Reel Time, GMA News Online win in Lasallian Scholarum Awards

MANILA, Philippines -  For two years in a row, GMA News TV’s award-winning documentary program Reel Time and GMA News Online gained recognition for their journalistic efforts on youth and education from one of the top universities in the country.

Awards were conferred to Reel Time and GMA News Online by the De La Salle University (DLSU) through the Office for Strategic Communications in the recently-concluded 11th Lasallian Scholarum Awards (LSA) held in Makati City.

Reel Time’s winning entry Alamat ni Dungkoy, which aired last December 2013, won as Outstanding Televised Feature Story on Youth and Education. It tells the poignant story of a 10-year-old boy named Dungkoy from Calauan, Laguna, who was abandoned by his parents and left alone to take care of his paralyzed grandmother.

This marks the ninth time that the Kapuso network was honored by the Lasallian Scholarum Awards since LSA’s launch 11 years ago. Also named to this year’s list of finalists under the television category were GMA and GMA News TV programs I-Witness, Reporter’s Notebook, Front Row, Bawal ang Pasaway and Motorcycle Diaries.

Meanwhile, GMA News Online was recognized for its feature article titled Make gov’t accountable for climate change, commissioner tells youth. Written by Anna Valmero, the article was named Outstanding Online Feature Story for Youth and Education. The story encourages the youth to play an active role in making the local government units more accountable in providing their communities adaptation measures to climate change.

This year’s LSA board of judges is composed of Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, former congresswoman Lorna Verano, filmmaker and former executive director of Rock Ed Philippines Pepe Diokno, DLSU Student Government president Carlo Inocencio and DLSU Office for Strategic Communications executive director Jose Mari Magpayo.

With the theme Shift happens: advocating change for youth and education, LSA aims to “generate awareness on their critical needs and concerns and encourages proactive initiatives toward the development of the country’s educational system.”

Since 2004, the Lasallian Scholarum Awards has been giving out recognitions to print, photo, broadcast and even campus journalists for their outstanding media coverage on Filipino youth and education issues.