STAR named Business News Source of the Year

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine STAR topped the 24th Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Inc. Business Journalism Awards, receiving four awards that recognize outstanding coverage of the different business beats.

EJAP, with the support of Ayala Corp. and subsidiaries AC Energy, AC Infrastructure, Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Manila Water, Integrated Microelectronics Inc., Globe Telecom and Volkswagen Philippines, announced the winners during the awarding ceremony held at the Ayala Museum in Makati on Friday.

The STAR reporters who received awards were Lawrence Agcaoili (Telecommunications and Transportation Reporter of the Year), Louella Desiderio (Trade and Industry Reporter of the Year) and Iris Gonzales (Best Feature Article for Print Category) for the article titled “What is the true cost of electricity?”

Gonzales, incidentally, is also a finalist in this year’s 37th Catholic Mass Media Awards.

The STAR was named the “Business News Source of the Year” as it received the most number of awards.

The other winners in this year’s EJAP Awards were James Konstantin Galvez of Manila Times (Agriculture Reporter of the Year), Jimmy Calapati of Malaya Business Insight (Banking Reporter of the Year), Lenie Lectura of BusinessMirror (Energy Reporter of the Year), Paolo Montecillo of Philippine Daily Inquirer (Finance Reporter of the Year), Angela Lorraine Celis of Malaya Business Insight (Macroeconomy Reporter of the Year),  Doris Dumlao of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Capital Markets Reporter of the Year) and Darwin Amojelar of

Interaksyon (Best Feature Article for Online Category) for the story “Philippines revives infra push to sustain economic gains.”

This year’s judges were composed of former finance undersecretary Milwida Guevara, now CEO of non-profit Synergeia Foundation; Finance Assistant Secretary Teresa Habitan; Philippine Investor

Relations Office executive director Editha Martin; ING Manila president Consuelo Garcia; University of Asia & the Pacific Center for Food and Agribusiness executive director Rolando Dy; former Securities and Exchange Commission secretary Gerard Lukban; National Grid Corp. of the Philippines spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza; former transportation and communications undersecretary Dante Velasco, and Energy Regulatory Commissioner Geronimo Sta. Ana.

Former CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz, was the keynote speaker for this year’s awards.

The winners were selected based on the content (60 percent) and style (40 percent) of their submitted entries, while the scores were tabulated by accounting firm Punongbayan & Araullo.

This year’s winners received a trophy, cash prize and a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

The EJAP Business Journalism Awards are held annually to promote excellent coverage in the business sector.

EJAP, the country’s premier organization for business reporters, editors, and publishers in the country, has close to 100 members from different newspapers, magazines, news websites and television stations.