Environmental Reporting Fellowships in the Philippines launched

The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) has launched its first-ever reporting fellowship program in the Philippines to transform news media coverage of environmental issues.

Myriad environmental problems – such as pollution, deforestation, and climate change – directly threaten quality of life in the Philippines, yet these issues receive inadequate news media coverage.  In addition, much of the reporting being done lacks depth and excludes the voices of those most affected by environmental degradation, especially women.

To address this critical gap in coverage, the IWMF will provide advanced training and coaching to10 journalists, preparing them to produce innovative reports about environmental problems and solutions, incorporating women’s role in and perspectives on environmental issues.  By the conclusion of the year-long fellowship, these journalists will become environmental reporting specialists.

Funded by Dole Food Company Inc., the environmental reporting program will draw on the IWMF’s proven training model, which features long-term, transformative training, empowerment of women journalists and a commitment of institutional support from top management of local media companies.

see more on http://iwmf.org/pioneering-change/environmental-reporting.aspx
Partnering news organizations have agreed to publish or air participating journalists’ investigations.

Partnering outlets include:

90.3 FM Radyo Bulacan
ABS-CBN News Channel
Business Mirror
Philippine Daily Inquirer

GMA News Online
Interaksyon/TV5 Online
LOQAL.ph
MindaNews
Philippine Star
Rappler

Fellows participating in the IWMF’s 2012 Environmental Reporting Fellowship in the Philippines include:

Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Keith Bacongco, MindaNews
Bernardino Balabo, Radyo Bulacan
Riziel Ann Cabreros, ABS-CBN News Channel
Rouchelle Dinglasan, GMA News Online
Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, Interaksyon (TV 5 Online)
Marilou Guieb, Business Mirror
Purple Romero, Rappler
Anna Valmero, LOQAL.ph
Rhodina Villanueva, Philippine Star

Kristine L. Alave is a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippines’ largest newspaper.  Alave currently covers topics including the environment, agriculture, food security and weather. She also contributes to The Guardian, a U.K.-based publication. Alave has covered trade issues for a daily newspaper, the BusinessWorld; acted as an editorial assistant for the Asia Pacific Migration Journal; and written cultural criticism pieces for PopMatters.

Keith Bacongco, a multimedia journalist for MindaNews based in Davao City in the southern Philippines, began writing for a weekly community newspaper in Cotabato City in 1998.  He
has also reported for national daily newspapers
such as the Manila Times, the now-defunct Today and the Business Mirror.

Bacongco completed the Diploma in Photojournalism program at the Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University in 2007.

Bacongo’s photojournalism can be seen on his website.

Bernardino Balabo has more than 20 years of experience as a journalist.  He currently hosts a one-hour daily program on 90.3 FM Radyo Bulacan. He is also a correspondent for two national daily newspapers, the Philippine Star and Pilipino Star Ngayon. Balabo also works for Mabuhay newspaper, Punto Central Luzon and Central Luzon Business Week, based in the province of Bulacan and Pampanga, respectively. Balabo contributes to several online news publications and works as a part-time instructor at the Bulacan State University. He is a recipient of various awards such as the 2005 Regional Biotechnology award, 2006 UNICEF citation for bird flu reporting, 2006 Philippine Press Institute Civic Journalism Fellowship, 2010 Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Fellowship, and the 2011 Probe Media Foundation’s Kuwentong Katutubo Fellowship.

Riziel Ann Cabreros works as a segment producer for “PIPOL on ANC,” a news magazine program airing weekly on national television ABS-CBN News Channel. This program profiles personalities who have had an impact on the Philippine society. Cabreros also writes for the Sunday evening newscasts of ABS-CBN News Channel.

In addition to TV production, she is doing research and investigative work for IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner Marites Dañguilan-Vitug’s upcoming book on the Supreme Court. This is her second book project with Vitug; the first book, “Our Rights, Our Victories: Landmark Cases in the Supreme Court,” was published in 2011.

Rouchelle Dinglasan, a producer for GMA News Online, is responsible for a variety of sections including Nation, Business and the Pinoy Abroad — a segment dedicated to overseas Filipinos. Dinglasan previously worked for BusinessWorld as its Senate Beat reporter.

Dinglasan graduated from De La Salle University-Manila with a degree in Philippine Studies and a major in Filipinos in Mass Media. She has been awarded with the Best Thesis Award for her work “Minda sa Dasma: Isang Pag-aaral sa Kultural na Espasyo ng mga Muslim sa FSC Highway Plaza.”

Lira Dalangin-Fernandez has worked as a journalist in the Philippines since 2001. Since 2011, she has covered breaking news and written special reports for Interaksyon.com. Previously Fernandez worked as a features writer.  She has spent many years working for news websites, and wrote for Inquirer.net for 10 years.

In 2011, Fernandez received the Best Investigative Reporting Award at the 7th Population and Development Media Awards for her two-part series on organ trafficking.

Marilou Guieb has more than 20 years of journalism experience. She currently writes for a national broadsheet newspaper, the Business Mirror. Also a writer and Northern Luzon Bureau Chief for the Women’s Feature Service (WFS), Guieb focuses on the voices of women and their perspectives on environmental issues — as advocates, victims or survivors. She has worked as a writer and editor for other national newspapers, and has published book projects and reports for organizations.

In 2011, Guieb won a Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Award in best national agriculture feature story for her story on an organic farming technique.

Purple Romero is a reporter for Rappler, a social news network based in the Philippines; she has worked for both online and print publications. Romero has also written television reports, and in 2010, she wrote for an election special. She has reported on climate change and the judiciary for Newsbreak, a news organization specializing in investigative journalism. Romero has also contributed articles on climate change to AlertNet Reuters and Asia Views, a regional magazine. She has attended several international fellowships and trainings on climate change and environmental issues.

Romero researched a book about the judiciary that was published in March 2010. She was also the co-author of a book about corruption under the administration of former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Anna Valmero is an assistant producer with LOQAL.ph, an online magazine in the Philippines. She started her professional career in journalism in 2006 as a copy editor with Electronic Engineering Times Asia. Valmero also worked as a multimedia reporter with INQUIRER.net in 2008 before joining LOQAL.ph in 2010. She writes, takes photos and produces video content for stories that center on politics, health, science, travel and small and medium enterprises.

As one of the reporters covering science and technology in 2011, her media organization won the Gawad Jose L. Guerrero Media Award from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Rhodina Villanueva is a reporter for a daily newspaper, the Philippine Star, where she covers the Environment and Natural Resources Department, the Agrarian Reform Department and the Commission on Human Rights. A former reporter for broadsheet newspaper Today, Villanueva aims to use her writing as an instrument to inspire, inform and set people to action, especially on critical issues such as climate change.