By Cassandra Luis J. De Leon

FEU Advocate’s News Editor Mark Vincent A. Durano and Features Officer-in-Charge Eunhice Corpuz were recognized with the Best Feature award during the 10th UST National Campus Journalism Awards (UNCJA) held at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) yesterday, January 12.

Among the four finalists under the feature category, FEU Advocate’s Durano and Corpuz received the recognition for their news-feature article, ‘From the Middle to the Orient: Olive Trees Resprout in “Little Gaza.”’ 

The winning article, published last April 2024, discussed the situation of Filipino-Palestinian refugees living in the ‘Little Gaza,’ located at Don Antonio Village, Quezon City. 

FEU Advocate’s article tied for the same award with ‘Through Sticks and Strings: Pinoy Puppeteers Struggle to Survive Post-Lockdown’ of The Flame, which explored the experiences of a puppeteer after the pandemic. 

The rest of the finalists in the feature category, including ‘5 Shots, One Mother, and a Newfound Crusade’ of KRISIS and ‘Tilling the Land: Women Farmers of Tayabas’ of The Guidon, received the Special Jury Citation.

Meanwhile, the Best In-Depth Report award was given to The Flame’s ‘From Streets to Sheets: Motorcycle Drivers Ride on Sex Work As They Traverse Hard Times’ article. 

Moreover, ‘Token Directive, Token Statement’ of The Flame won as the Best Editorial.  

Additionally, ‘Bridging the Gap: Integration of PWD Employees In the Workplace’ of The Benildean received the Special Jury Citation for the In-Depth Report Category and The Communicator’s ‘Hustisyang Nakaangkla sa mga Naghaharing-uri’ received the recognition of Special Jury Citation for Editorial.

The judges this year included Philstar Chief Editor Camille Diola, OneNews.PH assistant editor and UP Journalism Instructor Janvic Mateo, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Manuel Mogato, Asian Center for Journalism Executive Director and VERA Files co-founder Liz Rimban, and PhilStar Life columnist Joel Salud. 

A total of 400 entries from 70 various student publications were screened by the UST Department of Journalism for this year’s UNCJA. 

Winners were announced during the fellowship night of the 26th Inkblots, The Varsitarian’s annual campus journalism fellowship.

The 10th UNCJA winners received P20,000, a trophy, and a certificate per publication.

Organized by The Varsitarian, UNCJA aims to recognize works in the categories of in-depth reporting, editorial, and feature.

(Photo courtesy of Marco Luis D. Beech/The Varsitarian)