To Tging, our littlest eldest sister with the biggest heart—happiest of birthdays! I wish more people were as strong and compassionate as you. Thank you for taking care of our home’s fur babies. You deserve everything beautiful in this world. I couldn’t come home to Bohol today, but see you soonest!
Cheers to the team who made Alburquerque, Bohol’s asin tibuok part of UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. But I hope media would stop calling it “dinosaur egg” in their headlines and start calling it as it is—asin tibuok.
So the former interviewer got interviewed. Yesterday and today, writers from The Weekly Sillimanian and The Silliman Magazine visited the National Museum of the Philippines to speak with me for a feature they’re preparing. Two long sessions. Party because we covered a lot, partly because I definitely went off-tangent more than once.
We talked about personal projects, literary work in my home province of Bohol, nuances across Binisaya languages. We even tried to define what “literary culture and heritage” means in Negros Island and how institutions like the museum can help sustain it. Plus many small, unexpected detours in between.
It was fun. I remembered being in their place, writing features for The Weekly Sillimanian in 2006-2007, and then serving as features editor in my last two years of college.
When asked what my recognitions mean—whether the Poet of the Year titles from the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards or the recent Pres. Carlos P. Garcia Award—I said they feel like bonuses. They push me to keep writing, yes, but they were never the point. I’ve been writing since I was five or six, stumbling and growing through the work, and these milestones arrived without my chasing them.
Maybe that’s why they’re gratifying. They all came as surprises. I’m already happy sending drafts of poems through text messages to friends and loved ones, the way I’ve done since 2006. I still believe this: when you love the things that work for you, and when you work for the things you love, everything else falls into place.
We then talked about Dumaguete’s UNESCO Creative City of Literature designation. In my heart and mind, Dumaguete has always been a City of Literature. Long before the title, the art thrived through brave, thoughtful souls who kept the words alive. My hope now is that this recognition widens the circle—welcoming more voices, making literature accessible, and helping people see how prose and poetry matter in everyday life, from the tiangge to government offices, from the streets to the academe.
Thank you, Danielle Mari Bonior, Zarelle Villanzana, Carla Adeline Via. I hope I got the message across.
[ more photos here ]
Another reason to thank the Silliman University National Writers Workshop (SUNWW). Just happy to be part of this growing community. And here are a few factoids about how this thing—the oldest creative writing workshop in Asia—became so intertwined with my life.
🔸 I applied twice. First, as a poetry fellow in 2007. Rejected. The following year, I put together some stories and applied for fiction. That did it. I got into the 47th batch of writing fellows. I was 19.
🔸My co-fellows were Lawrence Anthony Bernabe, Noelle Leslie dela Cruz, Ma. Celeste Fusilero, Rodrigo “Igor” dela Peña, Arlene Jaguit Yandug, Bron Joseph Teves, Marguerite “Margie” Alcazaren de Leon, Dustin Edward Celestino, Joshua “Tokwa” Lim So, Liza Bacay, Ma. Elena Paulma, Anna Carmela Tolentino, and Lamberto Varias Jr.
🔸On Day 1, National Artist for Literature and workshop co-founder Edith Lopez Tiempo herself opened the first panel, discussing Noelle’s poem.
🔸 Our panelists were Ernesto Superal Yee, Bobby Flores Villasis, Myrna Peña Reyes, Cesar Ruiz Aquino, Dr. Rowena Tiempo Torrevillas, Jose “Butch” Dalisay, Butch Macansantos, Dave Genotiva, Susan Lara, Danny Reyes, Anthony Tan, and Lito Zulueta.
🔸 I remember being in awe of everyone—sharp, talented, articulate—while I was just there soaking everything in. But one co-fellow stood out in particular. Back then, the workshop ran for three weeks, each devoted to a genre: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. There were 15 fellows, five per genre. Except in 2008, we were only 14. It turned out one fellow had applied to all three genres, and the screening committee found all his manuscripts strong enough to represent each genre for discussion. So he had a slot every single week. His name is Lambert. And then he disappeared from the grid. I still don’t know where he is.
🔸 There were days when we arrived late to KH 1, the room in Katipunan Hall where most sessions were held, and the running joke among panelists was that our nights were long and bacchanalian. To prove we weren’t drunk every night (just “every other night,” as Liza put it), we decided to make a book of new works to give the panelists and organizers on culmination night. Just so we can say we did some new writing during our stay.
🔸 That book became Sea[sic]: Prose and Poetry by the Fellows of the 47th Silliman University National Writers Workshop. It was launched at Hayahay on Escaño Road during the final night of the workshop. People were so thrilled to receive a copy that they decided right there and then that future batches should also produce a book of new works. What started as our simple thank-you gift is now a workshop requirement. Peace to all future fellows. We didn’t mean to give you an extra task.
🔸 We call our batch the Katsubongs, after one memorable trip from Bacong. I wrote about it for the workshop’s 50th anniversary in 2011 (link here: https://su.edu.ph/137-drugged-and-still-drugged/).
🔸 We spent a night at Salagdoong Beach in Siquijor. Literally slept in the huts by the shore, waking up to sunlight and sea breeze, practically ignoring the hotel rooms we had rented.
🔸 Seventeen years later, we’re still in touch, jumping from Yahoo Groups to Facebook to Messenger. A little older, maybe wiser, but still here, and I am still in awe of what have transpired. Still thankful.
Borrowed the image above from the official Facebook page of the SUNWW. You can check out the original post here.
It’s a rainy gloomy Friday morning here in the Visayas, with Tropical Depression Wilma looming over us, but there is also a bit of light with good news like this.
Thank you, Silliman University, especially to the Silliman University English and Literature Department and The Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center. As the sole creative writing major in my last two college years, I thought it would be an extra lonely journey, but here we are. I was wrong.
Borrowed the image above from the Silliman University website. You can read the full article through this link.
It was commendable to witness the works of people who, on top of their responsibilities in the office and in the field, still carved out time and energy to create these films. Entries ranged from the solemn to the comedic. If this activity continues in the coming years, one can hope the same passion and eagerness can flesh out nuances of what a government worker can be and should be, someone who balances self-care with genuine service, someone who works without expectations, and someone whose story also sheds light on what erodes the integrity of public service, especially given what we’ve been seeing in the news lately.
My co-judges were filmmaker and beetzee founder/CEO Chamberlain Gueverra, and Dr. Belen Calingacion, who served as head judge. Dr. Belen is a professor and former multi-term chair of UP Diliman’s Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts.
Even before we spoke, I had the feeling I’d seen her somewhere before. When she mentioned that I should’ve watched the play she appeared in last October, it clicked. She played the grandmother in Ang Sugilanon ng Kabiguan ni Epefania at the Woodward Little Theatre in Silliman! My hunch was right.
Grateful that the cosmos allowed the three of us to meet that night. Stories flowed, ideas aligned. Something cooking up for 2026. Many thanks go to visual artist Kevin Cornelia for the recommendation and to Agrarian Reform Program Technologist Nhelyn Ross Mahinay for the invitation. Maybe next year we should have a play competition?
[ More photos here ]
