THREE Thomasian journalists were elected to top posts in the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap), a professional organization of Manila-based journalists working for the foreign press.
Cliff Venzon of Bloomberg News was elected Focap president, the organization announced on Facebook on June 17.
Venzon, a UST journalism alumnus, served as the Varsitarian’s editor in chief from 2010 to 2011, and wrote for the news, special reports, and witness sections of the official student publication.
Venzon’s predecessor, Karen Lema, the bureau chief of Reuters in the Philippines, will stay on the Focap board as ex-officio trustee.
Lema served as a senior reporter for BusinessWorld until 2006, then joined the London-based news agency, becoming its Manila bureau chief in 2020.
She is a UST communication arts alumna and a former staff member of The Flame, the student publication of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
Jes Aznar, who took fine arts major in advertising at UST, was elected to the Focap’s board of trustees.
Aznar, a freelance photojournalist, has contributed to international publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), and the visual media company Getty Images.
AFP’s Ara Eugenio, Barnaby Lo of Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle’s Chantal Eco, and freelance journalist Geela Garcia will also be part of the board of trustees.
Mara Cepeda of The Straits Times, a former Focap treasurer, was elected vice president.
Freelance journalist Yasmin Coles was elected secretary, while Jerome Morales of Bloomberg News was elected treasurer.
All new Focap board members and officers will serve a one-year term, ending in 2027.
Established in 1974, Focap was founded by a group of journalists led by Teodoro Benigno, who took up pre-law studies at UST.
It sought to “achieve an effective and harmonious relationship between the government and the working members of the foreign press.”
