Inday Espina-Varona | |
|---|---|
| Born | Maria Salvacion Llavore Espina Manila, Philippines |
| Education | University of the Philippines Diliman[1] |
| Occupations |
|
| Parent | Rolando Espina |
Ma. Salvacion Espina Varona, more popularly known asInday Espina-Varona is aFilipina journalist. She is the former Head of Regions forRappler. She was formerly a senior contributing editor and a writer forABS-CBN Integrated News & Current Affairs.[2]
Inday Espina-Varona started her career as a reporter at the Visayan Times, a local newspaper fromBacolod. As associate editor and investigative news chief at theManila Times, she directed a numerous projects that won awards, including a series about Filipino children who suffered fromtuberculosis and the telecommunications firms who ignored a consumer's problems; battered women, prostituted children and the fall of the Moro Islamic Liberation Fronts.
She won the country'stop prize for investigative journalism (2006) .[1] for her series, "The Rape of World War II vessels in Philippine seas." She was also conferred the Canadian government'sMarshall McLuhan Award for her work.
She also worked as a columnist for theManila Times, and becameeditor-in-chief of Philippines Graphic newsweekly magazine wherein she wrote her JVO prize-winning series. She formerly headed theBayan Mo, iPatrol, a netizen journalism unit of theABS-CBN News from 2010 to 2013. She was also a senior contributor for UCANews and LiCASBNews, international Catholic news agencies. She has also served as country director for Change.org, the world's largest petition platform.[2]
She became Chairwoman of theNational Union of Journalists of the Philippines.[3]
She was selected in 2005 as an[1] international fellow of the John S Knight Professional Journalism Fellowships in Stanford University.
Inday won the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Prize for Independence at the 2018 Press Freedom Awards. RSF’s Prize for Independence is awarded to reporters for resisting pressure in carrying out their work.
In the Philippines, she has won awards for her coverage of indigenous peoples and the LGBTQ+ community.
She was born inManila,Philippines. She is one of the 11 children of the late Dr. Lourdes Llavore, apediatrician andjournalist Rolando "Rolly" Espina, who died on December 28, 2017.[4]
In 2016, her verified account was disabled byFacebook without explanation. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the blocking of Espina-Varona was made "at the behest of what are clearly enemies of the right to free expression and of a free press." Her account was soon restored.[5][6]
She is both ananti-Marcos andanti-Duterte.[5]
Espina-Varona is a cancer survivor.[7]
Espina-Varona, together with Zena Bernardo, Jean Enriquez, Mae Paner founded theBabae Ako movement (transl. I'm a Woman movement; stylized as #BabaeAko) on May 20, 2018.[8]
She is one of the convenors of theMovement Against Tyranny which was launched on August 28, 2017.[9]