‘Punla’ dominates Gawad Plaridel awards

MALOLOS CITY – Journalists writing for local weekly newspapers dominated the 3rd Annual Gawad Plaridel awards here last Friday.

The winners for print and broadcast categories are Jeeno Arellano of Punla and Pete Buluran of DZRH for environment category, Jose Mari Garcia of Punla and Efren Alcantara of RMN Radio for cultural reporting, Maria Bundoc-Ocampo of Punla and Theofel Santos of DWIZ for inspirational reporting.

The Photo of the Year award was given to Romeo Cruz of the Pilipino Star Ngayon.

Pete Gosuico of the Manila Bulletin who passed away last December was given a posthumous award. Gosuico had earlier received a lifetime achievement award during the Gawad Plaridel that was launched in 2005.

The awardees received a trophy and P10,000 cash each. The winner of the Photo of the Year got P20,000 cash.

Punla, a local weekly newspaper that has been in circulation in the province since the early 1980s dominated the awards.

The provincial government also announced changes for the awards next year to widen the coverage.

The annual awards will not longer be called Gawad Plaridel, but Gawad Marcelo H. Pilar, still in honor of the great Bulakenyo propagandist.

New categories will be added namely, science and technology, business, and health reporting. 

News and feature stories will also be judged separately while, television was added to print and broadcast sub-categories.

Campus journalists will also be included in the awards next year but it remains unclear if the student journalists will have the same categories as the above.