THE BUSINESSMIRROR won three of the seven awards given out during the 5th Brightleaf Agriculture Journalism Awards held on Friday at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Pasay City.

Garnering the top prize of Agriculture Story of the Year was Cagayan de Oro correspondent, Mach Alberto “Bong” Fabe, for his story titled “XU graduate practices urban container gardening.”

Fabe’s winning entry was a five-part series that appeared in the newspaper’s Agriculture page from August 15 to 19. It bested 1,344 other entries, said Chris J. Nelson, president of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. Inc., which sponsors the annual event.

Fabe reported on agriculturist Jojo Rom’s mission of helping promote food sufficiency by involving as many people as possible in planting their own vegetables in small urban gardens with the help of basic technology he developed.

Last year Fabe also won the grand prize of the Agriculture Story of the Year during the Brightleaf Agriculture Journalism Awards.

Also winning for the BusinessMirror were Baguio City correspondent Marilou Guieb for her piece titled “The Master’s Garden: Simulating the bounty of Mother Nature” which appeared on August 16; and Mauricio Victa’s photograph titled “My Leaf,
My Life,” which was published in the newspaper’s front page on June 26.

Guieb’s story won the Best Regional Agriculture News Story, while Victa’s photograph was judged Tobacco Photo of the Year.

Fabe, who is in Brunei, was represented by his wife Jasmin G. Fabe. He won P50,000, an Apple iPad and, along with the other winners, an all-expenses paid trip to Malaysia sometime next year.

Aside from the trip to Malaysia, Guieb also won P20,000, while Victa won P20,000 and an iPad.