PCIJ's Ed Lingao wins Marshall McLuhan award

Veteran journalist Ed Lingao of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) won the prestigious Marshall McLuhan Fellowship award from the Canadian Embassy for his excellence in multimedia journalism. Apart from Lingao, seven other journalists were named finalists for the award, including GMA Network's Kara David, who recently won a Peabody Award. One of Lingao's recent works for the PCIJ – of which he is multimedia director – dug deep into the situation in Maguindao after the bloody Ampatuan massacre, including the wealth of the Ampatuans and the evolving political power play in the province. As winner of the Marshall McLuhan Prize, a travel study tour of Canada, Lingao will be entitled to a 10-day study and speaking engagement in Canada as a fellow of the University of Toronto. Lingao's mainstream journalistic track record includes reporting for The Manila Chronicle, The Manila Times, and ABS-CBN Network. He has likewise produced documentaries for investigative shows such as The Correspondents. He also became news manager of ABC-5's News and Current Affairs department. A veteran war correspondent, Lingao has done coverages from the jungles of Sulu in southern Philippines to the war-torn Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. As part of the last Thursday's awarding ceremony – organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) – Lingao, David, and six other finalists served as panelists of the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism seminar, where they shared their respective stories about chasing leads and coming up with investigative outputs. The other finalists were Dino Balabo of the Mabuhay and Philippine Star newspapers; Nini Cabaero of SunStar Exchange Network; Benjie Oliveros of Bulatlat.com; Tonette Orejas and Alcuin Papa of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Anthony Taberna of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.; and Darwin Wally Wee of BusinessWorld. The award's search committee included Carolyn O. Arguillas of MindaNews, Prof. Ma. Aurora Lomibao of St. Scholastica’s College-Mass Communications Department; Philippine Press Institute executive director Jose Pavia, Proprint executive director Ma. Cristina Rodriguez, Businessworld Editorial Board chairman Vergel O. Santos, SunStar Cebu Public & Standards editor Pachico Seares, and Philippine Journalism Review Reports editor and UP journalism Prof. Luis V. Teodoro. — Mark Merueñas/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV