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Henrylito D. Tacio is a respected Filipino environmental journalist whose work has reached audiences far beyond his hometown in Davao del Sur.

“I have been following his environmental journalism for several years, and have been impressed by his prolific output, his wide range of reading, and his concern for his community and country,” award-winning television journalist Howie Severino said. “When other journalists have chosen to move to Manila to take advantage of the resources in the big city, he has opted to stay in Mindanao and practice his profession there.”

Severino spoke about a print journalist named Henrylito D. Tacio, whom he encountered during his visit to Davao City, where he was invited to speak on environmental reporting. Tacio acted as his tour guide throughout the city.

Actually, Tacio hails from Bansalan, Davao del Sur. He traveled to Davao City to attend the University of Mindanao. However, it was during his high school years that he recognized his talent for writing, as his classmates noted that his approach to writing formal themes was markedly different from the examples provided by their teacher.

During the interview, the journalist who regularly contributes a column and in-depth features for EDGE Davao mentioned that his English teacher had to clarify to the class that Tacio possessed a unique writing style. “Who knows, he may become a writer in the coming years,” she remarked.

Ultimately, he did become a journalist. When he was in college, he started contributing to various publications in Manila, such as MOD, Woman’s Home Companion, and Expressweek while still in college. Subsequently, he also contributed to Focus Philippines, Philippine Free Press, Woman Today, Mr. & Ms., and Philippine Panorama.

After completing his college education, he continued his writing career as a freelancer. He also worked as information officer of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), which is located just 10 kilometers away from his home in Bansalan, Davao del sur. Before that, he served as secretary of the center’s director, Harold R. Watson, a recipient of the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for international understanding.

Given that he was already contributing to Manila-based publications, Tacio opted to explore writing for local newspapers in Davao. He submitted some of his works to Ang Peryodiko Dabaw. Additionally, he initiated two columns: “Regarding Henry” and “Agribiz Jottings.”

Antonio M. Ajero, who was then the editor-in-chief of the paper, recognized his writing talent and inquired if he would be interested in writing for the Press Foundation of Asia, a Manila-based news organization that published a weekly dispatch across Asia and also a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for journalism and creative arts. He provided him with the address for submitting articles – and the rest is history.

In 1989, seasoned journalist Juan Mercado inquired during a training session for community journalists at Los Baños, Laguna, whether he possessed a passport. He responded in the affirmative. “Six months prior, I obtained my passport without any plans to travel abroad,” he stated. “However, I felt a strong desire to go overseas.”

A month after that conversation, Tacio found himself in Bangkok, Thailand, participating in a regional food security seminar hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This was not his first visit to the city; in a subsequent year, he returned to work as a consultant for a forestry publication.

The 1990s saw Tacio receiving numerous awards consecutively. In 1999, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for science reporting by the Philippine Press Institute, becoming the sole recipient of such an honor. The following year, he was awarded Journalist of the Year by the Rotary Club of Manila, surpassing even journalists from Metro Manila.

He is also given a sort of Hall of Fame distinction for getting four awards from the Jose Burgos Biotechnology Journalism Awards.

In 2023, he received his seventh Binhi Award from the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, Inc. He also won five awards from the Globe Media Excellence Awards. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has recognized him with two awards, including the Bantog Award.

The article he wrote for MOD entitled, “Who says AIDS doesn’t matter?” won him the Best Journalist for Print in the AIDS writing contest, sponsored by the AIDS Society of the Philippines. Part of the prize was an all-expense paid trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for an international AIDS gathering.

The organizers saw his reports published in both local and national papers so he was again invited to attend two more AIDS conferences – one in Melbourne, Australia and another in Durban, South Africa.  In the latter, he was able to personally meet Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela.

Winning four Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards brought him to Beijing, China; Hanoi, Vietnam; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Singapore.

“I don’t know why only very few Filipino journalists are interested in science,” he says. His love for writing science paid off when he got a scholarship to attend a gathering of science journalists from all over the world in Montreal, Canada.

Tacio has a passion for writing about the environment. His enthusiasm led him to participate in three international conferences focused on coral reefs, which took place in different countries: Bali, Indonesia; Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA; and Cairns, Australia.

His first visit to the United States, however, occurred in 2000, during which he engaged in discussions with the award-winning author and journalist Don Hinrichsen about writing a paper on water and population for Woodrow Wilson Institute for Scholars. This meeting took place at the office of the UN Population Fund in New York City.

The subsequent year, both authors showcased the findings of their report at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. “It was my first experience in the capital of the US, and it was truly exhilarating,” he remarked. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time visiting the Mall,” he continued, referring to the numerous museums that stretch from the US Congress building to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Museum.

Indeed, Tacio has gone a long, long way already as a journalist. On what makes him apart from the province-based journalists, multi-awarded American photojournalist Don Rutledge had this to say about Tacio’s method of writing: “I have been deeply impressed by his journalistic ability to take vital subjects and discuss them through his writing ability. A most recent article is the one he did on cancer. He takes the subject, makes a solid study of it, and gives us valuable details about what we need to know. Seems that he does this in all of his writings rather than just a few situations. He is a journalist far beyond the normal.”

Written by By Evangeline T. Capuno and photo by Henrylito D. Tacio