PCIJ wins Red Cross awards

PCIJ’s documentary entry MAGUINDANAO: ISANG TAON
(Maguindanao: One Year After)

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) won three prizes during the first Red Cross Humanitarian Reporting Awards organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC).

The event, held at the Richmonde Hotel in Mandaluyong on Saturday, May 7, 2011, was the first journalism contest organized by the ICRC and the PNRC in order to encourage journalists to engage in more humanitarian and peace reporting, rather than plain reporting on conflict and war.

PCIJ’s Ed Lingao accepts the trophy from ICRC’s Christoph Sutter and PNRC’s Richard Gordon

The PCIJ won a special prize for “Maguindanao: Isang Taon,” a 25-minute documentary that highlights the quest for justice of the families of the victims of the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre. The documentary written and produced by PCIJ Multimedia Director Ed Lingao may be viewed on the video networking site YouTube or on the higher quality video sharing site Vimeo.

PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas accepts her citation for her Maguindanao story

In addition, PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas received a special citation for her 2009 article “Ampatuans managed public funds like clan’s own purse.” The article looked at how the Ampatuan family dipped into Maguindanao’s Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) and splurged on multiple infrastructure projects that benefited them, even as they allotted hardly none for education and health service facilities.

PCIJ Fellow and Mindanews Editor Carolyn O. Arguillas also won a special citation for her articles “Shamefully rich clan has 35 houses, fleet of wheels,” and “The poor get poorer, Ampatuans get richer as IRA billions pour in.” Arguillas wrote the stories for the PCIJ.

ICRC Head of Delegation to the Philippines Christoph Sutter said the awards were launched to recognize the efforts of Philippine journalists to go beyond the typical war reporting. Sutter pointed out that it was “not easy” to do “real conflict reporting” that would show humanity and compassion.

Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon added that the awards were especially important in the Philippines, which has “one of the oldest armed conflicts in Asia and the World.”

The ICRC marks World Red Cross Day tomorrow, May 8. On Monday, it will launch in the Philippines a year-long campaign to gather a million volunteers to work for the local Red Cross network.