REYNALDO DUQUE WRITES 30

The most prolific Ilokano mannurat since the 1970s crossed the Great Divide two or three days ago. Last time we saw him was during a convention of Ilokano writers at a seminary in Quezon City. He was 68. It was a time to die? Fellow mannurat Greg Laconsay and Arturo M. Padua , much older than him, died three or four years earlier. He (Rey) died in the same month Crispina-Balderas Bragado, another mannurat, breathed her last, according to fellow Ilokano writer Prescy N. Bermudez, who took part in the necrological services of Rey in Paranaque last Saturday.
    

We had a brief talk with Rey then. He said he had just been released from a hospital where he had been confined for sometime. The blogger observed that his color had assumed a reddish hue. That was four years ago.
    

Here's the blogger's write-up about Rey at the defunct Philippine Gazette published by my Igorot friend Alan who also died several years ago because of dental problems:  

MANNURAT IN PALANCA HALL OF FAME

     Reynaldo Duque is a native of Bagani Ubbog in Candon City, Ilocos Sur. He is the quintessential "man of letters"-- poet, essayist, novelist, short story writer, playwright, critic, radio scriptwriter and komiks writer.  Also a translator, he writes in three languages: Ilocano, Tagalog and English.

     The editor of the biggest (in circulation) magazine in the country, Rey has beaten the best Tagalog writers in the annual Don Carlos Palanca Awards for Literature. In fact, he has been installed in the illustrious Palanca Hall of fame. This, after his Apong Simon, a story based on the life of Serapio Gambito, one of the three Katipuneros who buried Gregorio del Pilar in Tirad Pass, bagged the gold medal, his sixth first prize, in the 53rd editon of the Award. No other mannurat, not even the late Manuel E. Arguilla or Francisco Arcellana, has achieved such fame. It will take a long time for another Ilocano writer to be cited and included in the exclusive club.
     And no other Ilocano writer has gained financially from his or her writing skills than Rey. In the 1998 Centennial Literary Awards, his epic, "Candon", won the P1-million top prize, the biggest money he has won since joining literary contests. Writing practically everyday, except Sunday, Ray, to date has won 88 awards, 39 of them first prizes and 19 Palanca awards. No mean feat for this prompdi who once enrolled in a pre-law course at the University of Santo Tomas and later at the Manuel L. Quezon University. 
 


Nota Bene: Rey was cremated after lunch on a Saturday, according to fellow Ilokano writer Prescy N. Bermudez who attended Rey's necrological services at a Paranaque Funeral House.