CCP's literary arts division honored

MANILA, Philippines - The literary arts division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) received the Gawad Dangal ng Wikang Filipino in ceremonies recently held at the Century Park Hotel in Malate, Manila. The award was given by the Commission of the Filipino Language in celebration of the Month of Language.

Headed by Herminio Beltran, Jr., the CCP Literary Art Division was cited for its vigorous development of Filipino literature such as establishing a Coordinating Center for Literature of the CCP, publishing literary works such as ANI and other books, and conducting literary studies.

Likewise, the Division was acknowledged for promoting Filipino language and culture through competitions in the writing of poetry, short stories, drama and libretto in Filipino, creative writing (Likhang Paslit), literary performance and writing competitions for children (Bata-Batute), poetry reading (Parnasong Pilipino and Tanghal-tula), creative expession (Batang Sining), storytelling using children’s books (Boses Bata). The Division aims to democratize writing as a means of creative expression, which focuses not only on writing, but also in performance rooted in native tradition, such as debates in verse like the balagtasan (Ilokano), recitation of poetry such as the siday and ismayling (Waray), duplo (Tagalog), arikenken and dallot (Ilokano), and binalaybay (Hiligaynon, Cebuano), epics in pres-Hispanic languages, the coronation poems, as well as the song lyrics or narrative.