Gawad Plaridel
The U.P. Gawad Plaridel is the sole award in the University of the Philippines System given to outstanding media practitioners.
The Gawad bestows honor on Filipino media practitioners who have excelled in any of the media and performed with the highest level of professional integrity in the interest of public service. The recognition, which comes with a trophy sculpted by National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva, is given to one practitioner in one medium for each year. The awardee is expected to deliver the Plaridel Lecture which addresses important media issues.
Award profile
The award is named after Marcelo H. del Pilar, the selfless propagandist whose stewardship of the reformist newspaper La Solidaridad from 1889 to 1895 helped crystallize nationalist sentiments and ignite libertarian ideas, mainly through his 150 essays and 66 editorials published under the pen name Plaridel. A crusading journalist, this native of Bulacan served as editor of the vernacular section of the Diariong Tagalog, the first Philippine bilingual newspaper, in 1882. Among his major publications were Dasalan at Tocsohan, Pasyong Dapat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Tauong Babasa, and La Soberania Monacal en Filipinas, all published in 1889.From 1890 to around 1895, he edited and published La Solidaridad almost on his own because funds for the support of the fortnightly had become more and more difficult to raise in the Philippines. Del Pilar slowly lost hope in reforms and began to entertain the possibility of the Philippines separating from Mother Spain.
Pining for his mother country and suffering from tuberculosis, Del Pilar died in Barcelona, Spain on July 4, 1896, at the age of 45.
Like Plaridel, the recipient of this award must believe in the vision of a Philippine society that is egalitarian, participative, and progressive, and in media that are socially responsible, critical and vigilant, liberative and transformative, and free and independent.
Given annually, it started in 2004 with Eugenia Apostol, publisher and founding chair of the Philippine Daily Inquirer as its first awardee. In 2005, it was awarded to premier actress and current Batangas governor Vilma Santos, for film. Veteran radio broadcaster Fidela Mendoza-Magpayo, a.k.a. 'Tiya Dely', was the 2006 recipient. Cheche Lazaro received the award for 2007.
2008: Community Print Media
For 2008, Pachico A. Seares, editor-in-chief of Sun.Star Cebu and Sun.Star Superbalita, was chosen as the recipient of the award for his "outstanding contributions to the print media industry." The judges cited Seares' contributions to community journalism, among them: his major help in steering Sun.Star Cebu and Sun.Star Superbalita to become the readership and advertising leaders among community newspapers in the country, his “continuing advocacy on issues that serve community interest, adopting and implementing journalism values that serve as example to Sun.Star affiliate papers in their respective areas, inspiring the community and regarding the people as citizens who can help the community.”After the awarding rites, Seares delivered the Plaridel Lecture entitled "The Future of Community Newspapers," which situated the country's community print media today, presented the success story behind the two publications he heads and its growth into a network of publications, and presented prospects for the field in the future.