Howie Severino  Horacio "Howie" Gorospe Severino (born July 18, 1961) is a Filipino broadcast journalist best known for his work with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Probe Team, and the GMA Network. He has worked in print, television, and online media. He said he has wanted to be a journalist ever since he was in fifth grade. He graduated from Tufts University in Massachusetts with a History degree, "magna cum laude", and received his master's degree from University of Sussex in the United Kingdom in Environment, Development, and Policy. As a college student in Boston in the early 1980s, he got to know Benigno Aquino, Jr., then in exile. After Aquino's assassination in 1983, Severino returned home to teach at his alma mater Ateneo High School, and join the anti-Marcos movement. He was arrested on the same day as Lino Brocka and Behn Cervantes and detained for eight days in Fort Bonifacio, which was at the time a dreaded army camp and not yet the high-end real estate development hub that it is today. Severino started as a newspaper reporter and magazine writer in 1988; became a co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ); established himself as a leading documentary filmmaker; and, in 2009, was named Editor-in-Chief of GMA News Online, GMA Network's news website. He stepped down in 2014 after five years, and was appointed GMA Network's Vice President for Professional Development in May 2014. On TV, he was on "Probe Team" for four years with Cheche Lazaro before joining "i-Witness", now one of the longest-running public affairs programs in the Philippines. At the PCIJ, he set up the Center's Environment Desk, built credentials as a leading environmental journalist, and worked closely with Ramon Magsaysay awardee Sheila Coronel. He still produces environmental documentaries for "i-Witness" and often appears on television riding his mountain bike. Online, he was the first blogger on GMA's web platforms. His journalistic exploration of emerging media culminated in 2009 with his appointment as GMA Network's Vice President for Multimedia Journalism and his subsequent assignment to helm GMA News Online. As GMA News Online's Editor-in-Chief, Severino and his team pioneered in the Philippines the use of Google Maps for disaster coverage, Twitter for breaking news, and crowd-sourcing for news gathering.