Five media practitioners, led by Manila Standard night editor Honor Blanco Cabie, will be resource speakers during the two-day virtual workshop-seminar this weekend sponsored by The Bedan, news publication of the Benedictine-administered San Beda University in Manila.
Organizers said the seminar, via Zoom, now in its third year, coincides with the 80th anniversary of The Bedan, first published in 1941 before the second world war left the country’s capital in ruins.
The Bedan, according to the organizers, envisions a society that would “encourage a well-founded political discourse with arguments based on facts and help aspiring campus journalists become credible sources of information who can present to the people truth with integrity.”
The two-day event, which starts Saturday with the theme “Mulat (Awakening), Responsableng Journalismo sa Nagdaang mga Taon,” will be keynoted by Cabie, who has experiences in international news agency, broadcast and print journalism, who covered among others international events the return of Prisoners of War from Indochina following the fall of Saigon in the 70s.
The next day Cabie, book author and who has taught in various colleges and universities in Metro Manila, will also deliver a lecture on editorial writing before tertiary level students from San Beda, University of Santo Tomas, Far Eastern University, University of Batangas, Bulacan State University, and high school students fom Del Pilar Academy in Cavite.
Nicole Rile, The Bedan managing editor and project head of Mulat 2021, said in a statement “I expect together with The Bedan and Mulat 2021 organizers that the participants would be able to live up to their duties and responsibility of being a member of the fourth estate with honesty and accountability.”
The other resource persons are: Erel Cabatbat, a recipient of Bayanihan Award for Media, the highest reward given to a civilian by the Armed forces of the Philippines (News Writing);
Raul Dancel, in journalism for three decades and currently the Philippines Correspondent for The Straits Times of Singapore in which the most notable has been his coverage of the devastation wrought by Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November 2013 (Feature Writing);
Victor Immanuel Icasiano, a sportswriter, analyst, and an editor who used to work for Don’t’ Blink Magazine/ Combat HD based in California, One Championship in Singapore and Rappler (sports writing);
Jimmy Domingo, who began freelancing for news and editorial images in the mid-1980s before he handled online courses for African photojournalists for the World Press Photo’s Road to 2010 project (photojournalism).
The first Mulat was held in 2019 with the theme “Tungo sa Makatotohanang Pagpapahag” keynoted by Sen. Risa Hontiveros followed by Mulat 2020 with the theme “Tungkuling Journalismo para sa Pampublikong Kaalaman” with Joel Pablo Salud as keynote speaker.