By Lito Dar

BAGUIO CITY April 2  –- The Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc. (PLCPD)’ launched the 7th Annual Population and Development (PopDev) Media Awards in a kapihan forum on March 30, Wednesday at the Philippine Information Agency’s ‘Dap-ay’ here.

According to PLCPD Center Director for Communication and Capacity Building Romeo Dongeto, the annual PopDev Media Awards was conceived in 2005 to pay tribute to outstanding and responsible journalism on population and development.

The said awards aim to give due recognition to media practitioners who have helped disseminate relevant information on population and development and encourage them to actively examine such issues so as to heighten awareness and knowledge in population and development.

“The competition is open to all Filipinos, print, broadcast and online journalists, photojournalists and bloggers nationwide. Award categories include print and online, television, radio, photojournalism and even citizen’s media, who do text and photo blogs. Entries should have been published or aired or posted between August 16, 2010 and August 15, 2011,” Dongeto said.

All entries must be submitted to the PLCPD Secretariat together with a duly accomplished entry form not later than August 31, 2011. Cash prizes, trophies, plaques and other non-cash prizes, from Philippine Business/Corporate sector donors, await the winners.

Dongeto stressed the importance of the tri-media to focus more on population and development to let the public aware of the issues, which is essential to every person’s right to have a better quality of life.

Citing the recent cases of the three Filipinos convicted and executed in China due to illegal drug trafficking cases, Dongeto affirmed that it is a part of the population and development issue, which needed to be repeatedly reported by the media, for better awareness and hope that it would not happen again.

Other population and development issues/news that can be submitted as entries include: Millennium Development Goals (MDG), public health especially reproductive health (RH), RH policy and governance, economic growth and poverty, climate change, housing and urban development, sustainable development, among others.

For those who are interested to join the 7th PopDev Awards, more information are available at the PLCPD website - www.plcpd.com or contact their secretariat at telephone nos. (02) 9251800, 9266619 or 4362373 local 2. *(PIA CAR)