Macli-ing Dulag Kalinga Chief Defender of the Cordillera

There are people on this earth who radiate power and honor by their very being. I felt that way about Macli-ing during the times that I met him before he was assassinated by soldiers too cowardly to allow him to live. He was a teacher. His words, his stance, his charisma and stubborn insistence on the sanctity of his people’s land taught me that there were places in the Philippines where money did not speak and where power resided in something other than armed strength. I will never forget him.
—Lin Neumann, American journalist, former human rights and church volunteer in the PhilippinesIn recognition of outstanding achievement in interpretative reporting that dramatized the implications of government action which impinged upon the culture and survival of an ethnic community, written with a depth of human understanding and passion for the truth.
—Catholic Mass Media Award for Best Feature Article “Was Macli-ing Killed Because He Damned the Chico Dam?” by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, handed by Pope John Paul II on February 21, 1981During the martial law years, Ceres did not get around the taboos of censorship. She busted the taboos. It was suicide journalism… Scrutinous research and backbreaking legwork woven smoothly into the loom of story-telling. Here is a mind at work and a heart. —Leticia Jimenez Magsanoc, editor in chief, Philippine Daily Inquirer