Our kumpadre, Juan S. P Hidalgo, Jr., the Ilocano writing icon, has dubbed her "superwoman" for so many reasons: writer, teacher, activist fighting for the rights of women in her native Abra, farmer, government agency head.
Maritess Benas, Philippine Information Agency chief in the province is one of the better Abra writers that include New Guinea-based Julio Belmes, Chit Quintero, Nid Anima, not Abra- born, but his mother was Abrena; Hermilinda Lingbaoan, Esmenio Galera, the late Ilokano mannaniw (poet) Donato Abanilla, another activist during the Marcos years and believed to have been killed by government agents.
Tess, a Ph.D holder, is my favorite ading.
With her academic degree and leadership skills, Tess is very much qualified to head the PIA regional office in Baguio.
The blogger was the PIA Infocenter Manager in Baguio when Chuck Leung took over as PIA Cordillera chief after the Department of Public Information was "demoted" to an agency when Cory Aquino became president. DPI , it was thought by the new government, was a propaganda arm of Ferdinand Marcos. As a former staffer of the department/agency, we were only concerned in giving information about government programs for the people. We did these activities through media--print and broadcast--and the so-called interpersonal communication, where we mobilized public and private agencies and went to economically-depressed areas, bringing medical and dental services, and information to the people.
The project was implemented in the famous "information caravans. " One town we went was Ampusongan in Benguet, where we spent the night along with some soldiers that provided security to members of the participating agencies.
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