atty. Antonio Jamon Jr. of the Nationwide Association of Consumers Inc., and Evelyn Mae Mendoza, academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology and research professor at the Institute of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture University of the Philippines Los Baños.