CONGRATULATIONS again for SunStar Bacolod (SSB) for winning a national award on environmental reporting.
This time, it won the Best in Environmental Reporting award in the daily category at the Philippine Press Institute 2017 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards.
The first time was in 2002 when it first won a national award (the name escapes me but it should be in the paper’s morgue of back issues) for its intrepid reporting on the illegal logging in Barangay Bagong Silang, Salvador Benedicto.
I had just joined the SunStar Bacolod as an environmental opinion-editorial writer.
Then SSB chief reporter Avelyn Marañón nee Agudon recruited to write for the paper.
Of course, as part of the paper, I often handed out exclusives for the paper.
Since I and my field staff were confronted with armed groups, I had to share most of my info with other news outfits. While news reporting is a dog-eat-dog cutthroat competition, when there is a perceived threat against a reporter of a rival paper, all reporters automatically circle their wagons.
As the project manager of a Netherland Committee-IUCN on linking non-timber forest product development with timber conservation.
As being at the scene of the action, I had firsthand newsworthy information not only from the community, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) then under Officer-In-Charge Raúl Lorilla, the Provincial Environment Management Office (Pemo), and even from then Major Nelson Gerona.
Media support not just from SunStar Bacolod but other print daily, and broadcast outfits helped carry the day for providing the shield from turning project implementation into an ugly mess.
One time, when the Bagong Silang threatened to drown a leader of the Bagong Silang people’s organization at the Palala River, the staff texted in Manila, which I then forwarded to Avelyn who in turn got in touch with other beat reporters. They, in turn, contacted their counterparts in television and radio.
Pretty soon, in the language of the current social media slang, the story became viral. From an aggressor, the barangay captain turned tail from the media beating.
So again, congratulations to SunStar Bacolod for a repeat performance. We have shown our competitive edge on environmental reporting. (bqsanc@yahoo.com)