LAGLAGIP

from my album

Cigarette-smoking Blas Ople, then Labor Minister, was the guest of honor and speaker, his booming voice exhorted the writers. The young and sultry Imelda Papin was the guest singer and her husky voice, capturing the anxiety and loneliness of unrequited love, filled the office of Focus Magazine in Port Area, Manila.

It was in the evening of January 13, 1979. The cold wind from the bay wafted through the windows.It was the magazine's Sixth Annual Literary Award honoring the year's outstanding writers in poetry, essay and fiction. The winning writers included Peter La. Julian, Prescy Supnet from Narvacan, Ilocos Sur; Sammy Sta. Maria, Benjamin Afuang, Joel de los Reyes, Romeo Navarro, Enrico Enerio, Maximo Ramos, then former dean of a college in the University of the East; and Wilfredo L. Aberca.

Prescy, then 17-year old wisp of a girl, is now Chancellor of the University of the Philippines in Baguio. She won in the essay category; this mannurat, in poetry, with his Today Arrives the News of Dolorosa Dans, which was about the fall of a demi-god in the government bureaucracy. (the girl in the far left beside PLJ in the colored photo) of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, -.
Also present during the award rites were Minister Jaime Laya and a Budget Minister, I can not as yet recall the first and last name and the late Kerima Polotan, then editor of the magazine and one of the country's better essayists. Kerima's husband, Juan Tuvera, a senior journalist from San Esteban, Ilocos Sur, and a government propagandist.

The decade was ending, and Ferdinand Marcos' martial law regime was in its 8th year.

Years later in February 2010, I met Priscilla, a Ph.D holder, for the second time. It was during a Panagbenga Poetry Reading at the Audio-Visual room of UP Baguio's College of Languages, Arts and Communication, where I read Daldalliasat in Iluko and partly in its English version. It was as if that affair in Manila happened yesterday. But we have grown old and still slim, only a few pounds added to our weight since 1979.

Photo captions: a page from the Focus magazine; PLJ poses with the late Kerima Polotan (black and white photo)
The 4 of my 5-man staff of the Department of Public Information provincial office in Ilocos Sur: Elmer Peredo, Ben Pacris, Orlando Pedro (my driver and photographer) and PLJ.

to be continued