CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—SunStar Pampanga’s senior reporter, Ian Ocampo Flora, bagged two awards in this year’s 17th Brightleaf Journalism Awards held at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati City on November 14, 2024.
Flora was honored with the Best Agriculture Feature Story Regional award for his article, “Government Worker’s Research Helps ‘Ulang’ Industry in CL.”
The article discussed how one individual’s selfless initiative led to the development of the ‘ulang,’ or giant freshwater shrimp, industry in Central Luzon, making it the country’s top producer and a significant contributor to the region’s overall fisheries production.
Flora also won the Tobacco Product Alternative award for his article, “From Plant to Pet: Tobacco Leaf Extract Leads Way in New Veterinary Products.”
The article introduced a range of tobacco-based products designed for veterinary use by the research team of the National Tobacco Administration.
The piece highlights the remarkable versatility of tobacco by-products, demonstrating how they can be repurposed in innovative ways.
Flora brought home cash prizes, and two iPads. He is set to join other winners in an Asian tour in 2025.
He is the first Brightleaf Hall of Fame awardee to rejoin the competition, having been conferred the Oriental Leaf Award on November 17, 2019, by the Brightleaf Agriculture Journalism Awards.
The Oriental Leaf Award is a special recognition given to individuals who have won a Brightleaf Award in any category for five years, joining an elite group known as the Brightleaf Hall of Fame.
Flora is also the first Kapampangan to receive such distinction.
Flora is a multi-awarded feature writer, science and environment journalist, an agriculture and climate change reporter, and food writer. He garnered major awards since 2013.
In 2022, he was named the Sorpresang Sangkap winner by the Mama Sita Foundation’s Mga Kwentong Pagkain.
The Provincial Government of Pampanga recognized Flora’s achievements in journalism when he was awarded the Most Outstanding Kapampangan in the Field of Journalism in 2022.
During the pandemic in 2020, Flora bagged two major awards in the Philippine Agricultural Journalists-San Miguel Corp. (PAJ-SMC) “Binhi” Awards held at the Department of Agriculture (DA) national office in Quezon.
Flora was also among the 2018 winners of the Bantog: The Science for the People Media Awards, given by the Department of Science and Technology – Science and Technology Information Institute (DOST-STII).
