TOP BLOGGER AND BOOK AUTHOR ILOKANO WRITING AWARDEE

San Fernando City-Herdy La. Yumul, author of the best-selling book, "The Herd Mentality," and one the country's top bloggers, led winners of the annual Iluko Feature Writing Contest in receiving their cash prizes during the awarding program at the Convention Hall of the Philippine Ports Authority here. A total of P20,000 in cash was given personally by Lady Fele Mann, a Filipina civic leader in Darwin, Australia, sponsor of the contest administered by the Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, the country's most prestigious writing Ilokano group. The winners included Nhia Paddayuman, a wheel-chair- bound young writer from Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela. Yumul, an instructor of the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City, who writes mostly in English, said it was the first time he won a writing contest in his language. The winning entries will be published in Timpuyog Journal, an Iluko-English magazine of TMIF.