10 winners, 10 heroes
MANILA, Philippines - To our list of Philippine STAR Lifestyle writers, we have recently added 10 new names. Count them: Bianca Locsin, Teodoro Kalaw IV, Ed Maranan, Allan Lopez, Ricardo J. Cueto Jr., Ronald Regis, Tweet Sering, Leslie Lofranco-Berbano, Rodolfo Silvestre Jr. and Joseph Mansilla.
That means we now have a total of 150 lifestyle writers in the STAR. The last time we wanted a general meeting of all our writers, we thought we could have coffee with them at Starbucks. Whew! The total number came to 140. With the help of Globe Telecom, we held the meeting at the Makati Shangri-La ballroom. Of course, it turned into a Christmas party.
Our 10 new writers were chosen by a panel of judges who read thousands of entries coming from the Mountain Province to Mindanao. The entries came in response to our search launched six months ago: The 2010 edition of the Philippine STAR Lifestyle Awards for writers of the 10 best stories with the theme “My Icon, My Hero”.
The STAR and its partners — HSBC, Samsung , and the Rustan’s group which includes Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Stores Specialists Inc. — offered a total of P200,000 in prizes for each winner. These included P 50,000 in cash from HSBC, a P50,000 writing contract from the STAR, a state-of -the art LCD TV set from Samsung worth P50,000, and P50,000 in gift certificates from the Rustan’s group.
And to immortalize each winner’s feat on a bookshelf: a glass trophy sculptured by Impy Pilapil.
The 10 winners automatically join the STAR family of writers. Just like the 10 winners in the first edition of the contest in 2006, they can become columnists , following the path taken by Exie Abola, Clarissa Chikiamco, RJ Ledesma, Cecile Lilles, Anna Canlas and Francesca Ayala.
The panel of judges was led by Isaac Belmonte Krip Yuson, Butch Dalisay, Jessica Zafra, Cecile Zamora-Van Straten, Igan D’Bayan, Kathy Moran and this writer, with project partners Nedy Tantoco of Rustan’s, Ron Logan of HSBC and K.C. Park of Samsung helping us look for gems from the boxes of entries.
During the awards held last July 6 at the Ayala Museum, our guest of honor, Ayala Corporation president and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, cited the significance of the awards, as it celebrates excellence in lifestyle journalism.
Each winner excels in a field other than journalism. But each one displays a passion for writing:
Bianca Locsin strayed in five countries, making a stopover at Yale for her law degree, before the call for patriotism hounded her and made her come home. Bianca was nurtured with a love for literature by her hero, freedom-fighting grandfather, The Philippines Free Press journalism pillar Teodoro Locsin Sr., and her feisty parents, former Congressman Teddyboy Locsin and business wiz Vivian Locsin. ”The award inspired me to write seriously and consistently again. It was particularly meaningful to me because I won for an essay on the person who inspired me to write in the first place.During the awards, I choked up because I thought to myself: “I guess you must be watching over me, Gramps, to make sure I don’t stray from this path.”
Teodoro Kalaw IV has collected awards from Ateneo to UP to Harvard, and aims to reap more honorable feats as a lawyer at Kalaw Sy Selva & Campos Law Office. Teddy says: “The award is both a blessing and reminder. A blessing that gave me an opportunity to highlight to my family just how lucky we are to have Lola Eva (Estrada Kalaw, his icon) with us. A reminder to a workaholic like me that there is so much more to life outside one’s professional interests.”
Ed Maranan, who has won a record number of 33 prizes in the Palanca Awards, was conferred the Gawad Francisco Balagtas for his contribution to the growth of Philippine literature. He was information attache of the Philippine Embassy in London. Ed wrote about his icon, political exile Celia Mariano Pomeroy. “In our celebrity-crazy society — where the most undeserving win millions of votes due to pop culture branding—geniuses like Celia Pomeroy, Ed Jopson and Evelio Javier have become mere footnotes to our people’s history.”
Allan Lopez is a multi-awarded playwright from the University of the Philippines whose plays have been staged in various schools and festivals nationwide. His fiction, non-fiction and poetry have likewise gained recognition. Allan wrote about his mentor, the late playwright Rene O. Villanueva. “Most of the recognition I’ve received are for writing literary works which are mostly in surrealist and absurd mode,” Allan says.”It’s really a big challenge for me if I can write something that simply ‘talks’ to people.”
Leslie Lofranco-Berbano describes herself as ” a fulltime mom who is a parttime stage director, teacher, civic volunteer, NGO worker and freelance writer.” But all the time, she is a dreamer, says this housewife who only last year finished her Literature course at UP. Leslie says: “The award was the Philippine STAR’s way of democratizing the writing space by drawing entries from all over the country and choosing winners from disparate backgrounds and giving aspiring writers like me a voice.”
Ronald Regis wrote for radio and television before prematurely retiring to focus on “my own things”. That means being a fulltime professional poker player and standup comedian. Ronald’s winning piece features his icons — his street heroes. “The award was not earned by talent, but by inspiration.The ones I wrote about gave me an inspiration, and in so doing, they earned that award. The next step is for me to find a way to return that inspiration to them.”
Tweet Sering is a UP Broadcasting major who has practised her craft in all forms of mass media. This Palanca Awardee has been a novelist (for Summit Publishing), a filmmaker (for Cinemalaya), an advertising copywriter (for J. Walter Thompson), a creative director (for GMA Network), and a writing mentor (at Reach International School). She wrote about her icon, an archaeologist-museologist who is now a public servant.The lovely and lively Tweet says the award gave her “ a chance at cashless, guiltless underwear shopping at Marks & Spencer.”
Rodolfo Silvestre Jr. has a brilliant sense of humor — and rumor.This agricultural economist confesses that his secret dream was to be a kibitzer, alalay or society climber. As a child, he enjoyed reading the society columns of Amelita Reysio Cruz. He now writes coffee table books and does researches on local history. Rodolfo wrote about his icon, art and culture patron Danny Dolor whose project to revive zarzuelas and kundimans fascinated him.”For all my clowning and so-called social pretensions, I have always fancied myself as a writer. Winning this contest affirms my definition of myself — a writer. I may not be able to heal people, but I can make my readers laugh, smile, or even squirm.”
Ricardo Cueto Jr. is an engineer who loves building bridges and railways systems. And constructing stories, too. He is assistant vice president of TCGI Engineers, and he engineered the right words for a story on his icon, former Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin who died of kidney failure this year. Ric says:”Maybe there is indeed a blue moon who can command people like me to put aside engineering equations and pay homage to some treasured hero once in a while.”
Joseph Mansilla, 22, came all the way from Mindanao to claim his award.This English Literature graduate of UP writes for NGOs that focus on peacekeeping and advocacy against election violence in war-torn areas like his Cotabato hometown. His dream is to push for educational reforms and help the youth battle corruption. Joseph says: “All I’ve been getting in school were medals for academic excellence. This award is the ultmate validation that I can write. Now everyone calls me an award-winning writer.”
A poet once said that journalism is literature in a hurry. So to our 10 new writers: Please hurry up.
