The Rotary Club of Manila, the first and oldest Rotary Club in the Philippines and Asia, has honored the DAILY TRIBUNE with its 2025 Pro Patria Journalism Award, elevating the national newspaper to the Hall of Fame for Journalism for its impressive reportage that is fair, fearless and without bias.

The bestowing of the Hall of Fame plum coincided with the birth anniversary on 19 June of National Hero Jose P. Rizal, the country’s greatest writer and journalist.

A Pro Patria Journalism Award was also conferred on First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos for the Pasig River Rehabilitation–Esplanade Project which was named the Newsworthy Project of 2024-2025.

The honor was given “for the landmark rehabilitation of the entire stretch of the Pasig River from Manila Bay to Laguna de Bay,” a project that “has been the pride of the nation,” according to RC Manila. Receiving the award was Assistant Secretary Mark Aeron Sambar of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, as the First Lady was in Japan on the day of the awarding.

Lending more meaning to the occasion, RC Manila handed out the awards during its Commemoration of Independence Day, which was interspersed with excellent renditions of Filipino music.

“In all these years, the nation saw its triumphs and successes, learned of its achievements, criticized its own faults, and built a lasting tradition of freedom, democracy and national confidence through the lens of the DAILY TRIBUNE—which shared the news without FEAR and without FAVOR,” read the citation engraved on the iconic Pro Patria trophy that was handed over to DAILY TRIBUNE president Willie B. Fernandez by RC Manila president Eduardo “Jujut” Enriquez III at the Manila Polo Club on 19 June.

Finding ‘El Dorado’

RC Manila chairman of Journalism Awards Amado “Amading” Valdez hitched the DAILY TRIBUNE’s Hall of Fame Award to the nation’s quest for El Dorado to attain wealth and prosperity.

El Dorado is the legendary city of gold that has captivated explorers and treasure hunters for centuries.

“But El Dorado is not a place—it is within us. It is our free spirit. It is our capacity to imagine, to dream and to create. Freedom alone is not enough. We must use our freedom to build our El Dorado! What we have built, we must protect. Let us not destroy it with fake news, with neglect, or by failing to tell the story,” Valdez said.

He said it is the best of journalism when a news organization reports that the river mud has turned into clear water, and that the nation is thriving in other fields, such as sports, science and the arts.

“There must be more positive news than negative. Positive news builds El Dorado. Negative news does not. It is in this spirit that we honor the DAILY TRIBUNE with the RCM Pro Patria Journalism Hall of Fame Award. For years, it has consistently uncovered what is truly newsworthy. It has helped lead the way to the discovery of our El Dorado,” Valdez said.

25 years of tireless search of truth

DAILY TRIBUNE president Fernandez, in his acceptance speech, said “the honor is not just a reflection of the work of an individual or an editorial team, but of decades of the tireless quest for truth by generations of journalists, editors, columnists, photographers, artists and the silent warriors behind the bylines who shaped the DAILY TRIBUNE into what it is today, which is a bastion of press freedom.”

Fernandez, an avid fan of Rizal, personified the national hero as the country’s supreme journalist, whose pen pierced through the colonial silence, whose words stirred the soul of a nation.

“And in many ways, this day reminds us of the sacred duty of the press: not merely to report, but to awaken; not simply to echo, but to challenge,” he said.

The publication’s top man relayed to Manila Rotarians that since the founding of the newspaper in 2000, it has weathered many storms—both literal and figurative.

“We have stood in the crosshairs of power, walked tightropes of controversy, and held the line amid efforts to silence independent voices. Yet through it all, we have never forgotten why we exist — to inform the Filipino people, to hold the powerful to account, and to be a mirror of society’s triumphs and failings,” he said.

And with RC Manila extolling the DAILY TRIBUNE as the Newspaper of the Year in 2017, 2021 and 2023, Fernandez said it was a validation of its resolve. Hence, the Hall of Fame recognition goes beyond awards, but is “a call to continue defending the truth at a time when lies spread faster than facts, when propaganda often drowns out principle, and when some seek to rewrite history instead of learning from it.”

“To the Filipino people—our work is far from over. As long as truth needs a voice, the DAILY TRIBUNE will be there, pen in hand, heart in country,” the publisher said.