THE night of what has been called the “Emerald Anvils,” February 28, 2020, was history in the making for BusinessMirror, the country’s premier national business broadsheet that in past years had swept awards from the most prestigious bodies for its cutting-edge, prescient reportage.
That Friday night, at the 55th Anvils Award organized by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines, the BusinessMirror went beyond offering the “Broader Look at Today’s Business.” It undertook a trailblazing initiative to recognize the Philippines’s outstanding development partners, and for pursuing that challenging task of saying a big “thank you” to the foreign governments, peoples and development agencies who have for decades helped the Philippines up the ante in human progress, BusinessMirror got, in turn a huge, resounding “You’re welcome!” from the Anvil jurors.
The jurors for what has been dubbed the “Emerald Anvils” recognized the country’s premier business daily for “pioneering the recognition of nations and international organizations that have truly helped Filipinos here and abroad.”
It was the first time for BusinessMirror, which marks its 15th anniversary in 2020, to join the Anvil, although its journalistic work has earned numerous awards for the paper and its staff.
Receiving the Gold Anvil trophy for the BusinessMirror in marathon rites at the jampacked Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel were: ALC Media Group Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon; BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon; BM Editor in Chief Lourdes Molina-Fernandez; and Mission: PHL Project Director Psyche Roxas-Mendoza, also managing editor of the Philippine Graphic magazine.
They were joined by BusinessMirror VP for Sales Marvin Estigoy, Advertising Manager Aldwin M. Tolosa and BM’s Envoys & Expats page editor Mike Policarpio.
Where it all began
The BusinessMirror has an Envoys & Expats section—the brainchild of the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, former ambassador to Laos and former Chairman Emeritus of BusinessMirror.
Ambassador Cabangon Chua saw in Envoys & Expats a platform for the ideas, aspirations, plans, and programs of the diplomatic community for a better Philippines. In his job as diplomat and as a long-time business leader and philantropist before that, he knew there were very concrete programs and project in the works that helped enliven the socioeconomic, humanitarian, and cultural partnerships between the Philippines and the nations of the world.
And the BusinessMirror, in realizing the late Ambassador’s vision, supported these laudable efforts of the diplomatic community with reportage—its way of making readers, the average Filipino, aware of these efforts and their significance in helping achieve national development.
In late-2017, the BusinessMirror decided to level up on its commitment of support, this time to focus on the important partnerships forged between the Philippine government, which for decades had received big flows of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in concessional loans and grants, and the diplomatic community.
Conceived by Mission: PHL Special Projects Director and Philippines Graphic managing editor Psyche Roxas-Mendoza, the Mission: PHL program was officially launched six months later, on March 22, 2018 at the City Garden Grand Hotel in Makati.
Biennial awards
Mission: PHL, the BusinessMirror Envoys & Expats Awards, shall be given every two years, beginning in April, 2019. The next Mission: PHL shall be in April 2021.
Mission: PHL gives due recognition to the development efforts of countries as represented by their embassies, as well as bilateral and multilateral development aid partners.
It is the first time that recognition awards were given to countries—represented by their embassies—and the bilateral and multilateral agencies.
Mission: PHL is NOT a competition. The awards are in recognition of the strong and enduring partnerships fostered between the Philippines and a nation or embassy in particular areas of growth.
It also recognizes specific projects that boost the Filipino people’s aspirations for a truly progressive and developed Philippines.
PHL government partners
In going about this endeavor, the BusinessMirror forged government and private sector partnerships that led to the creation of eight Technical Working Groups and a seven-man Mission: PHL Panel.
The Mission: PHL Panel was composed of: Director Hazel Baliatan for the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Ambassador J. Eduardo Malaya for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Academe Representative (Dean Jikyeong Kang/Asian Institute of Management); Private Sector Representative (Henry Schumacher); Civil Society Representative (Filomeno Sta. Ana III, Action for Economic Reforn); Cristina Aquino (Youth Representative); and John Mangun (BusinessMirror representative). The panel was chaired by AIM Dean Kang.
The Neda and the DFA joined the eight other departments in the long, arduous task of helping Mission PHL select those to be listed for special appreciation.
The specific government agencies involved in the 2019 debut of Mission PHL were: Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Tourism (DoT), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The year-long work of the eight TWGs and the 7-man Mission: PHL Panel culminated in the recognition awards for Embassy Awardee and Development Aid Partner Awardee across eight categories. Such category awardees were selected with the indispensable help of the eight Philippine government agencies that joined Neda and the DFA early on.
The 8 Category Awards and the agencies that handed them out were: Agriculture and Fisheries Award (DA); Biodiversity Award (DENR); Science, Technology, and Innovation Award (DOST); Infrastructure Support Award (DPWH); Education of the Nation Award (DepEd); Visit the Philippines Award (DoT); Trade and Investment Award (DTI); and Transportation Infrastructure Support Award (DOTr).
Memorable awards night
Major awards for Project of the Year, Development Aid Partner of the Year, and the Embassy of the Year were handed out at the first recognition rites held at the SM Aura in Taguig City on April 4, 2019, a memorable night keynoted by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. and attended by dozens of ambassadors, embassy staff, development aid agencies, and four Cabinet secretaries. Besides Secretary Locsin, there were: DOST Secretary Fortunato dela Pena, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones and Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark A. Villar.
Ambassadors Han Dong-Man (Korea), Koji Haneda (Japan), Steve Robinson (Australia), Daniel Pruce (United Kingdom), EU Ambassador Franz Jessen, Papal Nuncio and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, Jana Sediva (Czech Republic), Jan Top Christensen (Royal Danish Embassy), Win Naing (Myanmar), Hamad Saaed Hamad Obaid Alzaabi (UAE), and Aman Rashid (Pakistan) led other members of the diplomatic community in gracing the April 4, 2019 SM Aura rites.
They were joined by development aid partners Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), KEXIM, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Delegation of the European Union, to name a few.
In attendance at the first Mission: PHL awards were government sector representatives from the DOST, DepEd, DPWH, DOT, DOTr, DA, DENR, and DTI; DPWH Build Build Build chairman Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo, DOST Assistant Secretary Leah Buendia, DOST-PCIEERD deputy executive director Engr. Raul Sabularse, DA Assistant Secretary Lerey Panes, DOTr Undersecretary Ruben Reinoso, DOT Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado, DTI Foreign Trade Services Executive Director Emmanuel Ang, and DENR Director Crisanta Marlene Rodriguez.
In his keynote speech on April 4, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. hailed “Mission: PHL” as a fitting initiative to express concrete appreciation to the Philippines’s ODA partners, who for decades have helped the country ramp up vital infrastructure and boost public services that advance human progress.
It takes a village
Sister media agencies supported BusinessMirror in the Mission: PHL program: Philippines Graphic, CNN Philippines, Pilipino Mirror, DWIZ, and Home Radio. Billboards, through Globaltronics, served to better project the program, which the government’s PTV4 also covered.
In its first time to join the Anvils in its 14-year existence, the BusinessMirror relied on its entire organization who enthusiastically met the challenge. This is what it internally took to mount Mission: PHL.—BusinessMirror publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon, ALC Media Group chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon, BM president Benjamin Ramos, chairman of the board and ombudsman Judge Pedro T. Santiago, editor-in-chief Lourdes Molina-Fernandez, HRD VP Loida Virtudazo, Finance VP Adel Gasmin, VP for Advertising Sales Marvin Nisperos Estigoy, Advertising Sales Manager Aldwin Maralit Tolosa, Circulation Manager Rolando Manangan, Group Creative Director Ed Davad, Chief of Photographers Nonie Reyes, Online Editor Ruben Cruz, Jr., Envoys & Expats Editor Mike Policarpio, Social Media producer Sari Osorio, and the Journalists who sat on the agency TWGs for the Category Awards: Foreign News and Op-Ed editor Angel Calso for the DPWH-TWG, Associate Editor and DA-TWG representative Jennifer Ng, News Editor and representative to the TWGs of DOT and DOTr Vittorio Vitug, Senior Editors Lorenzo Lomibao, Lyn Resurreccion (DOST-TWG member), the late Efleda Campos (TWG member for DepEd and DTI); award-winning reporters Recto L. Mercene, Cai Ordinario, Jasper Arcalas, Elijah Felice Rosales, and Jonathan Liwanes Mayuga; videographer Bernard Testa and photographers Nonoy Lacza and Roy Domingo.
The BusinessMirror advertising team— Bims Mauricio, Mags Santos, Maynard Moises, Boyet Nicasio; senior account manager Rodel A. Suarez, Events Organizer Carlo Modesto Abalos; BusinessMirror staff Emm Paraiso, Nerliza Nobleza, April Sarabia, Natasha Pangilinan and Dio Reloban; and the night’s hosts Tet Andolong and Migs Anzures helped make the first Mission PHL awards truly successful.
The project also got very capable support from Alas Oplas, CPAs, the official audit partner of Mission: PHL. Donnies T. Alas (Chairman and CEO) and Marycris S. Oplas (Managing Partner) and their highly competent staff, led by Loraine San Pedro, Sarah Jane Estillore, Myrell Esguerra, Fernan Santos selflessly lent their considerable accounting and auditing expertise to systematize award results.
R&A Events Specialist served as the events company for Mission: PHL 2019 Awarding Ceremonies. They include Ricci Ang, Mark Joseph “Mr. Super Cool” Bakuteza, Yñigo Ocampo, and their super staff.
Image credits: Bernard Testa