Entertainment editors among UST outstanding alumni awardees for 2024

MANILA, Philippines — Two of the recognizable names in Philippine showbiz and lifestyle reportage are being feted by their alma mater, the University of Santo Tomas (UST). 

Entertainment editor Nestor Cuartero and Lifestyle editor Lito Zulueta are among the 11 The Outstanding Thomasian Alumni (TOTAL) 2024 awardees. 

They will be feted on September 27 at the Dr. Robert C. Sy Grand Ballroom, Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building, also known as Thomasian Alumni Center in UST Manila.

Cuartero graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1974. 

He was also an associate of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS).

Cuartero worked as an editor at the Manila Bulletin for 36 years. He remains a columnist of the daily broadsheet. He currently maintains Passerby, an online life and entertainment. 

Zulueta, meanwhile, has been a a journalist for over 30 years, including as an editor at the Philippine Daily Inquirer. 

He completed his journalism degree in 1991 and finished his Master of Arts in Literature at the UST Graduate School in 2017. He is a long-time adviser of the university paper "The Varsitarian." 

The TOTAL Awards is biennial ceremony that cites outstanding Thomasian alumni who made significant contributions to the society and the Church. Awardees were selected by the University administrators and UST Alumni Association Inc. officers. 

Other TOTAL 2024 recipients are Alice G. Eduardo (Accountancy, Business, and Management), Sr. Maria Marissa R. Viri, RVM (Health Allied, Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier (Law and Judiciary), Catherine S. Teh (Medicine), Hasan Fard (Science and Technology), Grace Tan Caktiong (Service to Humanity), Pilar I. Romero (Service to the Church), and Edgar D. Doctor and Jose Pedro C. Recio (Music, Arts, Literature, and Design). 

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