Rosa Rosal is the 2012 U.P. Gawad Plaridel Awardee - Ramon ...

Rosa Rosal is the 2012 U.P. Gawad
Plaridel Awardee
Press release from U.P. Gawad Plaridel
June 15, 2012 1:43pm
The University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication is pleased to announce the recipient of the
2012 U.P. Gawad Plaridel in the person of MS. FLORENCE DANON GAYDA, better known as ROSA ROSAL.
Ms. Rosal was chosen for her outstanding contributions to the broadcasting industry, particularly in the field of
television.
Ms. Rosa Rosal is an accomplished film and television
actress whose career spans six decades. However, she is
best known for her tireless work with the Philippine Red
Cross serving as a volunteer-member for its blood program
in the 1950s and later was elected to its Board of Governors
in 1965 and has been in the Board up to the present. Her
committed philanthropic work led to her receiving the 1999
Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.
She is widely known for her efforts, privately and through her
TV programs to promote blood donation and upgrading of
Rosa Rosal was given the Order of the
Golden Heart Award in 2006 by then
President Gloria M. Arroyo
Red Cross facilities, hospitals and clinics. She also initiated the establishment of a Women’s Crisis Center
and Red Cross Program for Disadvantaged Women. On her own, she has given opportunity for free education
to 15 poor children. She also takes care of her co-volunteers through successful lobbying of insurance
coverage to all volunteers and a scholarship program for children of Red Cross drivers and low income
personnel. Always a “Woman for Others,” Ms. Rosal works for free and donates to the Red Cross any money
she receives from awards accorded to her.
Ms. Rosal entered the limelight when she entered the movies in 1947 with a minor part in the
movieKamagong, which starred Leopoldo Salcedo and by 1949 in a starring role with Jaime Dela Rosa and
Pugo in the film Biglang Yaman. She played a variety of roles in some of the best movies made by the local
movie industry. Ms. Rosal received the Best Actress award from the Filipino Academy for Movie Arts and
Sciences (FAMAS) in 1955 for her role in Sonny Boy and the FAMAS International Prestige Award for the

film Anak Dalita in 1956. Anak Dalita also won best picture at the Asian Film Festival in Hong Kong, which
also earned a Presidential Citation from the late President Ramon Magsaysay.
Ms. Rosa Rosal was among the few pioneering film stars who crossed over to television in the 1960s. She
appeared regularly on Cecille Guidote Alvarez’s dramatic series Balintataw on ABC-5 (now TV-5) and starred
opposite Ronald Remy in Iyan Ang Misis Ko in the 1970s.
She would eventually bring her volunteerism and altruism to television on December 1, 1975 through GMA
Channel 7’s Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko along with Mr. Orly Mercado and Dr. Antonio Talusan. In 1976, she hosted,
without pay, Damayan on Channel 4, which is considered as the longest running public service show for 35
years until 2012. Through these television public service programs, Ms. Rosal pioneered and harnessed
television to be an effective medium for humanitarian work.
The UP College of Mass Communication is honoring Ms. Rosa Rosal with the 2012 Gawad Plaridel for her
contribution to the Philippine Television industry, particularly in affecting media for public service. Ms. Rosal
utilized her popularity and successfully employed television to benefit the less fortunate without fanfare and
sensationalism. Her public service program has set the standard for genuine public service in the television
industry. Ms. Rosal’s unquestionable integrity, unceasing and genuine volunteerism, and tireless humanitarian
work and advocacy epitomize the value that other public persons have forgotten or taken for granted.
The Gawad Plaridel award comes with a trophy specially designed by National Artist, Dean Napoleon V.
Abueva, which will be awarded to Ms. Rosal by University of the Philippines President Alfredo E. Pascual and
U.P. Diliman Chancellor Caesar A. Saloma in ceremonies on July 31, 2012, at 2:00 pm at the U.P. Film
Institute Film Center’s Cine Adarna. Ms. Rosal will deliver a lecture on using television for public service and
humanitarian work during the ceremonies.
Established by the U.P. College of Mass Communication, the annual U.P. Gawad Plaridel recognizes Filipino
media practitioners who have excelled in any of the media (print, radio, film, and television) and have
performed with the highest level of professional integrity in the interest of public service. Already on its eighth
year, the U.P. Gawad Plaridel’s roster of honorees include Ms. Eugenia Duran-Apostol (2004), Ms. Vilma
Santos (2005), Ms. Fidela “Tiya Dely” Magpayo (2006), Ms. Cecilia “Cheche” L. Lazaro (2007), Mr. Pachico A.
Seares (2008), Mr. Kidlat Tahimik (2009), and Ms. Eloisa “Lola Sela” Canlas (2011) who were recognized for
their outstanding contributions in print, film, radio, television, community print media, independent filmmaking,
and radio respectively.
The award is named after Marcelo H. del Pilar (nom de plume, Plaridel), the selfless propagandist whose
stewardship of the reformist newspaper La Solidaridad helped crystallize nationalist sentiments and ignite
libertarian ideas in the 1890s. Like Plaridel, the recipient of the award must believe in the vision of a Philippine
society that is egalitarian, participative and progressive, and in media that is socially responsible, critical and
vigilant, liberative and transformative, and free and independent.