BM bags 5 biotech journalism awards

THE BusinessMirror swept five of the major awards in the recent Jose G. Burgos Jr. Awards for Biotech Journalism, an annual search supported by the Department of Agriculture.

The newspaper placed second in the institutional category, where the Manila Bulletin won first prize; the Philippine Star took the third prize.

BM’s science editor Lyn Resurreccion won first prize in the features category for her article on “Worm-free ‘talong.’”

She was followed by Anjo C. Alimario, also of the BusinessMirror, for his “RP needs strong animal biotech program.”

Resurreccion also won second prize for the story “China ‘Bt’ rice OK’d to boost supply.”

In that same category, BM’s agriculture reporter Jennifer Ng snatched the third prize for “Bt eggplant
farmers can hike yield per hectare by 317 percent.”

Paul Icamina of Malaya took the top prize in News for his “Pinoy savants developing flood-tolerant rice.”

Keynoting the awards rites at the IMAX Theater of the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City was Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, who also later unveiled the logo of the Jose G. Burgos Biotechnology Journalism Awards trust fund, assisted by the late press freedom icon’s widow Edita Burgos.

The board of judges gave a special citation to Helen Flores of the Philippine Star for writing “USM experts develop 6 new HYV corn varieties.”

Rudy Fernandez took the last prize in Features for writing “GM corn production now a multibillion-peso industry” for the Philippine Star.

The awards started in 2005 to honor the memory of Jose G. Burgos Jr., the pioneering “Mosquito Press” publisher of We Forum and Pahayagang Malaya during the Marcos regime. For his courage as a journalist in a time of crisis, Burgos was named one of the 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th Century by the International Press Institute. On retiring from active journalism post-1986, he devoted his time to farming, occasionally writing science and agriculture pieces and encouraging journalists to push the frontiers of scientific inquiry, especially in biotechnology.

The awards at Thursday’s rites were given out by Mrs. Burgos; Abraham Manalo, executive secretary of the Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines; and Dr. Aida Adalla, director of the Biotechnology Program Office of the DA.