Filipino Scholars Excel, Earning Honors and Awards

MANILA, Philippines — Three Inquirer and Aboitiz scholars were recognized during the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Media and Communication’s graduation ceremony on Sunday, with two earning magna cum laude honors and another receiving the best thesis award. Jaemie Francine Talingdan and Laurence Bacia are the two Inquirer scholars who graduated with Latin honors, while Marc Andre Esguerra, who will graduate next year, was recognized for his thesis on indigenous values and journalism. Talingdan said earning the distinction of magna cum laude at UP was the result not only of years of hard work but also of the support she received from her family and the Inquirer scholarship that helped ease her financial burdens. “In my family, I’m the first person to graduate from UP, and I’m also the first magna cum laude,” she told the Inquirer. “Right now, I have a single mother who works hard to provide for me and my sister. My father passed away when I was 16, and since then, it has been difficult balancing my academic responsibilities while also helping my mother however I could as the eldest daughter,” she said. Talingdan credited the Inquirer scholarship for allowing her to focus on her studies by easing financial pressures. Aside from excelling academically, Talingdan balanced multiple responsibilities as a performing arts scholar and a student leader. For Bacia, the achievement of earning magna cum laude belongs as much to his family and community as it does to him. “I’ve always believed in the saying that it takes a village to raise a child,” he said, recalling his application for the Inquirer scholarship. Bacia said he entered journalism school with almost no background in campus journalism, as his high school did not offer it. Instead, his passion for the field developed through following the news and current affairs. “The biggest challenge for me was overcoming imposter syndrome. I was surrounded by classmates who had years of experience in campus journalism, while I came in with none,” he said. He admitted the transition was difficult at first, but said journalism school provided an environment where everyone learned together, helping him gradually build confidence. Bacia credited his classmates, professors, the Inquirer, the Inquirer Foundation, and AboitizPower for believing in his potential and supporting his education, which helped him overcome his self-doubt. Esguerra, the best thesis awardee, said he was “very ecstatic” at the recognition, noting that the thesis took a year to complete and it was a “very expensive project,” costing about P5,000. The thesis examined how indigenous journalists in the Cordillera region integrate local cultural values into their work while navigating conventional journalistic ethics largely shaped by Western philosophies. For the study, the student interviewed eight community journalists from different provinces in the Cordillera, exploring how they reconcile indigenous traditions with industry standards. “For the implications of that thesis, it’s really to emphasize that indigenous knowledge has a place in industry-level discourse like journalism,” he said. “They’re part of our daily lives and they make our current workplaces, even journalism, more rich, more sensitive, more culturally appropriate for journalists to write about. So perhaps just advocacy there really is to emphasize that the indigenous is not lost,” he said. The scholarship provided financial relief, allowing Esguerra to spend more time conducting research instead of taking on additional part-time work. INQ