The U.P. Gawad Plaridel

17/11/2025

Rosa Rosal, 2012 Gawad Plaridel Awardee and Humanitarian Icon, Passes Away at 97

The University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication (UP CMC) mourns the passing of Ms. Florence Danon Gayda, known to generations as Rosa Rosal, who died on November 15, 2025, at the age of 97. A revered actress, pioneering broadcaster, and tireless humanitarian, Ms. Rosal was the recipient of the 2012 Gawad Plaridel, the College’s highest distinction for media practitioners who exemplify excellence and integrity in the service of the Filipino people.

Born on October 16, 1928, Rosa Rosal’s career spanned the golden age of Philippine cinema and the formative years of Philippine television. She captivated audiences in landmark films such as Anak Dalita (1956), Badjao (1957), and Biyaya ng Lupa (1959), and later became a familiar presence in public service programs that brought aid and comfort to countless Filipinos.

Yet it was her unwavering commitment to humanitarian work that defined her legacy. As a lifelong volunteer and leader of the Philippine Red Cross, she championed blood donation drives and disaster response efforts, embodying compassion in action. Her service earned her the Order of the Golden Heart in 2006 and the Ramon Magsaysay Award, among other honors.

In conferring the Gawad Plaridel, UP CMC recognized not only her artistic achievements but also her profound use of media as a platform for public service. She stood as a model of ethical engagement, using her visibility to uplift the marginalized and to inspire civic responsibility.

Ms. Rosal’s life was a testament to the power of media to heal, mobilize, and transform. Her legacy endures in the lives she touched, the institutions she strengthened, and the ideals she embodied—of service without spectacle, and fame in the service of others.

The UP CMC joins the nation in honoring Rosa Rosal’s memory. Her name will remain etched in the annals of Philippine media and humanitarian history—as a woman who lived not for applause, but for purpose.

15/11/2025

The University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication mourns the passing of Philippine media icon, Philippine Red Cross Governor, and 2012 U.P. Gawad Plaridel awardee, MS. FLORENCE DANON GAYDA, better known as ROSA ROSAL.

Ms. Rosa Rosal is an accomplished film and television actress whose career spans six decades. However, she is best known for her tireless work with the Philippine Red Cross blood program. Her committed philanthropic work led to her receiving the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.

The U.P. Gawad Plaridel 2012 was awarded to Ms. Rosa Rosal for her contribution to the Philippine Television industry, particularly in affecting media for public service. Ms. Rosal utilized her popularity and successfully employed television to benefit the less fortunate without fanfare and sensationalism. Her public service program has set the standard for genuine public service in the television industry. Ms. Rosal’s unquestionable integrity, unceasing and genuine volunteerism, and tireless humanitarian work and advocacy epitomize the value that other public persons have forgotten or taken for granted.

01/10/2025

The deadline for submission of nominations to the 2025 UP Gawad Plaridel is extended until October 31, 2025.

This year’s distinction will spotlight an individual in journalism, recognizing a body of work that upholds truth, accountability, and the highest standards of the profession.

Please send your nomination to the College of Media and Communication, UP Diliman or to [email protected].

You may access the nomination form here: https://bit.ly/GawadPlaridelForm

11/08/2025

Call for Nominations: 2025 UP Gawad Plaridel to Recognize Excellence in Journalism

The University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication (UP CMC) is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Gawad Plaridel—the university’s highest award for outstanding media practitioners who demonstrate excellence and ethical integrity in their field.

Please send your nomination to the College of Media and Communication, UP Diliman or to [email protected]. Deadline for nomination is September 30, 2025.

You may access the nomination form here: https://bit.ly/GawadPlaridelForm

14/07/2025

Gawad Plaridel Awardees Named DZRH Icons

Two recipients of the University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication’s (UP CMC) prestigious Gawad Plaridel Award have been recognized as “pioneering voices and contemporary icons” in celebration of DZRH’s 86th founding anniversary.

Fidela Magpayo Reyes, popularly known as Tiya Dely and hailed as the “First Lady of Philippine Radio,” received the Gawad Plaridel in 2006. “A soothing and wise presence, she guided generations of Filipinos through her radio advice programs and championed the Filipino language and music,” DZRH noted in its tribute.

Eloisa Cruz Canlas, also known as Lola Sela Bungangera, was honored with the Gawad Plaridel in 2011. She began her career in the 1960s as a production assistant and rose to prominence for voicing beloved characters in iconic radio programs such as Adventures of Zimatar, Gabi ng Lagim, Mr. Romantiko, and Hukumang Pantahanan.

UP CMC is currently accepting nominations for the 2025 Gawad Plaridel—the university’s highest distinction for media practitioners who exemplify excellence and ethical integrity in their field. This year’s award will honor an individual in journalism whose body of work upholds truth, accountability, and the highest standards of the profession. Named after reformist journalist Marcelo H. del Pilar, who wrote under the pen name Plaridel, the award celebrates his legacy as editor of La Solidaridad and his unwavering commitment to public service. It seeks to recognize media professionals who embody the values of integrity, vigilance, and transformative leadership in Philippine society.

As DZRH marks its 86th year as the country's oldest and most enduring radio station, it pays tribute to the pioneering voices and contemporary icons w

10/07/2025

Call for Nominations: 2025 UP Gawad Plaridel to Recognize Excellence in Journalism

The University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication (UP CMC) is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Gawad Plaridel—the university’s highest award for outstanding media practitioners who demonstrate excellence and ethical integrity in their field.

This year’s distinction will spotlight an individual in journalism, recognizing a body of work that upholds truth, accountability, and the highest standards of the profession.

Named after Marcelo H. del Pilar, whose pen name was Plaridel, the award honors his legacy as a reformist journalist and editor of La Solidaridad. Del Pilar exemplified excellence, integrity, and a deep commitment to public service—values the award seeks to uphold.

UP CMC Professor emeritus Nicanor Tiongson, former Dean and founder of Gawad Plaridel said that the circumstances that prompted the establishment of the award in 2004 persist after two decades.

“The need to study the products of media and evaluate them from the perspective of truth and people empowerment as well as the need to recognize excellence and integrity among media practitioners who can be held up as role models in an industry fraught with compromise, corruption and commercialism—have not changed,” he said.

In fact, Professor Tiongson emphasized that these needs have become even more urgent in the face of the “alarming and rapid spread of disinformation by paid hacks and trolls usually in the service of these corrupt leaders, the suppression of legitimate dissent and of freedom of expression through violence or crooked courts.”

Since its inception in 2004, the Gawad Plaridel has recognized individuals who have demonstrated excellence and integrity in their respective media fields (print, radio, film, television, or new media); a commitment to socially responsible and transformative communication; and a body of work that contributes meaningfully to public discourse and nation-building.

The previous Gawad Plaridel awardees include Eugenia Apostol, Pacheco Seares, Jose “Pete” Lacaba, Che-che Lazaro, Jessica Soho, Bonifacio Ilagan, and the late Nora Aunor.

Each awardee delivers the Plaridel Lecture, addressing critical issues in Philippine media and communication. This tradition reinforces the award’s role in shaping ethical and visionary media practice.

Please send your nomination to the College of Media and Communication, UP Diliman or to [email protected]. Deadline for nomination is September 30, 2025.

You may access the nomination form here: https://bit.ly/GawadPlaridelForm

17/04/2025

In Loving Memory
Nora Aunor
1953-2025

National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts
2014 U.P. Gawad Plaridel Awardee for Transmedia: Film, Music, and Television

U.P. Gawad Plaridel Citation:

For her unique artistry and versatility as a singer, which catapulted her to sudden fame as sole champion for many months in the national contest Tawag ng Tanghalan and proved to all and sundry that talent, no matter its origin, can breach the borders set by the elite and the erudite, and, coupled with charisma, can conjure a phenomenal army of admirers that now includes many sectors, classes, and generations of Filipinos both here and abroad;

For portraying with intelligence and sensitivity an amazing number and types of characters on the silver screen, all of which earned for her the highest plaudits from critics and cinephiles from all levels of Philippine society;

For producing, through her NV Productions, movies of notable quality, which brought together important directors, writers, actors, and other film artists who, through her support as actor and/or producer, were able to create films that helped raise the bar in Philippine filmmaking;

For starring in television programs that lasted for many years and are now etched in the national memory which showcased her skills in song and dance and established a new format in Philippine television, and which brought to the public both fine dramatic acting and relevant narratives of everyday life;

For challenging the colonial standards that privileged the mestiza as paragon of beauty in Filipino film and society and proving that the features of the kayumanggi— honey-gold skin, crow-black hair, and petite body — are as legitimate as any other, especially because in the Philippines the kayumanggi embodies the aesthetics of the Malay majority that has prevailed from the pre-colonial period to the present, from rural to urban, from slum to mansion;

For using her tremendous popularity as a key to open to the masses who idolized her and identified with her origins, the world of sensible films and plays that dramatized and analyzed the abject conditions of the Filipino majority and the poor and powerless characters that she played with conviction and invested with a glimmer of hope in social change;

For her sheer artistry and stunning virtuosity as a performer that has brought luster and light to Philippine radio, television, and film, made her the exemplar and benchmark of excellence for both her contemporaries and successors, and raised the film and broadcast media to levels higher than where she found them at the start of her felicitous career as an artist.

05/12/2023

UP Gawad Plaridel 2023 Documentary - Manuel S. Urbano aka Jun Urbano and Mr. Shooli

The documentary was produced and directed by Prof. Sari Dalena.
Mr. Jun Urbano is the 16th UP Gawad Plaridel Awardee.

Urbano LegendA short documentary bySARI DALENAINTERVIEWEESJun Urbano Ms. Mae Paner Mr. Leo Martinez Ms. Tessie Tomas Ms. Nanette Inventor Mr. Joel Torre Mr. ...

02/12/2023

Manuel Urbano, Jr.
1939-2023

The UP College of Mass Communication mourns the passing of Mr. Manuel "Jun" Urbano, Jr., the honoree of this year’s U.P. Gawad Plaridel. He was 84 years old.

Kinilala ng Kolehiyo si Ginoong Urbano “para sa paglikha niya ng mga produksiyon sa telebisyon at pelikula na nag-angat sa nilalaman at anyo ng komedi, na maaring gamitin ng mga susunod na henerasyon ng mga midya praktisyuner bilang modelo sa paglikha ng mga akdang pangmidya na may mataas na uri at tunay na malasakit sa bayan.”

22/09/2023

This October, Manuel Urbano Jr. will be given the Gawad Plaridel Award by the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Mass Communication for his contributions to the media industry.