Ricky Lee is the recipient of the UP Gawad Plaridel 2015. The University of the Philippines (UP) College of Mass Communication (CMC) gives the award to Filipino media practitioners who have excelled in any of the media (print, radio, film, and television) and have performed with the highest level of professional integrity in the interest of public service.
Lee is the writer of the films Himala, Jaguar, Salome, Moral, and Karnal
The UP Gawad Plaridel comes with a trophy, designed by National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva.
UP President Alfredo E. Pascual and UP Diliman Chancellor Michael L. Tan will hand the award in ceremonies on Aug. 26, 2 p.m. at the UP Film Center, or Cine Adarna. Lee will also deliver a lecture during the ceremonies. This awarding of the 11th UP Gawad Plaridel is in line with the College’s celebration of its 50th year.
The UP CMC established the annual UP Gawad Plaridel. Among its recipients are Eugenia Duran-Apostol (2004, print), Vilma Santos (2005, film),. Fidela “Tiya Dely” Magpayo (2006, radio), Cecilia “Cheche” L. Lazaro (2007, television), Pachico A. Seares (2008, community “Rosa Rosal” Danon-Gayda (2012, television), Jose “Pete” Lacaba (2013, print), Ms. Nora “Nora Aunor” Villamayor (2014, Transmedia).
The award is named after Marcelo H. del Pilar (nom de plume, Plaridel), the selfless propagandist whose stewardship of the reformist newspaper La Solidaridad that helped crystallize nationalist sentiments and ignite libertarian ideas in the 1890s. Like Plaridel, the recipient of the award must believe in the vision of a Philippine society that is egalitarian, participative and progressive, and in media that is socially responsible, critical and vigilant, liberative and transformative, and free and independent.