T. GABRIEL TUGADE

The first research-based Ilokano novel

Terry Gabriel Tugade, originally from Marcos, Ilocos Norte, was one of the Coromina boys, a group of young Ilokano writers who rented the upper room of a rundown house along Coromina street in Quiapo, and made writing for the Bannawag a sort of livelihood to keep "body and soul" together in Manila. The group included Lorenzo G. Tabin and his brother Herman, Prescy N. Bermudez, Genaro Sumaoang, Jaime Luzano, now the famous broadcaster Lolo Doro of Bombo Radyo Baguio) ;Benjamin Chua, Constante Domingo, and Peter La. Julian. They were the most productive mannurat in their time, churning out novels, short stories, poems, features in that room with a view of other rooms in the neighborhood, as they pecked away the night in their typewriters. Terry, now US-based like Tante, Loring, Herman and Ben, authored "Puraw a Balitok", a story of an Ilokano adventurer in the wilds of Alaska, the first research-based Ilokano novel. Terry is the founding father of TMI-Globl of which Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas is a member.