Some of last year’s Plaridel awardees in journalism. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
SAN FRANCISCO—Entries for Second Annual Plaridel Awards for outstanding journalists and publishers in the Filipino American community are being accepted by the Philippine American Press Club USA, the organization, which is marking its 25th anniversary, announced Thursday.
PAPC is calling all Fil-American journalists to submit their entries which saw print or were broadcast through a Filipino American based media anywhere in the U.S. between June 1, 2012 thru May 31, 2013. Deadline for submission is Sept. 10, 2013. The awards will mark PAPC’s 25th anniversary.
Awards will be given to the best news report, feature or commentary that provide unique perspective on the issues and concerns of Filipino Americans.
Categories for print and online articles include Investigative/In-Depth Story; Commentary or Editorial Essay; International Reporting; Entertainment Story; Sports Story; and Youth Voice. For Broadcast TV and Radio it will for the best in Community Reporting. And last but not least is a category for Photojournalism.
Plaridel Awardees will receive a trophy and cash in recognition of their outstanding work. This year’s awards ceremony will be held on October 19 in San Francisco.
The name Plaridel was chosen in honor of Marcelo H. Del Pilar, a Filipino patriot, journalist and publisher who brought with him his craft and zeal as an expat to Europe in late 1800s where he continued to be a prolific writer and kept his constituents abreast with the goings on in their expat community as well as in their homeland.
In Del Pilar, PAPC has found a hero to emulate and an inspiration to Filipino-American writers and publishers everywhere, who continue with their journalistic aspirations and in service to their constituents in the new land they now call home.
Winners of the First Plaridel Awards last year included journalists from New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They were Michael Santos and Joseph Pimentel of “Asian Journal” for Outstanding Reportage while Cristina Pastor of “The FilAm” was runner up. Dennis Clemente of INQUIRER.net won for Outstanding Commentary with Ted Laguatan also of INQUIRER.net as runner up. Laurel Fantauzzo of The FilAm won first prize in Youth Voice while Elizabeth Horner came second.
Janet Nepales of Philippine News won the Outstanding Entertainment Category while Dennis Clemente was runner up. Outstanding International Reporting Category’s top honor went to “Philippine News”’ Cherie Querol Moreno while Asian Journal’s Las Vegas editor, Dymphna Calica-La Putt, won honorable mention.
In the Broadcast Category’s Community Reporting in Television, Jannell So of “Kababayan LA,” seen daily on KSCI-TV LA18, won 1st prize. Runner up was Arnold Pedrigal of “Power ng Pinoy” a weekly show on GMA TV.
Photo-journalism honorable mention went to Michael Santos of “Asian Journal” and the Tourism Feature Story winner was Ruben Nepales of “Balikbayan Magazine.”
The Philippine-American media have been providing news and information to the community for more than 50 years. At present, total monthly circulation of the combined major publications in print, online and broadcast is approximately two million nationwide.
For more information on, please email esther.chavez@inquirerinc.net or Jojo.peralta@asianjournalinc.com.