Fajardo named Tribune editor

Aldwin R. Fajardo has been appointed editor of the Saipan Tribune, it was announced this week by John S. DelRosario, Jr., publisher.

Mr. Fajardo, 28, started a career in journalism in 1993 with the Philippine News and Features, a Manila-based news agency that specialized in investigative and interpretative reports on poverty, health, education, politics and human rights.

Having been in the Philippine journalism industry for only four years prior to his employment on Saipan, Mr. Fajardo has extensively written about a myriad of issues that include education, labor, human rights, crimes, health, local and national politics, science and technology, telecommunications, securities and investments.

In 1994, he was covering the Department of Transportation and Communications, the Presidential Commission on Good Government, Department of Education, Commission on Human Rights, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the National Telecommunications Commission for the Manila Times.

During his employment with Malaya, Mr. Fajardo covered the agriculture, environment, agrarian reform and defense departments, the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation. He transferred to write and edit for the Manila Standard.

He had written for the Manila bureaus of the Associated Press and Reuters from 1995 to 1997. On Saipan, he worked for the Marianas Variety between 1997 and 1999 before moving to the Tribune in January 2000.

Mr. Fajardo has also written for the Wellington Bureau of Agence France Presse and the Honolulu Bureau of the Associated Press. He had some of his pieces published in the Suva, Fiji-based Islands Business, the Honolulu-based Pacific Magazine, the Melbourne-based Philippine Times and the Singapore Straits Times.

Mr. Fajardo is a recipient of the prestigious Teodoro Valencia Foundation Awards for Outstanding Journalists.

“The editorial board of the Tribune joins me in making this appoinment. Mr. Fajardo is an experienced journalist with depth and razor sharp perception of the pulse of these islands,” said Mr. DelRosario. “With his leadership, we will constantly upgrade the services that we provide our advertisers and readers and we definitely welcome him as our new editor.”