Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer correspondent: Outstanding Sillimanian in community journalism
DUMAGUETE CITY—A senior correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer who has been covering Negros Island for the Visayas bureau for the last 39 years will be conferred the Outstanding Sillimanian Award in the field of Community Journalism during the 124th founding of Silliman University (SU) here.
Carla Camille P. Gomez, with over 40 years of community journalism work, will be awarded on Aug. 28 by the SU Board of Trustees together with seven other outstanding Sillimanians.
The other awardees are Dr. Rolando Borrinaga (in the field of Cultural History), an Inquirer contributor based in Biliran; and Dr. Janamitra Devan (International Development Economics), Dr. Joel Gamo (Medical Education), Dr. Rose Mila Cipres-Jaucian (Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine), Dr. Annabelle Cunanan-Locsin (Nursing Professional Development), Dr. Eva Rose Washburn-Repollo (Education, Culture and the Arts) and Atty. Riza Faith Ybañez (Global Business Ethics).
The eight awardees were selected based on the criteria of the University’s slogan Via, Veritas, Vita (The Way, the Truth, the Life).
Gomez has been covering stories for local, national and international publications from her home base in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, and now, the Negros Island Region. She is now editor of the online newspaper Digicast Negros.
No place like home
Gomez is one of the Inquirer’s pioneer correspondents who joined the publication in 1986. Some of her notable stories in the Inquirer include a refuge for abused children in Negros Occidental; government corruption and human rights abuses, the decline of the sugar industry in Negros, advocacy for the poor and antigovernment protests, and reporting on the trial of the missionary priests and lay leaders who were falsely accused of killing a mayor in the 1980s.
After graduating from Silliman with a Bachelor of Mass Communication degree in 1982, Gomez went on to take her MA in Journalism from the University of Arizona, where she also became reporter of the Tombstone Epitaph in Arizona. She returned to the Philippines after getting her degree abroad, “prioritizing contributions to her country over higher-paying opportunities abroad,” the selection committee noted.
Gomez was also correspondent of the news agency United Press International for eight years until 1990, and correspondent of the Tokyo-based Jiji Press for 12 years until 1998.
At the regional paper Visayan Daily Star where Gomez was reporter, then editor, for 38 years, she took pay cuts to help keep the newspaper afloat until it folded up during the pandemic.
“At Silliman University’s School of Communication (now the College of Mass Communication), Dr. Crispin Maslog and the rest of our professors instilled in us the need to practice journalism with integrity,” Gomez said. “We were taught not to just go after the scoops that land on the front pages of newspapers, but to write stories that make a difference in our communities,” she added.
According to the SU Alumni Association Inc. headed by journalist Adlai Amor, himself an Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee in 1994, Gomez “consistently pursued truth and justice through her work, focusing on stories that uphold community welfare and social responsibility.”
Achievements
Her professional achievements include the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Fellow given by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in 2013. In 2016, Gomez was given one of the 10 Golden Jubilee Awards during the 50th year of the SU College of Mass Communication. Her fellow awardees included Inquirer’s former associate editor Nilo B. Paurom, and Inquirer correspondents Alex Pal and Andrea Trinidad-Echavez.
Social activist Millie Locsin Kilayko, CEO of Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation, recalls Gomez rising from reporter to editor at Visayan Daily Star “but she remained steadfast in her commitment to truth.” She remembers Gomez “refusing to publish biased or twisted stories” even when pressured by a political family controlling a newspaper. “She chose to leave her position, sacrificing financial stability and job security, to uphold her principles.”
Kilayko adds that Gomez “consistently applies her values in her [journalism] work” with the NVC Foundation.
