Int’l bank heist, big telecoms deal win it for PDI biz

LUCAS, De Vera and Camus score a business reporter’s trifecta—in banking, telecoms andmoney
laundering. CORRIE NARISMA

Two reporters of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s business section were named by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) as the best in their fields, while a third was recognized for his role in breaking the story of the $81-million Bangladesh bank heist earlier this year.

Named 2016’s best reporter for coverage of public finance was Ben Arnold de Vera, while best reporter for coverage of telecommunications and transport sector issues was Miguel Camus.

De Vera covers banking and finance for the Inquirer, while Camus was noted for his scoop of the $70-billion acquisition of Globe Telecom and PLDT of the telecommunications business of San Miguel Corp.

During the award ceremony at Ayala Museum in Makati City on Friday, Ejap also recognized Inquirer’s senior business reporter Daxim Lucas “for his outstanding reporting and coverage” of the money laundering scandal which the global financial community first learned about—including the Bangladeshi government itself from which computer hackers tried to steal $1 billion—when it was published in the Inquirer.

Multiawarded reporters

De Vera is a graduate of the Manila Times School of Journalism. He has been a reporter for eight years, previously covering police and general assignment beats, before shifting to business sector covering the trade and industry beats. This was his third Ejap Reporter of the Year award.

Camus is a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas with a bachelor of science degree in economics. He has been also a reporter for eight years, having previously covered the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and, currently, the telecommunications and transport sectors. This was his second Reporter of the Year award.

Lucas is a 1994 graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University and has been a reporter for 16 years, having been recognized by Ejap twice as Banking Reporter of the Year and six times for Stories of the Year.

Ejap president Jennifer Austria of Manila Standard said this year’s awards process was one of the most competitive, with the panel of judges having to assess nearly 200 entries from all nine business beats.

The judging panel was chaired by Synergeia Foundation CEO and former Finance Undersecretary Milwida Guevara, while sitting as members were Bank of the Philippine Islands director Ignacio Bunye, ING Manila president Consuelo Garcia, former Finance Undersecretary Romeo Bernardo, Electric Vehicles Association of the Philippines president Rommel Juan, Meralco first vice president William Pamintuan, and former Board of Investments managing director Cristino Panlilio.

The results were tallied by Punongbayan & Araullo.

This year’s Ejap Business Journalism Awards was sponsored by the Ayala Group of Companies, and Friday’s program was graced by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez who spoke about the entrepreneur-oriented economic program of the Duterte administration.

Other winners

Other business journalists recognized by Ejap were Mary Grace Padin (Business Mirror) for the agriculture and mining beat; Charlee Delavin (BusinessWorld) for banking; Lenie Lectura (Business Mirror) for energy; Cai Ordinario (Business Mirror) for macroeconomy; Krista Montealegre (BusinessWorld) for capital markets; Irma Isip (Malaya) for trade; and Lorenz Marasigan (Business Mirror) for the best feature story of 2016.

Ejap also recognized Business Mirror as the “business news source of year” after its reporters won four of the nine awards that are handed out annually./rga