PIA staff bags first place in 2012 Waray Poetry contest

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
September 17, 2012

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Mr. Leonilo D. Lopido, a young staff of the Philippine Information Agency Regional Office in Eastern Visayas, won the top prize in the Pasidungog Eduardo Makabenta Sr. Para Han Siday or Eduardo Makabenta Sr. Literary Award for Poetry, in English.

This was announced recently by the National Commission for Culture and Arts in cooperation with the Leyte Normal University.

Among other responsibilities, Lopido is the Waray editor of the PIA. His compilation of poetry to the contest includes the poems Ha Langyaw (In foreign land), Paglanat (Pursue), Mga Pakiana (Questions), Huna-Huna (Reflection) and Pagsapi-i (Possession).

The other winners are Ma. Evangelina Lumen-Pundavela from La Paz, Leyte (second prize), and Jhonil C. Bajado from Maydolong, Eastern Samar (third prize).

As the first place winner, Lopido will receive a plaque of recognition and a cash prize of P15,000. The second and third place winners will receive plaques of recognition and cash prize of P10,000 and P5,000, respectively.

This year’s judges were Prof. Merlie Alunan, Dr. David Genotiva and Mr. Dante Rosales.

The “Pasidungog” which is now on its third year, honors the memory of the late Eduardo Makabenta Sr., a renowned Waray poet who also translated Rizal’s two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, into the Waray dialect. Makabenta also published the first Waray-English Dictionary. He was born on October 13, 1885 in Carigara, Leyte. He died in 1973.
 

The awarding ceremony, according to Mr. Voltaire Oyzon, Pasidungog Eduardo Makabenta Sr. Para Han Siday Coordinator, will be on October 13, 2012 at about 6:00 o’clock in the evening at the HRDC, Alba Hall of the Leyte Normal University.