SPEAKERS
Ed Lingao
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Ed Lingao is a broadcast journalist for TV5, who anchors the network’s late-night newscast “Frontline Tonight.” He graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of the Philippines in 1987. He was the manager of multimedia for the non-profit Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism from 2009 to 2014. Lingao has covered politics, electoral reforms and human rights issues for more than two decades in Philippine journalism. In 2010, Lingao was named a Marshall McLuhan fellow, awarded by the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.
Kara David
IN-DEPTH REPORTING
Kara David is a multi-awarded Filipino broadcast journalist, working for the past 25 years under GMA Network Inc. Her first stint in the network was as a news field reporter for 15 years before getting promoted to a news anchor. David is part of the longest-running TV documentary program in the Philippines, “I-Witness,” where she marked her 20th anniversary in 2020. She also hosts newsmagazine programs exploring Philippine socio-cultural issues such as “Pinas Sarap” and “Brigada.”
David has garnered over 20 international awards and 50 local awards for her outstanding work as a broadcast journalist, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, considered one of the highest recognition in electronic media. It was for her documentary about two children carrying a hammock slung from a bamboo pole serving as an ambulance that earned her the award, the second for the Philippines. In 2013, one of David’s documentaries on child labor landed a nomination at the International Emmy Awards in the United States. She has won four times at the New York Festivals for her reports tackling children and remote communities in the Philippines. Besides that, she won the Child Rights Award given by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Best Social Awareness Program at the Asian Television Awards.
Locally, David has been named Broadcast Journalist of the Year by the Rotary Club of Manila. She was the only woman who made it to the list of 2007’s Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM). In 2010, she was named one of the Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS).
On top of her work in the media, David currently serves as chairperson of the journalism department of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman College of Mass Communication. As an academic, she has published a study for a peer-reviewed journal on the plight of the indigenous group Aeta.
David is also the founder of Project Malasakit, Inc., a social service foundation that gives educational scholarships to poor but deserving Filipino children, as well as infrastructure projects for remote communities.
Felipe Salvosa II
MANAGING CAMPUS PUBLICATIONS
Felipe Salvosa II heads the UST journalism program and is a researcher at the UST Research Center for Culture, Arts and the Humanities. He covered monetary and fiscal policy as well as legislation and national defense and security for BusinessWorld, where he rose to become an associate editor. As head of research for the country’s top business paper, he led the team that produced the annual ranking of the Philippines’s top 1,000 corporations. Salvosa later moved to government service as publications chief of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the state think tank. He also became a researcher for the Financial Times Group of London and managing editor of The Manila Times. Salvosa also sits as director of the Philippines Communication Society and vice president of the Journalism Studies Association of the Philippines. He is an assistant publications adviser at the Varsitarian, the official student publication of UST.
Nestor Cuartero
FEATURE WRITING
Nestor Cuartero is a longtime entertainment columnist for the Manila Bulletin, whose column “Passersby” explores the lives and careers of sterling names in the Philippine entertainment industry. He finished his bachelor’s in journalism and taught for many years at UST; he was a faculty member of the Department of Communication and Media Studies. He was also editor of the Circle (arts and culture) section of the Varsitarian, UST’s official student organ. He also once served as adviser of the Flame, the official student publication of the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters.
Besides entertainment, the veteran journalist has covered the fields of business, lifestyle, culture, tourism, and travel.
In 2000, Cuartero was awarded the Grand Prize in Premio de Periodismo by Instituto Cervantes. He was named the Binhi Awards’ Environment Journalist of the Year by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists in 2010.
Cuartero has authored three books chronicling the Philippine entertainment industry – “At Large, At Leisure (2008),” “PH Movie Confidential (2022),” and “Easy Listening (2023).”
Francis Ochoa
SPORTS WRITING
Francis Ochoa is the sports editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, presiding over numerous historic coverages, including the bouts of “People’s Champ” Manny Pacquiao, the Asian Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where the Philippines reaped its first gold for the first time in history.
Besides editing, Ochoa served as a host of “SportsIQ,” the Inquirer’s interactive sports talk show. He was also a lecturer at the Inquirer Academy and Ted Talks, the nationwide journalism seminar for provincial journalists.
Ochoa won the best special feature for his article “3 Triathletes rise above pain, obstacles, disability” at the Catholic Mass Media Awards in 2013.
John Nery
OP-ED WRITING
In addition to being a convenor of the Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation, John Nery writes columns and serves as an editorial consultant for the social news network Rappler. He lectures on politics and media at the Ateneo de Manila University and serves as a trustee for the Asian Center for Journalism.
Before his stint at Rappler, he joined the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2001, tracking various issues such as climate change and the ongoing dispute over the West Philippine Sea and providing analysis on politics, history and the rule of law. Nery organized the 2010 presidential debate for the Inquirer and its 2013 midterm election forums for aspiring senators. In 2016, he co-moderated the first presidential election held in Cagayan de Oro alongside veteran GMA anchors Jessica Soho and the late Mike Enriquez. He actively participates in initiatives to support journalists in uniting against attacks on their profession.
Due to his investigative journalism and opinion writing, he has won several of the most prestigious Philippine awards. The Manila Critics Circle awarded him the National Book Award for two of the works he edited: "Into the Mountain: Hostaged by the Abu Sayyaf" and "Unholy Nation: Stories from a Gambling Republic." The year 2011 saw the publication of his historical analysis of the impact of the Filipino hero on Southeast Asian nationalism, "Revolutionary Spirit: Jose Rizal in Southeast Asia," by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore and the Ateneo de Manila University Press in Manila. He held the positions of Nieman fellow in journalism at Harvard and visiting research fellow at ISEAS.
Paterno Esmaquel II
RELIGION REPORTING
Paterno Esmaquel II is the news editor of the social news network Rappler. He specializes in covering religion and foreign affairs. Before joining Rappler as one of its first reporters in 2012, he was a production assistant at Probe Productions Inc. and a news producer at GMA News Online.
A media practitioner for the past 16 years, Esmaquel is also a journalism instructor at UST. He is a communications graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, where he served as associate editor of the student newspaper, The Guidon. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ateneo and a master’s degree in Asian Studies, focusing on the comparative study of religions in plural societies, from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Dominic Ligot
AI IN JOURNALISM
Dominic Ligot is a data analyst, researcher, software developer, entrepreneur and technologist. With a strong advocacy for data literacy, artificial intelligence (AI) ethics and social impact through data, Ligot focuses on crucial areas such as human rights, public health, food security, political risk and combating disinformation.
He is the founder of CirroLytix, a social impact AI company, and Data Ethics PH, an online community addressing data-related social issues. His notable achievements include winning the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency International Space Apps Challenges thrice, with his team's dengue surveillance application, “Aedes,” garnering support from organizations like Group on Earth Organizations, Digital Public Goods Alliance and the United Nations Children’s Fund Innovation Fund.
Moreover, Ligot’s commitment extends to education and community building. He got his master’s in applied business analytics at the University of Asia and the Pacific and played a key role in developing “Project SPARTA,” a nationwide data science education initiative. As a co-founder of the Analytics Association of the Philippines and a board of trustees member of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, he actively contributes to the advancement of analytics and investigative journalism in the Philippines.
Lisa Marie David
PHOTOJOURNALISM
Lisa Marie David is a Filipina freelance photojournalist based in Manila, Philippines. She is a regular contributor to Reuters and Bloomberg.
In 2021, Lisa completed her post-graduate Diploma in Visual Journalism at the Asian Center for Journalism in Ateneo de Manila University with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung Media Programme Asia. She holds a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas.
Lisa was awarded first place for the 2023 Pictures of the Year (POY) Asia Nature and Environment Category, and finalist for the General News Category. She is also a recipient of National Geographic Society COVID-19 Emergency Fund For Journalists.
At present, she is working simultaneously between news assignments, documentary work, and NGO consultancy. She is a member of Women Photograph, Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), and the Photojournalists' Center of the Philippines (PCP).
Contact Information
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For more inquiries, you may contact Alexander Cardenas (0915.748.0008), Janica Buan (0995.449.3563) or the Varsitarian office at 3406-1611 loc. 8235.