Five U.P. Masscom alumni get glory

NONA Andaya-Castillo, Carolyn Arguillas and Florencio “Floy” Quintos.

Five highly accomplished communicators will receive the 2019 Glory Award given to outstanding University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UPCMC) alumni. To be recognized at the college’s alumni homecoming are Carolyn Arguillas for journalism; Nona Andaya-Castillo and Samira Gutoc for social advocacy; Jeffrey Jeturian for film and visual communication; and Florencio “Floy” Quintos for the performing arts.

The award is named after Gloria D. Feliciano, the first dean of the UP Mass Communication program who served from 1965 to 1985. The “Glory” honors alumni who not only achieved excellence in their communication disciplines but also made a significant impact on society through their body of work.

The Glory Awards will be held on 9 November at the Film Studio of the UP Film Institute (beside Plaridel Hall) in UP Diliman.

The seven-member jury for this year’s awards was composed of former UPCMC dean Luis Teodoro, acclaimed screenwriter and journalist Jose “Pete” Lacaba, advertising industry leader Venus Navalta, public relations expert Joy Buensalido, broadcaster and former senator Orly Mercado, UP assistant vice president for public affairs Wendell Capili and former CNN Philippines and ANC news chief Jing Magsaysay, who also represents the family of the late Dean Feliciano.

Carolyn Arguillas, a veteran journalist based in Davao City, is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of daily news site MindaNews dedicated to stories about Mindanao. She has won the Marshall McLuhan Fellowship Prize from the Canadian government, Investigative Reporter of the Year award from the Rotary Club of Manila, the Catholic Mass Media Award and Jaime V. Ongpin Investigative Journalism Award. Arguillas also organizes workshops and conferences for Mindanao journalists.

Nona Andaya-Castillo has tirelessly championed breastfeeding and the welfare of Filipino mothers and children. Her national and international campaigns were featured by BBC, Time, Reuters and the Associated Press. She was awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges and Explorations international research grant, which seeds unorthodox ideas for addressing persistent public health and development problems. She lobbied to establish breastfeeding and lactation stations in malls and offices, an advocacy that became a law in 2010.

Andaya-Castillo is the first Filipino non-medical doctor to be internationally certified and accredited as a lactation consultant. Her website www.nanaynona.com teaches earth-friendly parenting and lifestyle, joyful childbirth, extended breastfeeding and plant-based nutrition using evidence-based scientific information.

Florencio “Floy” Quintos and Samira Gutoc.

Samira Gutoc is a long-time advocate for peace in Mindanao. She has been a print journalist, a legislator in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and part of the 21-member commission that helped draft the Bangsamoro Organic Law. A resident of Marawi City, Gutoc was thrust in the public eye in 2017 when she delivered an impassioned appeal before Congress on behalf of 200,000 suffering people during the Marawi siege.

Jeffrey Jeturian has directed feature films that foreshadowed a vibrant Philippine independent cinema. The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino included three of his films — Pila Balde (1999), Tuhog (2001) and Kubrador (2006) — on its list of 20 important Filipino movies produced in the past 20 years. Kubrador, widely perceived as Jeturian’s most accomplished film, was exhibited in more than a hundred international festivals including a US premiere at the New York Museum of Modern Art, winning over 40 national and international awards.

Floy Quintos is a well-known writer and director of plays and musicals. He has won nine times in the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, including three first prizes.

Among his acclaimed theatrical works are the 2018 hit Kundiman Party, St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos, An Evening at the Opera, Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna, Fluid and Shock Value. PETA, Dulaang UP and The Virgin Labfest have staged his innovative and visionary dramatizations. Quintos also devotes time to studying the cultures and artifacts of Philippine indigenous peoples, curating international exhibits and publishing essays on their traditional art.