REGION IV- SOUTHERN TAGALOG

1. Alejandro G. Abadilla 
 (March 10, 1906–August 26, 1969), commonly known as AGA, was a Filipino poet, essayist and fiction writer. Critic Pedro Ricarte referred to Abadilla as the father of modern Philippine poetry, and was known for challenging established forms and literature's "excessive romanticism and emphasis on rime and meter".^[1] Abadilla helped found the Kapisanang Panitikan in 1935 and edited a magazine called Panitikan.^[1] His Ako ang Daigdig collection of poems is one of his better known works                          

                                                                             

2. Jose Rizal 
June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), was a Filipino nationalist, writer^[8] and revolutionary. He is widely considered the greatest national hero of the Philippines.^[9] He was the author of Noli Me Tángere, El Filibusterismo and a number of poems and essays. He was executed on December 30, 1896.                                             

3. Jose Dalisay, Jr.
                  (born January 15, 1954) is a Filipino writer. He has won numerous awards and prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction and screenplay, including 16 Palanca Awards    

                    

4. Paz M. Latorena 
                                                                         

5. Paz Marquez Binetez 
  Tall and elegantly attired in full terno, she was a familiar figure on the campus of the pre-war University of the Philippines. She was Paz Marquez Benitez, beloved mentor to the first generation of Filipino writers in English. Inspiring many students who later became literary luminaries, she had an enduring influence on the emergence and development of Philippine literature in English.

Born to the prominent Marquez family of Quezon Province, Marquez Benitez belonged to the first generation of Filipinos trained in the American educational system. She was a member of the first freshman class of the University of the Philippines, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. She taught at the University’s English department from 1916 to 1951, acquiring a reputation as an outstanding teacher. Among her students were Loreto Paras Sulit, Paz Latorena, Bienvenido Santos, Manuel Arguilla, S.P. Lopez and National Artist Francisco Arcellana, who later emphatically declared, “She was the mother of us all!”             

                                             
6. Maximo M. Kalaw  

7. Horacio dela Costa, S.J

 an outstanding historian particularly on Philippine history and culture, graduated from the Ateneo of Manila in 1935, and entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Novaliches. He returned later to the Ateneo to teach philosophy and history and became known also as a writer and radio figure. In 1946 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the US government for his role in helping American escapees from Japanese prison camps. In 1951 he received his doctoral degree in history from Harvard University. Two years later he rejoined the faculty of the Ateneo teaching history, and later became its first Filipino dean and in 1969 the first Filipino Jesuit Provincial Superior in the Philippines. In 1971 he became General Assistant and Consultant to the newly elected Jesuit Father General Pedro Arrupe. During all this time he authored many books and articles, played key roles in a variety of organizations, and received many honors for his accomplishments. A key document of the Jesuits' 32nd General Congregation, Jesuits Today, was entrusted to him to prepare and was accepted by the Fathers of the Congregation virtually as presented. Fr. de la Costa died of cancer in 1977.                                        

8. N.V.M Gonzalaes 

He was born on 8 September 1915 in Romblon, Philippines. González, however, was raised in Mansalay, a southern town of the Philippine province of Oriental Mindoro. González was a son of a school supervisor and a teacher. As a teenager, he helped his father by delivering meat door-to-door across provincial villages and municipalities. González was also a musician. He played the violin and even made four guitars by hand. He earned his first peso by playing the violin during a Chinese funeral in Romblon. González attended Mindoro High School (now Jose J. Leido Jr. Memorial National High School) from 1927 to 1930. González attended college at National University (Manila) but he was unable to finish his undergraduate degree. While in Manila, González wrote for the Philippine Graphic and later edited for the Evening News Magazine and Manila Chronicle. His first published essay appeared in the Philippine Graphic and his first poem in Poetry in 1934. González made his mark in the Philippine writing community as a member of the Board of Advisers of Likhaan: the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center, founding editor of The Diliman Review and as the first president of the Philippine Writers' Association. González attended creative writing classes underWallace Stegner and Katherine Anne Porter at Stanford University. In 1950, González returned to the Philippines and taught at the University of Santo Tomas, thePhilippine Women's University and the University of the Philippines (U.P.). At U.P., González was only one of two faculty members accepted to teach in the university without holding a degree. On the basis of his literary publications and distinctions, González later taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara,California State University, Hayward, the University of Washington, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley
                                         

                                              
9. Mars Ravelo 
                                      

10. Diosdado G. Alesna

 (born May 18, 1909) is a Cebuano Visayan writer. His recognized pen-names include Diody Mangloy, Rigor Tancredo, Reynaldo Lap, Buntia, La Roca, Melendres, and Flordeliz Makaluluoy.

Alesna was an educator and a civil servant. He created the Cebuano verse form "siniloy" and has frequently won prizes, including the 1966 award for "Most Outstanding Poet for the Last 10 Years" from Lubas sa Dagang Bisaya (LUDABI) - an organisation which is the self-declared 'official' source for Cebuano Visayan.