2 Sun.Star Cebu journos reap Sinulog prizes

JOURNALISTS Kevin Lagunda and Ruel Rosello of Sun.Star Cebu did more than cover the whirlwind of activities for the Sinulog last month. They also crafted award-winning entries in the Sinulog video and literary contests.

Reporter Lagunda, who joined the Sinulat or Sinulog Awards for Literature for the first time, won in two categories. He placed second in the poetry category with his entry "Botelya" and earned third place in the essay category with "Paglakaw."

Lagunda said "Botelya" talks about "a drunkard's salvation" while "Paglakaw" is about searching for the meaning of life through walking.

Lagunda, who received the award during Sinulog's Awarding Ceremony last Sunday at Cinema One of SM City Cebu, said he did not expect to win when he decided to join to competition.

"For me, joining a contest is just for fun. Ang uban man gud seryoso kayo basta moapil ug contest (Some people take it so seriously when they join a contest)," he said.

Despite the feat, Lagunda said he will continue to write even if his efforts will not be acknowledged.

Award

"Winning an award does not change my state of life. Winning an award is not a gauge that you are a good writer. A good writer is the one who continues to write, chronicling his pain and folly and also that of his fellow men, even though he is not acknowledged," he said.

Lagunda got P7,000 and a trophy for winning second place in poetry and P5,000 and another trophy for winning third in the essay category.

On the other hand, photographer Rosello won in the Sinulog video documentary category.

His 10-minute entry "Cubismo" was adjudged as the Best Picture or the Best Video Documentation of the Year, which is one of the most coveted prizes of the competition.

Rosello's documentary also hauled the awards for best sound engineering and musical scoring, best in cinematography, best story, and best director.

Rosello, who also joined the video documentary contest for the first time, said his entry is a tribute to Cebuano painter and visual artist Celso Duazo Pepito. Rosello is a visual artist.

It featured Pepito's advocacy which is training children, who are easily associated with the Holy Child, to paint.

Blessing

Rosello said it took his production team, which includes The Freeman photographers Reynan Villena and Aldo Banaynal, two months to come up with the winning piece.

Rosello got a trophy and P50,000 for winning the grand prize but said that he will donate half of it to the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children and for the children of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

"I believe that if you share your blessings, it will be returned to you many times over," he said.

Other awards that were given out by the Sinulog Foundation Inc. during the awarding ceremony were for the winners in the photo contest, which had the categories:

contingent, fluvial/solemn procession, higante/float/puppeteers, sidelights and festival queen categories and short film category.