Mindanao-based newspaper gets plum in journalism awards

MANILA, Philippines - Central Mindanao’s oldest community newspaper --- owned by the congregation where Orlando Cardinal Quevedo belong --- was named 2013’s “Best in Culture, Arts and History Reporting” in the 18th season of the Civic Journalism Press Awards (CJPA).

The editor of the Mindanao Cross, Carlos Bautista, received the award Thursday night at the Traders Hotel along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, where Former President Fidel Ramos was keynote speaker.

The Mindanao Cross, established in Cotabato City in 1948 by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, whose pontifical base is in Rome, has been advocating  Muslim-Christian solidarity, and the preservation of the cultures and traditions of Moro, indigenous people, and Christian communities in the country’s south.

The Civic Journalism Press Awards, which involves provincial newspapers, or the so-called “community newspapers,” is a yearly activity of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI).

The Mindanao Cross was also a finalist in six out of seven CJPA categories for 2013 --- best edited community newspaper, best editorial page, best in environmental reporting, best in photojournalism, best in culture and and history reporting, and in the special category dubbed Coke’s bayanihan award on best reporting on disasters.

Bautista, who is also concurrent manager of the OMI’s station dxMS in Cotabato City, was accompanied to the awards night at the Traders Hotel by the Mindanao Cross’ chief executive officer, Oblate missionary Jonathan Domingo.

The PPI’s incumbent president, lawyer Jesus Dureza, who is publisher of the Davao City-based Mindanao Times community newspaper, said the civic journalism awards night was one of the highlights in this year’s commemoration of the institute’s 50th founding anniversary.

The Mindanao Cross, also known as “little paper with a big cause,” is just one of the entities under the OMI’s media ministry. The Oblate congregation, which has been operating humanitarian missions in Central Mindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi since before World War II, also has five radio stations located in strategic spots in Southern Philippines.