Lyceum honors GMA meteorologist Mang Tani as Media Personality of the Year

GMA News' resident meteorologist Nathaniel "Mang Tani" Cruz has been named Media Personality of the Year for 2015 by students of the Lyceum of the Philippines University in Cavite.

Cruz received the award Friday during the second Sotero H. Laurel Awards by the College of Arts and Sciences Communication and Multimedia Arts Department.

"Ang parangal ninyo sa akin bilang Media Personality of the Year sa 2015 ay nakakataba ng puso Kapuso!" Cruz wrote in a post on Facebook.

The Sotero H. Laurel awards, inaugurated last year to honor one of Lyceum's fore founders, serves "as an avenue to recognize the excellence of AB Communication students" and aims to make "the university an esteemed award-giving body in Cavite."

Laurel taught jurisprudence, constitutional, and international law at the Lyceum, Far Eastern University, and Philippine Law School after earning his law degrees from the University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Georgetown University, and Harvard University.

He also founded a Lyceum branch in Batangas and served as the president of the Lyceum of the Philippines system. He passed away from a lingering illness in 2009 at the age of 90. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News