SUNSTAR Publishing Inc. bagged two of the four major awards in the annual Globe Media Excellence Awards (GMEA) in Mindanao held in Davao City, Tuesday, November 22.
Rhealyn Pojas of SunStar Davao won as Reporter of the Year for print and Erwin Mascariñas of SunStar Cagayan de Oro as Photojournalist of the Year for print in a gathering of the best in the field of broadcast, print, online journalists and bloggers, columnists, and social media influencers.
Pojas won for her piece titled "The State of the Toilet 2015" and bested eight other contenders.
Mascariñas won for his photo "Bakwit School" and bested seven other photojournalists. He was also a nominee as reporter of the year for online news portal.
On September 23, SunStar Cagayan de Oro published Mascariñas’ photo which featured five Lumad children learning History lessons in an open makeshift classroom inside the evacuation area at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines Haran compound, Davao City.
In his Facebook post, Mascariñas, who has been a photojournalist since 2009, said he did not expect to win the award.
"Thank you for this honor and privilege and will push and strive harder to bring the images and story of the people to the public," he said in his social media post.
This year's awarding is based on the following four sustainability focus areas: care for the environment, innate care for our people, positive societal impact, and digital nation.
“The critical role of media organizations and online communities in forming and shaping public opinion makes it imperative for technology organizations like Globe to encourage excellence in this field as we all aspire to effect societal change," Globe Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Yoly Crisanto said. (VLA/SunStar Davao/Sunnex)