Biliran Province State University (BiPSU) students once again gained recognition during the 2023 Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC) held at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD), Quezon City.

Mr. Joshua Usigan of Bachelor of Arts in Communication (BAComm) and Ms. Rodellin Allanec Ponce of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Financial Management (BSBA-FM) garnered the 2nd top spot with an average rate of 81.667% of their photo essay entry entitled “Onto Her Liberty of Truth” which also received a Special Commendation Award in the Photo Essay category.

In an interview, Mr. Usigan said that Angel, the woman in their winning entry, depicts many women’s pursuit of empowerment and equality while conquering religious and cultural beliefs and practices.

“She is also a representation of the current generation’s reality wherein we need to prove something before we get accepted, gets blamed for standing up, family pleaser and empowered to gravitate toward making own decisions,” Mr. Usigan said.

Mr. Usigan mentioned that their achievement gives him more courage and confidence to speak up for vulnerable people.

“It gives me more drive to be the voice of the voiceless,” Mr. Usigan added.

Moreover, another entry entitled “30 Minutes of Truth” by Mr. Jay Adobo, also a BAComm student, received a Special Commendation Award under the News Documentary Category during the said event.

According to Mr. Adobo, his entry title is the tagline of their news broadcast program SEEKS:30 which aims to be an alternative media source in the province of Biliran.

“We went there not just to be recognized but also to let everyone know about the crisis in the information consumption we’re facing as Biliranons,” Mr. Adobo said.

Mr. Adobo further said that this milestone is a stepping stone towards great things for him and their program to continue to serve and be the purveyors of truth to the community.

“With the Canadian Embassy recognizing the efforts of our team to have this initiative and promising to bring the McLuhan Forum in BiPSU and equipment promised by PPI (Philippine Press Institute) [we can] work more efficiently,” Mr. Adobo added.

It can be noted that this year’s PJRC was co-organized by the UPD Department of Journalism, University of Santo Tomas (UST), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), in partnership with the Embassy of Canada. The event was attended by communication and journalism faculty and students from different universities in the Philippines. Among the participating schools were BiPSU, UP-Diliman, UP-Baguio, PUP, UST, De La Salle University (DLSU), and many more universities nationwide.

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