By Sheila Coronel
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)

It is always wonderful to be the bearer of good news. So here it is: Beginning today, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism will have a new executive director in the person of Malou C. Mangahas, a veteran journalist who has had a distinguished career in newspapers, television and the Web.

There is no better person to be at the helm of the PCIJ at this time, when the country is roiling from yet another political crisis and needs the kind of reporting for which the PCIJ has been known: probing, unflinching, nonpartisan.

Malou will preside over the next phase of the PCIJ's life, when the Center is transitioning to multimedia and Web journalism, and striving to meet the twin challenges of doing watchdog reporting under a more restrictive political environment and of sustaining groundbreaking journalism based on a nonprofit business model.

The PCIJ is privileged to have Malou on the driver's seat. She brings to the job an intimate knowledge of how the Center works, as she was one of the founders of the PCIJ in 1989 and served as its training director from 1990 to 1993. Malou has also served on the PCIJ's board since its birth.

Malou also bring years of editorial leadership into the PCIJ. She was editor in chief of The Manila Times from1994 to 1999, during which she transformed the Times into a newspaper that became a must-read for the country's political class. In 1998, Malou spent a schoolyear in Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow.

When the Times was bought by cronies of then President Joseph Estrada, Malou left and subsequently became Manila senior correspondent for Reuters Asia Online.

After years of experience in the print media, Malou did pioneering work in online journalism in the country, serving until recently as the first editor in chief of gmanews.tv, the news website of the GMA Network. She was executive producer of the popular public-affairs program, "Debate," and with Winnie Monsod, co-host of the talk show "Palaban" on GMA-7. Malou served as Vice President for Research and Content Development of GMA News & Public Affairs from April 2005 to February 2008.

Malou therefore has had a track record of birthing successful projects in different media platforms and of seeing them through. She is a veteran of many battles. She began as editor in chief of the Philippine Collegian, the official student newspaper of the University of the Philippines in 1979-1980, and was elected first woman president of the UP Student Council in 1980-1981. As a student leader, Malou spent months in jail as a political prisoner under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. In 1982, Malou joined the Manila Bulletin as a desk editor. That was a period when the media, including the campus press, was muzzled by Marcos. Malou, like the young reporters who entered the profession during the troubled period, practiced journalism under trying circumstances.

I have known Malou for 30 years. We were in the Philippine Collegian together, writing for the UP student newspaper at a time when the campus press was one of the few outlets of real news and opinion. We belong to a generation of journalists that has experienced censorship and repression followed by the intoxicating rebirth of democracy and a free press in 1986. We cut our teeth as journalists covering protest rallies and attempted coups d'etat. We witnessed the country's rocky transition to democracy and the triumphs — and the failings, alas, the epic failings — of democracy.

I'd like to think that our generation continues to nurture the hope that our dysfunctional democracy will somehow find its way. Certainly, we believe that a watchdog press helps build and strengthen democracy.

The PCIJ will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2009. New challenges face us — including the challenges posed by new information technologies. When we started, we had one electric typewriter and a DOS-based computer. We didn't even have a fax machine.

Today, the PCIJ has one of the most Web-savvy news teams in the country. We continue to be at the cutting-edge of investigative reporting in the Philippines and in Asia. Worldwide, we are recognized as a pioneer in nonprofit investigative reporting. (See for example, a recent report on global investigative reporting that cites the PCIJ as "a model for muckraking." Another paper, written for Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center, cites the PCIJ's "stunning" success despite a small budget.)

The PCIJ is very pleased — and honored — to have one of the leading lights of Philippine journalism steering the Center as it enters its third decade of existence.