REGION III - CENTRAL LUZON


      1. Rony Diaz ( The Carpenter)
        = is an award-winning Filipino writer. He has won several Palanca Awards. He joined the paper in 2001 as executive director. He eventually became publisher and president of the Manila Times School of Journalism. He has taught English at U.P. Diliman and has worked for the Philippine government as a foreign service corp.He is the author of the story "The Centipede"

      2. Virgilio Almario ( Oyaying Tagalog)

      = better known by his pen name, RIO ALMA, is a Filipino artist, poet, critic, translator, editor, teacher, and cultural manager. He is aNational Artist of the Philippines.Growing up in Bulacan among peasants, Almario sought his education at Manila and completed his degree in A.B. Political Science at the University of the Philippines.His life as a poet started when he took master’s course in education at the University of the East where he became associated with Rogelio G. Mangahas and Lamberto E. Antonio.A prolific writer, he spearheaded the second successful modernist movement in Filipino poetry together with Rogelio Mangahas and Teo Antonio. His earliest pieces of literary criticism were collected in Ang Makata sa Panahon ng Makina (1972), now considered the first book of literary criticism in Filipino. Later, in the years of martial law, he set aside modernism and formalism and took interest in nationalism, politics and activist movement. As critic, his critical works deal with the issue of national language.Aside from being a critic, Almario engaged in translating and editing. He has translated the best contemporary poets of the world. He has also translated for theater production the plays of Nick Joaquin, Bertolt Brecht, Euripedes and Maxim Gorki. Other important translations include the famous works of the Philippines' national hero, José Rizal, namely Noli Me Tangere and El filibusterismo. It was deemed as the best translation by the Manila Critics Circle.Almario has been a recipient of numerous awards such as several Palanca Awards, two grand prizes from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Makata ng Taon of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, the TOYM for literature, and the Southeast Asia Write Award of Bangkok.He was an instructor at the LAGAO CENTRAL ELEMANTARY SCHOOL from 1969-1972. He only took his M.A. in Filipino in 1974 in the University of the Philippines. In 2003, he was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Letters in the said university. On June 25 of the same year, he was proclaimed National Artist for Literature.Almario is also the founder and workshop director of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), an organization of poets who write in Filipino. Award-winning writers and poets such as Roberto and Rebecca Añonuevo, Romulo Baquiran Jr., Michael Coroza, Jerry Gracio, and Vim Nadera are but some of the products of the LIRA workshop.He was a founding member of the Gallan sa Arte at Tula (GAT), along with fellow poets Teo Antonio and Mike Bigornia.

     3. Pedro L. Ricarte ( Eksistensiya)  

4.   4.  David T. Mamaril (PAgbabagumbuhay)

.     5. Oscar De Zuniga ( Confusion at Sunrise)
 (     May 30, 1922 - July 23, 2007), was a registered professional engineer and land surveyor who played an important role in the construction of several residential neighborhoods in his native Laredo, Texas. In 1988, he was honored by his peers as "Engineer of the Decade" by the Gateway Chapter of Professional Engineers.

      6. Rofel G. Brion ( biyernes Santo)

Rofel G. Brion was born in 1953 in San Pablo, in the Philippines. Although his mother tongue is the local Filipino, he began to write in English, the language of his early education, at 12 years of age. It was only as a young adult that he started to consider Filipino as a literary language. For this reason, after he had finished his economic studies, he decided to study Philippine Literature at the Ateneo de Manila University. His graduation from the Creative Writing Center of the University of the Philippines was again in the fields of English Language and Literature.

In 1982 Brion won the Gawad Galian sa Tula Poetry Prize. His first volume of poetry, »Baka Sakali« (1990; t: Maybe by Chance), was awarded the National Book Award. Seven years later his second book »Story« was published. This title accurately identifies a characteristic property of Brion’s poems. They are stories in verse form – lyrical snapshots that capture special moments. Using this form he mainly uses language to denote objects and occurences – as opposed to modernistic and avantgarde trends – which takes on a characteristic of ritual. »I write about my life, my family, my friends, my travels, my loves; events that make me happy; events that make me cry; events that may never really come to be. I write mostly about small, ordinary events, and in doing so, I capture them. I hold on to them and never let them go. And this, I guess, is how I pay homage to them.« This admired designation reveals various aspects in Brion's bilingual writings. In the as yet less appreciated mother tongue Filipino, the denotation of the names of ordinary things and experiences, betokens a conscious effort to overcome colonial repression. Simultaneously an awareness of Philippino culture is created. The poems written in the other official language of the Philippines, English, demonstrate a confident exposure to the reality of a country which is widely influenced by American culture. With their often humorous tone, the poems give a forgiving and constructive example of creating an own national identity. In the anthology »Returning a Borrowed Tongue« (1995), Brion’s poems are arranged exemplarily in the rich tradition of English-speaking Philippine and American-Philippine verse. He recently published »Sandali: Mga Pili at Bagong Tula« (2006; t: Moment: Selected and New Poems).

.  7. Raz Marquez Benitez ( Dead Stars)

Born in 1894 in Lucena City, Quezon. Marquez - Benítez authored the first Filipino modern English language short story, Dead Stars, published in the Philippine Herald in 1925. Born into the prominent Marquez family of Quezon province, she was among the first generation of Filipino people trained in the American education system which used English as the medium of instruction. She graduated high school in Tayabas High School now, Quezon National High School and college from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. "Marquez"Benitez. She was a member of the first freshman class of the University of the Philippines, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.

Two years after graduation, she married UP College of Education Dean Francisco Benítez with whom she had four children.

Márquez-Benítez later became a teacher at the University of the Philippines, who taught short-story writing and had become an influential figure to many Filipino writers in the English language, such as Loreto Paras-Sulit, Paz M. Latorena Arturo Belleza Rotor,Bienvenido N. Santos and Francisco Arcellana. The annually held Paz Marquez-Benitez Lectures in the Philippines honors her memory by focusing on the contribution of Filipino women writers to Philippine Literature in the English language.

Though she only had one more published short story after “Dead Stars” entitled "A Night In The Hills", she made her mark in Philippine literature because her work is considered the first modern Philippine short story.

For Marquez-Benitez, writing was a lifelong occupation. In 1919 she founded "Woman's Home Journal", the first women's magazine in the country. Also in the same year, she and other six women who were prominent members of Manila's social elites, namely Clara Aragon, Concepcion Aragon, Francisca Tirona Benitez, Carolina Ocampo Palma, Mercedes Rivera, and Socorro Marquez Zaballero, founded the Philippine Women's College now Philippine Women's University. "Filipino Love Stories", reportedly the first anthology of Philippine stories in English by Filipinos, was compiled in 1928 by Marquez-Benitez from the works of her students.

When her husband died in 1951, she took over as editor of the Philippine Journal of Education at UP. She held the editorial post for over two decades.

In 1995, her daughter, Virginia Benitez-Licuanan wrote her biography, "Paz Marquez-Benitez: One Woman's Life, Letters, and Writings."

. 8.Rogelio Sukat ( ang Kura at ang Agwador)

also known as Rogelio Sícat) (1940-1997) is a Filipino fictionist, playwright, translator and educator. He was born to Estanislao Sikat and Crisanta Rodriguez on June 26, 1940 in Alua, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. He is the sixth of eight children. Sicat graduated with a B.Litt. in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas and an M.A. in Filipino from the University of the Philippines.

Sikat received numerous literary prizes but he was particularly remembered for "Impeng Negro", his 1962 Palanca awardwinning short fiction in Filipino (Tagalog). Many of his ground-breaking stories first appeared in Liwayway, a long-running magazine with a particularly strong Tagalog literary section. A posthumous appreciation of Sicat's achievements were highlighted by award-winning writer Lilia Quindoza-Santiago in Living and Dying as a Writer." The article appeared in Pen & Ink III.

Sikat was University Professor and Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines in Diliman from 1991 to 1994. U.P. College of Mass Communication Professor Angelito Tiongson worked on a feature film Isang Munting Lupa based on Sicat's Tata Selo, another prizewinning story . Playwright and film/theater director Auraeus Solito, on the other hand, created a short film narrative based on "Impeng Negro" in 1999. Sikat was posthumously awarded the Manila Critics' Circle National Book Award for Translation in 1998.

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    9.Michael L. Bigornia ( Ang Kastilyo)

(born 16 May 1950 in Bangued, Abra, Philippines) is a Filipino poet, editor, fictionist and translator. Bigornia was educated at the University of the East where he finished political science.

He was the immediate past chairman of the Unyon ng Mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL), and the recipient of several Palanca Awards.

He also won National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle for his collection of prose poems, Prosang Itim (Anvil) and Punta-Blanko. Bigornia, the Makata ng Taon in 1986, was a founding member of the Gallan sa Arte at Tula (GAT), along with fellow poets Virgilio Almario and Teo Antonio. He also worked as managing director for Phoenix Publishing House.

.  10. Aniceto Silvestre (Ang Agos Sa Libis)

was born in San Mateo , (which is now Rizal Province) on April 17 , 1898 . Although there was no formal education in writing, he had written and contributed to the literature wonderful Filipino poetry, short stories, novels and essays.
His poems gathered this set of Nature were grouped into eight: Free, Sexy, Pictures of Life, Beat Of Love, Reconstruction of faith, a sign of hope, On the Path of Greatness and Blood Radiance days.
The honor achieved by Aniceto F. Silvestre writing poetry four First Awards (previous to the war): a Third Rewards (during the Commonwealth government): A First Reward (10th year of the Republic of the Philippines), and a First Reward Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1969