Which stories will receive the Jose G. Burgos Jr. Awards for Biotech Journalism, formerly the Gawad Galing for Biotech Journalism?

Eleven finalists bested more than 200 stories that qualified in this year's awards.

The winners will receive the Best News Story and Best Feature Story awards with second and third prizes for each category. They will receive cash prizes and plaques. Five finalists, and three newspapers which carried the most number of biotech stories will also receive plaques, said the Biotechnology for Life Media and Advocacy Resource Center (BMARC), a consortium of government and private agencies which spearheaded the awards.

The awarding ceremonies will be held on Nov 8, 2 to 4 p.m. at Club Filipino, Greenhills, San Juan.

BMARC launched the awards in 2005 to give life to Jose Burgos' idea to give recognition to journalists who write outstanding biotechnology stories, and to acknowledge the journalists in national newspapers in their efforts in informing the public of the new developments in modern biotechnology in the country and abroad.

This year's board of judges includes Prof. Luis Teodoro of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, engineer Yvonne Agustin of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines, Dr. Virginia Enriquez of the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development of the DOST, Antonio Jamon Jr. of the Nationwide Association of Consumers Inc. and Dr. Evelyn Mae Mendoza, Academician at the National Academy of Science and Technology and research professor at the Institute of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños. - Biolife News Service