Outgoing editor-in-chief Howie Severino, who has been reassigned as GMA's Vice President for Professional Development, handed out the awards to the winners Thursday.
The Best News Story went to “How Napoles slipped through the Senate's net in 2006, 2008” written by Andreo Calonzo, which was cited “for its incisive reporting of government lapses that formed part of the back story on the pork barrel anomalies involving members of Congress.”
A social experiment conducted by Rouchelle Dinglasan, who won the Best Feature Story for “The surprising lightness of being a hijabi,” was praised for “its brave reflections about a cultural tradition and understanding of diversity amid the divisions in Philippine society.”
The award for Best Multimedia story was shared by Wayne Manuel and Amanda Fernandez for their interactive piece “What happened in the Megamall robbery?” which showed “the collosal failure of security in preventing a daring robbery in one of the country's biggest malls.”
Individual honors went to Siegfried Alegado from the Economy section who was named Reporter of the Year, Sports editor Adrian Dy who was voted Writer of the Year, and City Editor Karen Galarpe(shown in photo with Howie Severino) who garnered the Editor of the Year award.
SciTech editor TJ Dimacali received the award for Innovation of the Year, which went to the public service tool “Database: Yolanda missing persons inquiries” that was cited for providing “invaluable assistance to thousands of people affected by the year's most disastrous event."
He shared the award with Michaela Agcaoili and Maxine Liwanag from GMA's New Media Inc. and public affairs social media team head Pia Faustino, who coordinated the volunteer efforts for the search platform.
The staff nominated the finalists and chose the winners through a digital secret ballot
