The UP College of Mass Communication Alumni Association has announced that seven outstanding alumni will receive the 2021 Glory Awards in a virtual ceremony on Nov. 27.
In a news release on Monday, it said the awardees who were selected by a distinguished jury of peers are: Maria Luz Balmaceda (corporate communications), Atty. Maria Kristina Conti (social advocacy), Abner Mercado (broadcast journalism), Catherine Garcia-Molina (film), Felix “Nonon” Padilla (performing arts), Rowena Carranza-Paraan (social advocacy), and Dr. Marianne Dayrit Sison (mass communication education).
Balmaceda led the brand and corporate communications unit of SGV & Co., the country’s premier auditing and professional services firm, for 25 years while Conti is a human rights advocate who has defended jailed journalists, student activists, political prisoners, urban poor evictees, and quarantine “violators” during the pandemic.
Mercado, on the other hand, is renowned for documentaries about social and environmental issues, politics, and cultural anthropology and Garcia-Molina directed the two highest-grossing Filipino films of all time — Hello Love, Goodbye (2019) and The Hows of Us (2018) among a string of hits with ABS-CBN Star Cinema.
Padilla has staged and directed over a hundred plays, composed music, and designed sets for the country’s pre-eminent theater groups; Carranza-Paraan served as chairperson, president, and secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines for over a decade; and Dayrit Sison is an academic leader in the public relations field.
The Glory trophy sculpted by professor emeritus Gigi Javier Alfonso will be presented to winners in recognition of their excellent work and impact in the communities they serve.
This year’s panel of jurors was composed of broadcast journalist Ces Drilon, professor emeritus Monina Movido-Escalada, former deputy press secretary Danilo Gozo, investigative journalist Malou Mangahas, and writer-director and actress Bibeth Orteza.
The Glory also has two permanent jurors — UPCMC Dean and film professor Arminda Santiago and former ANC and CNN Philippines news director Jing Magsaysay, who represents the family of Dr. Gloria Feliciano, the founding dean of UP’s 56-year-old mass communications program.
Feliciano inspired the alumni association to launch the annual Glory Awards in 2017 in honor of her legacy of excellence and service to the mass communications field. (PNA)
