Jessica Soho thanked former GMA-7 news executive Tina Monzon-Palma for allowing her to start a career in broadcasting.
Tina hired Jessica as a journalist for the Kapuso station in 1985. Back then, Tina was GMA News Senior Vice President.
Jessica included Tina in her speech when the GMA News pillar accepted her Gawad Plaridel Award for Journalism conferred to her by the University of the Philippines last August 29.
The GMA anchor turned emotional as she said in her speech: "I have Tina Monzon-Palma to thank for this most important lesson that saw me into some pivotal questions in my career.
"She was the one who hired me and it was through her example and courage that my newsroom contemporaries and I learned the value of upholding the truth no matter what, to defend the integrity of the story. And now more than ever, we need more of this in these perilous times."
Coincidentally, it was Tina who received the Gawad Plaridel award in 2017.
The veteran news reporter resigned from GMA-7 in 1992. Tina took responsibility for reporting on live television that Maureen Hultman had died, when at that time, Maureen was still in coma.
Tina then transferred to TV5 after one month, and in 1997, she moved to ABS-CBN.
She just recently returned to ANC's The World Tonight after taking a year-long sabbatical leave in January 2017.
Meanwhile, Jessica was the first University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication alumna to receive the Gawad Plaridel award.
She currently anchors GMA News TV’s flagship newscast State of the Nation with Jessica Soho (SONA).
She also hosts the top-rating GMA-7 magazine show Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho and is the chief correspondent/host of the investigative news magazine program Brigada, aired on GMA News TV.
Jessica is the 14th person to receive the U.P. Gawad Plaridel.