Biography: Yvonne Chua

Yvonne Chua has been the Training Director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and a regular writer for I Report (formerly i), the center's quarterly magazine, since 1995.

She is a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines, where she teaches journalism part-time.

Since January 2003, she has been a member of the Commission on Higher Education's Technical Committee on Communication.

As journalism trainer, Yvonne has trained scores of journalists in the Philippines and abroad, including Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal and Mongolia.

She has spoken about investigative reporting and media and current issues before various groups at home and abroad.

Yvonne has won several reporting awards, including first prize in the Jaime V Ongpin Awards for Investigative Journalism for her report on corruption in textbook procurement for public schools.

Her book, Robbed: An Investigation on Corruption in Philippine Education, is a National Book Awardee for Journalism.

She also won first prize for her investigative report on the lack of accountability and transparency of Congress.

Yvonne was also part of the team that put out the award-winning series on former president Joseph Estrada's unexplained wealth and excesses in office. The reports formed part of the bases of the impeachment complaint against the former president.

In June 2005, Yvonne was elevated to the Jaime V Ongpin Awards for Investigative Journalism's Hall of Fame after bagging the first prize three times in five years.

Yvonne began her journalistic career in 1981 as a reporter of the now-defunct Philippines Daily Express. In 1985, one year before the EDSA 1 revolution, she joined the news desk of the then alternative newspaper, Ang Pahayagang Malaya.

Yvonne rose through the ranks over the next nine years she put in at Malaya. By the time she left the paper in 1994, she was the managing editor.

Aside from Robbed, Yvonne is co-author of The Rulemakers: How the Wealthy and Well-born Dominate Congress, The Electronic Trail: Computer-assisted Research and Reporting in the Philippines, and Armando J Malay: A Guardian of Memory; The Life and Times of a Filipino Journalist and Activist.

She is also editor of several books, including: The PCIJ Guide to Government and Uncovering the Beat: The Real-world Guide to Reporting on Government.

For BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents, Yvonne joins Vinia Datinguinoo from the Philippines Center For Investigative Journalism, to give their take on the parlous state of their country's economy.