CJJ media newsmagazine asked editors of Cebu’s two newspapers for their most memorable photos in the coverage of pandemic Covid-19. SunStar editor-in-chief Cherry Ann T. Lim and Freeman managing editor Lucky P. Malicay talked with their respective photographers and submitted three pictures each from their respective archives. For this feature, CJJ consulted with veteran photographer Bob Lim, who had led several selections of best photos in the past. And Lim, a.k.a. Robert Pableo Lim, also wrote a sidebar on disasters and the images that remind us of them.
The key word in the selection is “memorable,” meaning “worth remembering or easily remembered,” in the mind of editors and photographers who picked them and, perhaps, of the readers who saw the images digitally or in print.
Photography, Aaron Siskind says, remembers little things that have long been forgotten. Some of the photos here may do just that. 
– Pachico A. Seares
Common choice
Both SunStar and Freeman submitted a photo of a health worker garbed in a Spiderman costume and vaccinating a child. No wonder the photo was picked: it had universal elements to attract attention, the fictional superhero and the endearing child. Staged to promote anti-Covid 19 vaccination, the scene would grab people’s interest and send its message. (Top, by SunStar photographer Amper Campana; bottom, Freeman photographer Aldo Nelbert Banaynal)
Incongruous display of guns
Police armed with high-powered guns march on a Cebu City street as if to quell an outburst of criminal violence. The masks though give away the actual purpose: the target is an enemy “that can’t be seen” and neutralized by firearms. Those guns could be used against people who violate the quarantine. At the same time, the image shows the now-seeming incongruity of displaying, if not using, firearms against the virus. The firepower though might be needed in implementing lockdown of streets and entire neighborhoods. [Photographer: Freeman’s Aldo Nelbert Banaynal]
Prayers, with disinfectants
Faith and science were resorted to: Prayers storm the heavens to spare the faithful and their loved ones from sickness or death. Disinfectants sprayed at places where the virus could be lurking before destroying people’s health. [Photographers: top photo, SunStar’s Amper Campana and, bottom photo, Freeman’s Aldo Nelberta Banaynal