Palanca Awardees in the Period of Activism Philippine Literature Subject Presenter: Art Christian V. Dimla Featuring: The Batik Maker of Virginia Moreno Pangasinan State University Bayambang Campus Bayambang, Pangasinan

1. PALANCA AWARDEES
PERIOD OF ACTIVISM
Art Christian V. Dimla
BEE II-2
PSU Bayambang

2. PALANCA MEMORIAL AWARDS
FOR LITERATURE
It was established in 1950 and had giving cash prizes for short
story, poetry, and (one-act) play writing as an incentive for
Filipino writers.
LA TONDENA INC. – this is where the prizes in the awards came
from. This firm was founded by the late Carlos Palanca Sr.

3. PALANCA AWARDEES
(1970-71)
Short Story
 1st Prize – “The Ritual” by Cirilo F. Bautista
 2nd Prize – “Beast in the Fields” by Resil Mojares
 3rd Prize – “Children of the City” by Amadis Ma. Guerrero
Poetry
 1st Prize – “The Archipelago” by Cirilo F. Bautista
 2nd Prize – “Five Poems” by Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez
 3rd Prize – “From Mactan to Mendiola” by Frederico Licsi Espino Jr.

4. PALANCA AWARDEES
(1970-71)
One-act Play
 1st Prize – “The Grotesque among Us ” by Maiden Flores

5. PALANCA AWARDEES
(1971-72)
Short Story
 1st Prize – “The Tomato Game” by N.V.M. Gonzales
 2nd Prize – “The Apollo Centennial” by Gregorio C. Brillantes
 3rd Prize – “After this, Our Exile” by Elsa Martinez Coscolluela
Poetry
 1st Prize – “Batik Maker and Other Poems” by Virginia R. Moreno
 2nd Prize – “The Edge of the Wind” by Artemio Tadena
 3rd Prize – “Tinikling (A Sheaf of Poems)” by Frederico Licsi Espino Jr.

6. PALANCA AWARDEES
(1971-72)
One-act Play
1st Prize – “Grave for Blue Flower” by Jesus T. Peralta
2nd Prize – “The Undiscovered Country” by Manuel M. Martell
3rd Prize – “The Boxes” by Rolando S. Tinio
- “Now is the Time for All Good Men to Come to the Aid of Their
Country” by Julian E. Dacanay
- “The Renegade” by Elsa Martinez Coscolluela

7. VIRGINIA MORENO
Tough and tender poets have installed Virginia R. Moreno as Philippine poetry’s high priestess. Batik
Maker and Other Poems is her sole and much-coveted book of poems. Of the 13 handcrafted copies
made for its 1975 CCP-launching, 5 vanished altogether, spirited away by those possessed by its lush
dreamwork and haunting strains.
Bookmaker Hilario S. Francia meticulously crafted and stitched each copy of the book. Moreno
herself chose the batik-cloth cover, in the famous broken-sword motif of Javanese royalty, and flew it
in from Jakarta. Her brother, Jose Moreno, supplied the Kyoto ricepaper for its pages, bought from
one of his Osaka sojourns. Lucrecia Kasilag deployed her gamelan orchestra for the occasion. Vic
Silayan and Lolita Rodriguez, along with Moreno’s diplomat friends, recited the poems in three
languages—in the lyrical English master text, in the elegant French translation, and in Larry Francia’s
masterful Filipino.
In 2004, Virginia Moreno allowed the Ateneo library to craft the copy on display, a meticulous
reproduction of the original—on the occasion of ALIWW’s anniversary tribute for Moreno’s lifetime
work in poetry, theater, and the art of cinema.

8. Tissue of no seam and skin
Of no scale she weaves this:
Dream of a huntsman pale
That in his antlered
Mangrove waits
Ensnared;
And I cannot touch him.

9. Lengths of the dumb and widths
Of the deaf are his hair
Where wild orchids thumb
Or his parted throat surprise
To elegiac screaming
Only birds of
Paradise:
And I cannot wake him.

10. Shades of the light and shapes
Of the rain on his palanquin
Stain what phantom panther
Sleeps in the cage of
His skin and immobile
Hands;
And I cannot bury him.

11. THANKS FOR COOPERATING!