GMA REPORTER, host, and award-winning filmmaker Cesar Apolinario, a Communication Arts alumnus, succumbed to lymphoma on Friday, Dec. 13.
Apolinario was diagnosed with cancer in August and was admitted on Nov. 12 due to sepsis and pneumonia, according to GMA News.
Apolinario graduated with a degree in Communication Arts at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) in 1998.
He worked abroad for two years to fund his studies and continued to work various jobs while studying, he stated in his interview with GMA.
He also worked as a cameraman-researcher, his early foray into his broadcasting career, before pursuing television reporting and documentary hosting on shows such as I-Witness, Brigada, Born to Be Wild, and iJuander.
In 2008, he won Best Director and Best Original Story for his first film “Banal” in the 2007 edition of the Metro Manila Film Festival.
Apolinario continued to direct films and bagged the Digital Movie Director of the Year plum for “Puntod” in the PMPC Star Awards in 2009.
In 2013, he was chosen as Outstanding Magazine Program Host for iJuander in the Golden Screen Award.
Apolinario was given the Outstanding Thomasian Alumni Award in Media in 2016.
“As a Thomasian and as a Filipino, never doubt yourself to look for what is beyond and to tell yourself: ‘iJuander.’” he stated in his Facebook post in 2016. F
