MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine STAR editor-in-chief Ana Marie Pamintuan is the Rotary Club of Manila’s Journalist of the Year.
Pamintuan received the award the other night from Asia’s oldest Rotary Club during ceremonies in Makati. The Manila Rotary, which has been handing out the award for excellence in journalism since 1966, also chose her as Print Journalist of the Year in 2012.
STAR columnist Alex Magno was chosen Male Opinion Writer of the Year, while STAR sister publication BusinessWorld was named Business Newspaper of the Year.
Pamintuan has been with The STAR since it was launched in 1986, starting as a reporter and then moving up to various positions as editor. She has been editor-in-chief since January 2012, when the Rotary Club of Manila picked The STAR as National Newspaper of the Year – an honor it first received in 2006. In 2013, when the paper received the award from the RCM for the third time, The STAR became the first paper to enter the club’s “hall of fame” in this category.
Pamintuan obtained her journalism degree with honors from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, where the College of Mass Communication picked her as Outstanding Alumna during the UP centennial in 2008.
During Thursday’s ceremonies at the New World Hotel, the Rotary Club of Manila also conferred honors on Malaya columnist Ellen Tordesillas as Female Opinion Writer of the Year and Daxim Lucas of the Philippine Daily Inquirer as Investigative Reporter of the Year.
The Manila Bulletin was named Newspaper of the Year and Mindanao Times the Regional Newspaper of the Year.
In broadcasting, the awardees are CNN Philippines, Television Station of the Year, and dzMM Radyo Patrol 630, Radio Station of the Year.
Ronald Lledo of TV 11 Zamboanga, GBPI was named the year’s best Regional Broadcaster; ABS-CBN’s Gus Abelgas, “Scene of the Crime Operatives” host, Television Male Broadcaster; GMA Network’s Nimfa Ravelo, Radio and Television Female Broadcaster; DZMM Radyo Patrol’s Gerry Baja, Radio Male Broadcaster and DZMM Radyo Patrol’s Jasmine Romero, Radio Female Broadcaster.
PeopleAsia Magazine was named Glossy Lifestyle Magazine of the year and BizNews Asia, Business Magazine of the Year.
Special Journalism Awards were given to The Manila Standard columnist Emil Jurado, who was recognized as the “Father of Journalists,” and posthumously to Standard founding publisher and former press secretary Rodolfo Reyes and Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Neal Cruz.
The awards were handed out by RCM president Eusebio Tan, awards committee co-chairmen Jose Manuel Romualdez and Art Lopez, and RCM officials Obet Pagdanganan, Frank Evaristo and Jimmie Policarpio.