PDI photo-journos bag top media awards

‘PHOTOS TELLING STORIES’ Richard A. Reyes’ Jan. 9 photograph of the Black Nazarene procession (left), which won him the silver award (middle) for best news photography at the Asian Media Awards; Ian Paul Cordero’s Jan. 26 photograph of the Sto. Niño procession in Iloilo City’s Dinagyang Festival for which he won best news photograph at the Catholic Mass Media Awards.

MANILA, Philippines — Inquirer’s photojournalists snapped major awards from top media organizations in the last few weeks, with Richard A. Reyes bagging the silver award for best news photography at Wan-Ifra’s annual Asian Media Awards on Nov. 6 and correspondent Ian Paul Cordero winning best news photograph at the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) held online on Oct. 28.

A total of 251 entries from 42 media organizations across 13 countries competed for the prestigious Asian Media Awards, said Wan-Ifra (World Association of News Publishers-International Federation of Newspaper Publishers), which held the awards ceremony in Singapore together with its two-day Asian Media Leaders’ Summit.

READ: Inquirer wins big at PPI’s community press awards

Reyes, who has been with the Inquirer since 2010, was awarded the silver prize for his photograph captioned “No Barrier to Faith,” the banner photo in the Philippine Daily Inquirer of Jan. 10, 2024.

The photograph featured the Black Nazarene image placed in a glass enclosure amid the reported resurgence of COVID-19—which did not, however, discourage the crowd of devotees accompanying the centuries-old image during the almost daylong “traslacion” or Black Nazarene procession on Jan. 9.

Reyes previously won the gold award for best news photography at the Asian Media Awards in 2023 for his photo captioned “Relief,” showing then detained former Sen. Leila de Lima waving at her supporters outside a courthouse following her acquittal in one of the drug trafficking cases filed by her tormentor, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The South China Morning Post took the gold for best news photography while Kumparan of Indonesia won in the small/medium media subcategory.

Surprised by CMMA win

Cordero, a correspondent for the Inquirer’s Visayas bureau, was awarded by the CMMA for his Jan. 26 photograph also with a religious theme featuring Sto. Niño devotees in Iloilo City’s Dinagyang Festival. The photograph captioned “Ilonggo Devotion” was published in the Regions section in the Inquirer of Jan 28.

He said he was “surprised” and happy about his first CMMA award. “When my name was called … I started yelling in my room so loud it disturbed my neighbors,” he said.

“I just love taking photos and telling the stories of other people. Contests like these are not really on my mind,” he added.

The Iloilo City-based Cordero, 35, became a correspondent for the Inquirer in 2022, although he has been working as a photojournalist since 2016. He previously worked for Panay News before transferring to Iloilo Metropolitan Times in 2021.

PROUD COLLEAGUE Inquirer associate publisher Juliet Labog-Javellana attends the Asian Media Awards, holding the silver award for best news photography which she accepted on behalf of Richard A. Reyes. —Contributed photo

Before that, he had been a dancer at the Dinagyang Festival and was “amazed” by the photos he saw of that event, which he said led him to take the path of photography.

“I saved up to buy my own camera, then started learning about basic photography at the West Visayas State University as well as on YouTube,” Cordero said. “When I saw a job posting looking for a photojournalist, I grabbed the opportunity and applied.”

Challenge from technology

Other Inquirer finalists at the CMMA were photojournalist Lyn Rillon, who was nominated for her Jan. 27 banner photograph captioned “You Never Walked Alone,” featuring a boy with autism walking hand in hand with his mother; reporter Krixia Subingsubing for her story “Kin of drug war victims being pressured to sign ‘waiver,’” which was nominated for best investigative report; reporters Kathleen de Villa and Julie Aurelio for their story “Alive because of the Lord: Pinoy among freed hostages”; reporter Jane Bautista for her story “Child marriages in PH: It takes a village to also commit abuse”; Inquirer Visayas desk editor Ador Vincent Mayol for his story “In Cebu, Santo Niño devotees gather as feast of faith begins”; and Inquirer Mindanao desk editor Germelina Lacorte and journalist Chris Panganiban for their story “Landslide-hit Davao site listed as high risk since 2008.”

Fr. Rufino Sescon Jr., CMMA trustee and executive director, said the awards this year—with its theme “Artificial Intelligence and Wisdom of the Heart for a Fully Human Communication”—were meant to “challenge” the media in finding a “balance” between technology and human understanding.

CMMA winners will receive their Rock trophies at the in-person awarding ceremony at Citystate Tower Hotel in Manila on Nov. 20. —with a report from Gillian Villanueva