The 2nd Philippine International Writer’s Festival, the literary component of the Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF) of the NCCA (National Commission for Culture and the Arts), was recently held in Cebu at the Casino Español.
The three-day event dubbed taboan, which in Visayan means market place or meeting ground, had over 120 official delegates and guests in attendance.
The activities included simultaneous discussions that had prominent writers from all over the country as panelists. Topics included translation, ecoliterature, critical reviews, Visayan aesthetics, and songwriting, among others. Lino Arquiza of Sun Star was panelist for “Writing for a Living” along with STAR columnist Dr. Jose Dalisay of UP Diliman and Dr. Steven Fernandez of the Mindanao State University .
The highlight of the affair was the first-ever Taboan Literary Awards, which gave recognition to outstanding literary figures in the Visayas, whose prodigious works have helped in the development of the various Visayan languages and have made noteworthy contributions to the country’s growing cluster of literature.
Awardees from Cebu included Dr. Resil Mojares, world-renowned historian and biographer in English; Dr. Erlinda Kintanar Alburo, a feminist who is the current director of the Cebuano Studies Center and writes poetry in English and Cebuano; Gremer Chan Reyes, multi-awarded short story writer and novelist in Cebuano; Gumer Rafanan, prolific fictionist in Cebuano with 27 novels and 80 prize-winning stories, poems and essays and Msgr. Rudy Villanueva, internationally admired English novelist with the pen name Renato Madrid, who is also a well-known composer of Cebuano and English music for Mass and stage musicals. Joining them were Dr. Leoncio Deriada from Iloilo , a world-renowned fictionist in English, Filipino, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a and Cebuano with 13 Palanca Awards; and Merlie Alunan from Tacloban, multi-awarded poet in English and Cebuano.
Posthumous awards were given to individuals such as Austregelina Espina Moore (Cebu) a pioneering female novelist in English and Cebuano; Dr. Rene Amper, although a medical doctor by profession and a town official by avocation, he was foremost a top caliber poet in English and Cebuano, Estrella Alfon, (Cebu) pioneering and multi-awarded female short storywriter and playwright in English and Cebuano; Temistokles Adlawan (Cebu) prolific and nationally recognized short story writer and novelist in Cebuano who missed the award by three months since he passed away in November 2009 and Edilberto Tiempo, adopted citizen of Dumaguete, internationally known novelist and short story writer in English and father of the ongoing and longest-running Silliman University’s Summer Writers’ Workshop; and Magdalena Jalandoni-Gonzaga (Iloilo) pioneering and prolific woman fiction writer and poet in Hiligaynon.
Precision and formality marked every detail of the awarding with additional color provided by costumed performers in intricate ternos and finely embroidered barong Tagalog.
The steering committee of the 1st Taboan Literary Awards was headed by Marlinda Angbetic Tan, festival director; Dr. Ric de Ungria, PIAF festival director and head of NCLA; Dr. Elsie Coscuella, NCLA Western Visayas coordinator; Dr. Vic Sugbo, NCLA Eastern Visayas coordinator; Mariz Rallos, deputy festival director; and Petite Garcia, president of the Arts Council of Cebu foundation.