Herbie Gomez

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About Herbie Gomez

Herbie Salvosa Gomez is a journalist with over three decades of experience in the Southern Philippines. Before joining Rappler in 2021, he served as the editor in chief of a Cagayan de Oro-based daily newspaper.

He served as president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club Incorporated (COPC), the city’s oldest and largest organization of journalists, from 1999 to 2001.

Herbie is an alumnus of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program on Investigative Journalism and a fellow of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. He has participated in an AusAID-supported media training program at the Australian National University in Canberra and the University of Technology Sydney. Additionally, he served as a facilitator for a media training project in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

He is a recipient of the “Best Journalist of the Year” award given by the Rotary Club of Cagayan de Oro East Urban in 1994.

Herbie currently holds dual roles as a member of Rappler’s central desk and as the Mindanao bureau coordinator. Moreover, he regularly contributes to Rappler’s opinion section, where he shares insights in his column “Pastilan,” a term frequently used in Cagayan de Oro to express a range of emotions, from frustration and annoyance to disbelief or, in a positive context, surprise.