BusinessWorld took center stage at the 35th Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Business Journalism Awards on Friday, emerging as the Business News Source for 2025 and collecting three of the eight Reporter of the Year honors in an evening celebrating journalism that looks beyond balance sheets and boardrooms.
The Ayala Group-backed awards recognized the newspaper’s Justine Irish Tabile for Trade, Sheldeen Talavera for Energy, and Ashley Jose for Telecommunications and Transportation.
The Manila Times collected two Reporter of the Year awards, while The Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, and BusinessMirror took home one each.
BusinessMirror, meanwhile, won Business Feature Story of the Year for Laurence Marasigan’s “Pinoys still wait for the ride that catches up with their neighbor,” published on October 9, 2025. The banner story for the newspaper’s 20th anniversary issue offered a sobering examination of the country’s chronic public transportation and mobility problems, where the daily commute remains a test of patience as much as a matter of infrastructure.
“We’re honored to be recognized as the Business News Source of the Year at the EJAP-Ayala Business Journalism Awards. This reflects the hard work of the BusinessWorld reporters and editors who, day in and day out, are committed to delivering news and upholding the values of journalism despite all the challenges facing the media industry,” BusinessWorld Editor-in-Chief Cathy Rose Garcia said.
“I’m extremely proud of the BusinessWorld team, particularly Justine, Ashley, and Sheldeen,” she added.
Other individual winners included Jasper Arcalas of The Philippine Star, now also teaching aspiring journalists at the University of Santo Tomas, for Agriculture; VG Cabuag of BusinessMirror for Capital Markets; and Derco Rosal of Manila Bulletin for Finance.
Rosal used his acceptance speech to acknowledge an often-overlooked feature of business journalism: reporters may compete for headlines and awards, but they also help one another get the story. He thanked fellow beat reporters for the questions they raised during press conferences and briefings, saying these had helped him shape his own coverage.
Perhaps the night’s biggest individual haul went to Nina Myka Arceo of The Manila Times, who won Reporter of the Year awards for both Banking and Macroeconomy.
Arceo thanked the officials, executives, and other sources who had generously given her time and information, even when she knew she could get a little “makulit.” Her disclosure that she handles four beats also offered a glimpse into the demanding arithmetic of modern newsroom life, where reporters are expected to feed multiple platforms while working with increasingly lean editorial teams.
The awards night also gave business journalists a chance to trade their laptops for lenses. To mark its 35th edition, EJAP and Ayala organized a photography contest, with entries judged by documentary photographer and photojournalist Jes Aznar, whose work focuses on Asia and the Pacific.
The top prize went to former EJAP president Neil Jerome Morales of Bloomberg, with Darwin Amojellar of Manila Standard and Marasigan of BusinessMirror finishing as runners-up.
Morales’ winning photograph captured a canteen worker scooping food for customers at a private school in Makati, the country’s financial center. Its accompanying caption made an economic point out of an otherwise ordinary lunch-hour scene, noting that consumer spending, which accounts for roughly three-fourths of the Philippine economy, continues to support growth despite elevated inflation and geopolitical risks.
“This is very unexpected. Nag-order lang ako ng pagkain sa carinderia sa school ng anak ko, may award pa na ganito,” Morales quipped, reflecting on how the photograph had unexpectedly turned into a story.
And there was the evening’s more enduring reminder.
Economics does not live exclusively in boardrooms, trading floors, or the latest corporate earnings presentation. It is also found in school canteens, grocery queues, jeepney rides, and the everyday decisions of households trying to make their money last.
“Journalism is a difficult profession,” said Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman of Ayala Corp., in his keynote address, “given its many requirements: the persistence needed in chasing leads and sources, the rigor required in checking every datapoint, and, perhaps most importantly, discipline it demands in wielding the tremendous power it holds in shaping public opinion.”
Incumbent EJAP President Ted Cordero thanked the Ayala Group for sustaining its support for the awards over the past two and a half decades. He also recognized the distinguished panel of judges, chaired by former Finance Undersecretary Milwida Guevarra, with former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and former undersecretaries Gil Beltran and Ma. Teresa Habitan among its members.
