"Our Own" Columnist Edwin Sumcad, will be presented with a very Prestigious -- “Excellence in Journalism Award”!!!

News Release!!

BY Publications, Inc. San Diego, California: Dateline – May 15. 2008

Sumcad To Receive Excellence Award In Journalism

     Columnist Edwin A. Sumcad is scheduled to receive an excellence

Award in Journalism in a public ceremony to be held in the City of San

Diego, California, on June 21, 2008.

     The award will be presented by the Philippines & Asian Report and ASIANReader, widely read twin publications in the city and county of San Diego. BY Publications, Inc., owned by Dr. Barbara M. Yorobe who is the publisher and managing editor of the PAR/AR newspapers, and other publications such as the Filipino Asian Directory and the Gaslamp Quarter Connection. She runs a regular column on Philippine arts, culture, history, heritage and tradition.

      Dr. Edwin M. Yorobe is the Editor-in-Chief of PAR/AR newspapers and runs a popular column, In-Depth. Dr. Edwin Yorobe’s love of writing and poetry dates back in his high school and college years, and has received awards for his works.

      The venue of the award is the San Diego Filipino American Humanitarian Foundation, Inc.’s Philippine Library & Historical Heritage Museum in the Gaslamp Quarter, downtown San Diego. The holding of the event coincides with the Fiesta Filipiniana annual celebration.

       Dr. Barbara M. Yorobe is the founding president of San Diego Filipino American Humanitarian Foundation, Inc. and the founding director and curator of the Philippine Library & Historical Heritage Museum, the first and only one its kind in the entire city and county of San Diego. Through the Foundation, she was able to acquire and rehabilitate the historic Lincoln Hotel-Philippine Center, that provides housing for the low-income members of the community and where the PLHHM is situated. The annual Fiesta Filipiniana, annual Historical Heritage Gala, and the Miss & Mrs. RP-SD Tourism Titles were also established by Dr. Barbara Yorobe through the SDFAHF. Among the many awards she received, the one she cherishes most is the “Woman of the Year” presented by the California Women in Government. She is the first Filipina and the second Asian to receive the prestigious statewide award.

       Sumcad’s editorial writings and excellent practice of fearless journalism among others are recognized as an exemplary service to the community. It is in recognition of extraordinary services to the community that Sumcad has earned his other excellence awards in journalism.

       Dr. Barbara M. Yorobe and spouse Dr. Edwin Yorobe are widely known civic leaders and models of exemplary services to the community. Dr. Edwin Yorobe is the founder and first president of the Pilipino Medical Association of San Diego and Dr. Barbara Yorobe is a founding member of PMASD. They have also been involved in other Filipino and Asian community organizations in San Diego.

       Along with some PMASD officers, the couple spearheaded the first medical mission to the Philippines from San Diego about 17 years ago. The couple is still doing their philanthropic mission on an annual basis. The mission provides medicine and relief goods to the needy. CPR classes for women conducted in some selected areas of the Philippines that saved lives were part of Dr. Barbara Yorobe’s regular annual civic-oriented trip to the Far East.

      The couple’s desire to give back to their country of origin and people was what inspired them to adopt the Gawad Kalinga Housing Project that provides housing units for the “poorest of the poor” in the Philippines through SDFAHF.

      The driving spirit behind the June 21st award springs from this selfless dedication of one’s self to the service of the community.

      Sumcad is a columnist of the Philippines & Asian Report for the last ten years. As an ex-officio adviser to the Council of Pilipino-American Associations, this veteran journalist links up and interfaces with the community through his well-read writings published locally, and run by online publications read by San Diegans, and newscatchers nationwide and worldwide. 

      In San Diego, Sumcad writes his popular column The Union Trail in the Philippines & Asian Report.  More than 250,000 Filipino-Americans get hold of their community newspapers regularly.

       The journalist’s passionate payback to the community was a common knowledge. He was a former media consultant to struggling community newspapers in San Diego. As a former publisher and award-winning journalist of more than 45 years, he devoted his priceless time and dedicated his tireless effort in improving local community newspapers that he serviced for free.
     He is also a retired attorney whose pro bono legal advices ended up in the settlement of complicated civil cases of which his assistance was badly needed, thereby saving poor litigants in particular as well as society in general of expensive litigation costs.                                                    

    The qualification and experience of the 2008 journalism awardee are indisputably exemplary. Sumcad is also a literary artist … a celebrated fiction writer who authored and published novelettes and short stories. As a schooled littérateur and critic, Sumcad is a book and film reviewer and an avowed practitioner of literary criticism.

     As a retired UN diplomat, Sumcad specializes in diplomatic negotiations, more particularly in the settlement of bilateral and multilateral disputes. He breathes this unique experience and academic discipline in his editorial writings and community works that benefit the local community in particular and the public in general.

     The Yorobes appreciate Sumcad’s “… fearless advocacy of freedom of expression in development journalism ...  who raised the awareness and knowledge of the community we serve.”    

      The full text of the citation reads as follows:                              

                                           EXCELLENCE AWARD
                                                IN JOURNALISM

                                    -- EDWIN A. SUMCAD –

 IN RECOGNITION AND APPRECIATION OF HIS EXEMPLARY AND OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE TO THE FILIPINO ASIAN COMMUNITY AND THE READING PUBLIC IN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO THROUGH HIS COLUMN "UNION TRAIL" FOR 10 YEARS, AND HIS FEARLESS ADVOCACY OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN DEVELOPMENT JOURNALISM WHOSE ERUDITE DISCUSSION OF WORLD EVENTS AND ITS IMPLICATION TO PAROCHIAL AND LOCAL SITUATIONS HAVE RAISED THE AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMMUNITY THAT WE SERVE.

        Among the guests expected to attend the Fiesta Filipiniana are representatives of the Philippine government, city and county of San Diego, presidents and leaders of various civic organizations.

        The 2008 Fiesta Filipiniana celebration is a commemoration of the    110th anniversary of the Philippine Independence and the 147th Birthday of the Philippine National hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.