Filipino journalist wins Pulitzer Prize

Another Filipino American, Jose Antonio Vargas, 27, has won the Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category. He shares this award with other ‘Washington Post’ reporters for a package of nine stories, two of which he wrote.

Vargas was doubly glad about the award because the paper this time won six Pulitzers, the most it has won in one year.

Vargas' entries were two front page stories on the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

“I was lucky to get an interview with one of the eyewitnesses,” he recalled. “I found this eyewitness on facebook.com. I got him on the phone, we talked for about 25 minutes, and he was the only eyewitness we had on the story, so it was a critical part of it.”

Another story he wrote was on how the Virginia Tech students were using the Internet “to let each other know what was going on, because it was chaotic” at that time.

Vargas confessed that he was told about the good news over the phone Sunday by his editor, but was advised not to tell anybody yet at that point.

Vargas joined the Post in 2004, two days after graduating from the San Francisco State University in California.

He had interned at the paper in 2003 while still a student. He was asked to write for the Style Section at first. Then he wrote about Cristeta Comerford, the first woman and first FilAm White House executive chef.

He said he was proud he won the Pulitzer as part of the team from ‘Post’, the paper that “had toppled a president." Vargas was of course referring to the Nixon administration's downfall when two Post reporters revealed the break into the Democratic Party headquarters on Watergate which led to President Nixon's resignation.

Vargas, in true Filipino fashion, rekindled his childhood days un the care of his grandparents who raised him. He thanked his "Lola Leoning", Leonila Salinas, who raised him in Mountain View, California, together with her husband Ted, and his Uncle Roland.

Vargas who was born in Antipolo, Rizal [a Tagalog town near Manila] came to the U.S. when he was 12.

When his grandpa Ted died, his Lola Leoning was very worried about him for she wanted only the best for him.

“I love her very, very, very much,” he said with much respect about his grandma. “I wish she could understand what this means.

In keeping with Filipino family tradition, his Lola wanted him to be an accountant, an engineer or a doctor, something like that. For these were the "nobler" professions.

“Now that I’m covering the presidential campaign, and appearing on CNN and MSNBC, My lola thinks I’m a real reporter, and is quite happy about it” he added.

He also cited the principal and superintendent at Mountain View High School, “who were like second parents to me.” They helped him get a scholarship from a venture capitalist who financed his college studies.

Vargas also said that nobody wins an award all by himself, and so he credited his mentors, including Leslie Guevarra at San Francisco Chronicle, where he also worked after writing for the Mountain View Voice.

Vargas, stood behind the mural that showed photos of the team that toppled President Richard Nixon over Watergate – the legendary editor Ben Bradlee and reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Vargas is single, and is 27 years old. Community leader Maurese Owens said, when told of the news: “Now that he has won the Pulitzer, I wonder how it’s going to be for him.”

Vargas will always have a reason for getting up in the morning, gobbling breakfast and bolting excitedly out the door.

“This has always been a passion of mine, since I started writing at 17,” he said, beaming.

Other Filipino Pulitzer winners are: Cheryl Diaz Meyer, who won in 2004 for covering the Iraqi war as an embedded photographer for the ‘Dallas Morning News’; Byron Acohido and Alex Tizon of ‘Seattle Times’ in 1997, and the Ambassador Carlos P. Romulo, who won the first Pulitzer for the Philippines in 1941.