Edith L. Tiempo

Edith L. Tiempo (born April 22, 1919 in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya), poet, fictionist, teacher and literary critic is one of the finest Filipino writers in English whose works are characterized by a remarkable fusion of style and substance, of craftsmanship and insight. Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, "Lament for the Littlest Fellow" and "Bonsai." As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her language has been marked as "descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing." She is an influential tradition in Philippine literature in English. Together with her late husband, writer and critic Edilberto K. Tiempo, they founded (in 1962) and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the Philippines' best writers.

She was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.

Antonio de Morga

Doctor Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay (1559, Seville, Spain—July 21, 1636) was a lawyer and a high-ranking colonial official in the Philippines, New Spain and Peru. He was also a historian. He published the book Sucesos de las islas Filipinas in 1609, one of the most important works on the early history of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. He also led the Spanish in one naval battle against Dutch corsairs in the Philippines, in 1600.

He graduated from the University of Salamanca in 1574 and in 1578 received a doctorate in canon law. He taught briefly in Osuna, and then returned to Salamanca to study civil law. In 1580 he joined the government service. Among other positions in Spain, he held that of auditor general of the galleys.

In 1593 he was sent to Manila as lieutenant governor of the Philippines, the second most powerful position in the colony, after the governor-general. He arrived in Manila on June 11, 1595, from Acapulco, in New Spain. In 1598 he resigned as lieutenant governor to assume the office of oidor, or judge, in the newly re-established Audiencia of Manila.

Morga suffered important failures in both his military and political capacities. The same cannot be said for his work as historian. In 1609, he published the work for which he is now remembered — Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine Isles). This work, perhaps the best account of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines written during that period, is based partly on documentary research, partly on keen observation, and partly on Morga's personal involvement and knowledge.

Lucio D. San Pedro

Lucio San Pedro (1913-2002) was born on February 11, 1913 in Angono, Rizal, the Philippines. He was a composer and teacher in the Philippines. San Pedro, known in his home country as the composer of the popular lullaby Sa Ugoy ng Duyan (in collaboration with Levi Celerio) and the symphonic poem Lahing Kayumanggi, taught composition at a number of colleges and universities, including the University of the Philippines College of Music, where he served as Chairman of its Composition and Conducting Department from 1970 to 1973.

On May 9, 1991, President Corazon C. Aquino proclaimed Lucio D. San Pedro a National Artist of the Philippines for Music.

He died of cardiac arrest on March 31, 2002 at the age of 89. A number of national artists attended his tribute at the Tanghalang Pambansa, including: Napoleon Abueva, Daisy Avellana, Leonor Gokingco, Nick Joaquin, Arturo Luz, Jose Maceda, and Andrea Veneracion. He is buried in his hometown of Angono, Rizal.

San Pedro came from a family with musical roots and he began his career early. When he was still in his late teens, he became a church organist, taking over the job after the death of his grandfather. By then, he had already composed songs, hymns and two complete Masses for voices and orchestra. After studying with several prominent musicians in the Philippines, San Pedro took advanced composition training with Bernard Wagenaar of the Netherlands. He also studied harmony and orchestration under Vittorio Giannini and took classes at Juilliard in 1947.

Kristian S. Cordero

Kristian Sendon Cordero (b. April, 1983 in Iriga City, Philippines) is Bikol’s youngest and most awarded creative writer in the region today. At an early age, Cordero has already carved his rightful place in the annals of Bikol’s growing literary tradition. writing fellow to two national workshops in 2003 (University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University) his literary works in three languages have received both local and national awards: three-time winner, HomeLife National Poetry Competition (second place 1999, 2005 and grand prize winner for 2004), grand prize winner for poetry in 2004 Premio Tomas Arejola Para Sa Literaturang Bikolnon, Sumagang Awards for Bikol Poetry and Campus Journalism (2003, Local Government of Iriga City), Outstanding Alumnus for Literature (2007, University of Saint Anthony, Iriga City), Melchor Villanueva Centennial Awards for Literature (2007, Naga College Foundation), and recently the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (2006, second prize, short fiction in Filipino) and the Madrigal Gonzales Best First Book Award for his first poetry collection Mga Tulang Tulala: Piling Tula sa Filipino, Bikol at Rinconada (Goldprint Publishing House, 2004, 2007).

Cordero’s literary works, book reviews and feature articles have appeared in various local and national newspapers, university referred literary journals, and avant-garde mediums. His poems are now subject for critical analysis and thesis dissertations in various universities in the region. Respected literary historians, critics and senior writers in the country are all in agreement of Cordero’s important contribution to contemporary Philippine writings.

Edgardo B. Maranan

EDGARDO B. MARANAN, Filipino writer, was born in Bauan, Batangas and grew up in Baguio City, Philippines. He is a poet, essayist, fictionist, playwright, writer of children’s stories, and translator. He was the Philippine fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 1985, National Fellow for Poetry of the UP Creative Writing Center in 1988, participant in the International Writers Residence at Lavigny, Switzerland in 2006, and delegate/panelist at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia in 2007. At the age of 16, while a senior at St. Louis College high school in Baguio, he topped a national essay competition and won the right to represent the Philippines at the 1963 New York Herald Tribune World Youth Forum.

Bookmark Inc. of Manila has published some of his prize-winning children’s stories, together with their English versions written by the author himself: Ang Batang Nanaginip na Siya'y Nakalilipad and The Girl Who Dreamt She Could Fly; Ang Awit ni Pulaw and The Song of Pulaw; and Si Sabel, si Sabiong Lumba-lumba, at ang Hiwaga sa Laot and The Jinx, the Dolphin, and the Deep-Sea Mystery. His latest collection of mostly prize-winning poems, Passage: poems 1983-2006, also came out in 2007 under the Bookmark imprint. His other published works include Kudaman: Isang Epikong Palawan na Inawit ni Usuy (with Dr. Nicole Revel McDonald, published by Ateneo University Press), a translation into Filipino of a major Palawan epic, which won a National Book Award citation in 1992; Alab: mga tula and Agon: poems (University of the Philippines Press, 1982), and various short fiction, essays, children's stories, and translations appearing in journals, magazines, anthologies, as well as Philippine references and textbooks.

Back in his homeland after years of experiencing first hand the Filipino diaspora, he now makes a living as a freelance writer, and is an active member of the Baguio Writers Group. (Other literary bylines: Edgar B. Maranan, Ed Maranan, E.B. Maranan)