PRIME honors ace broadcasters with lifetime achievement awards

At 3 P.M. today, PRIME, the Pete Roa Integrated Media Endeavors Foundation, is conferring its first lifetime achievement awards for outstanding work in television on Cheche Lazaro, Pia Hontiveros and Winnie Monsod—gifted and selfless talents who have consistently set high standards for their productions in the service of Filipino viewers.

The prized awards will be conferred at Escaler Hall of the Ateneo de Manila University, after the honorees separately address an invited audience of communications students, faculty and practitioners, sharing the fruits of their decades-long professional experience.

Further adding distinction to the PRIME TV Awards is the fact that the trophies have been designed by acclaimed sculptor Ramon Orlina.

The PRIME TV award is conferred for the first time by PRIME Foundation’s Board of Trustees, led by Boots Anson-Roa, to motivate the awardees to do even better work, and to inspire and challenge students and other TV workers to be similarly dedicated and selfless in the service of the country’s millions of viewers.

PRIME’s other board members are Marichu Maceda, Fred dela Rosa, Bong Aquino, Eddie Roa, Bibsy Carballo, Raffy Evangelista, Jose Mari Chan and Nestor Torre.

Major interests

PRIME Foundation was set up by veteran TV producer Pete Roa’s family and friends to further his major interests and concerns. They include media education, his devotion to St. Padre Pio, and his concern for stroke patients.

Aside from the PRIME TV Awards, the foundation has produced an acclaimed stage drama on the life and many charisms of Padre Pio, as well as a documentary on the saint, partially shot in Europe.

The 2014 PRIME TV awardees are:  Cheche Lazaro, for her pioneering and insightful documentaries, which have opened viewers’ eyes to many relevant and significant issues that affect them and their families.

She has also trained many other writer-directors to come up with their own perceptive documentaries, thus further expanding the reach and impact of her influence.

Pia Hontiveros is acclaimed for the rigorous objectivity of her newscasts, and the perceptiveness and courage of her political programs.

She has been known to stand up to powerful political leaders to uphold the independence of her analytical shows, and has encouraged viewers to be similarly involved and committed in the way that they confront the issues that affect them and the entire nation.

Winnie Monsod is unique on the TV scene, because she has had vast experience as a top economist in both the academe and in government—and has the rare gift of being able to make complex economic and other issues clearly understood by the “ordinary” viewer.

This combination of sensibility, expertise and common sense provides a great service that should be acknowledged, rewarded and emulated by other TV people who want to give viewers valuable insights that they can apply to their daily lives.