Rhick Lars Vladimer Albay is a multi-award-winning journalist and writer based in Iloilo City, Philippines, whose work spans environmental reporting, investigative journalism and narrative storytelling. His bylines have appeared in prominent regional and international outlets, including ANCX, Rappler, Esquire Philippines, Young Star Philippines and the International Business Times, among others. He currently reports for Eco-Business, a Singapore-based media organisation, where he covers the intersections of sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, the just energy transition and climate change.
Albay is a fellow of the Earth Journalism Network’s Biodiversity Media Initiative, the STRIDES programme (Strengthening Transparency in Infrastructure Development Through Environmental Reporting in Southeast Asia) in Indonesia, and USAID SIBOL’s Green Beat Plus workshop. He has also participated in distinguished journalism programmes organised by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia.
His journalism has received recognition from the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Asian Digital Media Awards, the Globe Media Excellence Awards, the University of the Philippines Visayas Bantala Media Excellence Awards, the Paglaum Media Excellence Awards, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Anak TV and the Embassy of Chile, among others. In 2023, he was part of a reporting team whose story was shortlisted for the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards – widely regarded as Asia’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.
He is one of the contributing authors of the coffee table book Iloilo City Rises: Padayon sa Pag-uswag (Onward to Progress), published by the Iloilo Festivals Foundation, Inc. A passionate advocate for campus press freedom, Albay previously served as Vice President for the Visayas of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and as Editor-in-Chief of The Central Echo at Central Philippine University.
