■ Rimaliza A. Opiña
The award recently received by the Baguio Midland Courier is best shared to its partners who in their own way contributed to the paper’s latest achievement.
As the first recipient of the Bayanihan Media Awards conferred by the Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency, the Midland Courier through General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Gloria Antoinette Hamada thanked the University of the Philippines-Baguio Public Affairs Office, Philippine Information Agency-Cordillera, National Economic Development Authority, Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, and the city government of Baguio for recognizing the efforts of the editorial team in popularizing volunteerism.
On Monday, Feb. 12, the Midland Courier led by Hamada and editorial staff members headed by Editor-in-Chief Harley Palangchao officially received the plaque of commendation for the paper.
The resolution states that stories submitted by the Midland Courier “captured real people with real stories”.
Entries that stood out are stories about how kindred souls pooled funds to finance the surgery for an infant with biliary atresia, the pro bono tutorials offered by an organization of commercial photographers and photojournalists to people with autism; the fashion show by businessmen and artists to finance exhibits of artistically gifted people with autism; the clean-up of the Baguio City public market which got burned in March 2023; the “og-ogfo” of Mountain Province; passage of the Breastfeeding Law through the initiative of a doctor from Baguio, and volunteer fundraising activities, among others.
The Bayanihan Media Awards rites was held on Dec. 12, 2023 in Manila.