THREE ATENEANS once again brought recognition to the Ateneo by winning in the 60th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

Senior Jay Crisostomo IV won first place in the full-length play category with his piece entitled God of the Machine. Rafael Antonio San Diego (AB Lit-Eng ’05) meanwhile won second place in the Poetry in English category with his compilation of poems entitled “Name in Reverse.”

Apart from the two, Anton Raphael Cabalza, a Grade 7 student from the Ateneo Grade School also won second place in the Kabataan Essay category with his piece “A Shot at Perfection.”

The Palanca Awards is the Philippines’ most enduring literary awards. “[The] Palanca is a really prestigious award giving body. And I think it is the benchmark for a writer to reach this level,” said School of Humanities Dean Ma. Luz Vilches.

The awarding ceremony was held last September 1 at The Manila Peninsula.

Writer’s block no more

For his submission to the full-length category, Crisostomo submitted a two-act play; the first act is about a writer who creates a muse named Gomorrah whom he falls in love with.

“Since this [love for his muse] is not possible, he decided to create a character of himself and named him Gabriel, the writer’s persona in the story,” he said. “[But] the writer became jealous of Gabriel that he [created] ways to put Gomorrah and Gabriel apart and in the end kill Gabriel.”

He added there are also three other characters in his play such as a waitress, a guard and a little girl selling flowers, which the writer interacts with and includes in his story.

Act 2 is about the same writer chained to his table. “He meets the distorted version of the three characters in Act 1. Gabriel is brought back to life using the deus ex machine. And in the end, the writer kills himself because he can never truly get the love of Gomorrah,” said Crisostomo.

Originally a thesis project, Crisostomo said he revised some parts before he entered it to the competition. “When I entered my piece to the Palanca, I was not expecting anything [because] from what I know the pieces that have won in the [past] more or less has national context to it, but mine was a personal story.”

“I was really happy [that I won because] this is my first time to win a Palanca Award, but I did receive an LS award before.”

“In reality I am more of a director than a writer, this is my first time to write something like this, so I am really happy with the recognition,” he added.

Crisostomo is currently directing a play entitled Prospero for a high school theater org in Ateneo.

Modern world complexities

On the other hand, San Diego’s collection of fifteen poems is about the self dealing with the complexities of the modern world.

“[It is] about traditions and ideas handed down to us which we just accepted and never thought about. It’s about struggling to see my country in myself,” said San Diego.

He said he had many reasons why he created this compilation of poems, but one of which was simply because he wanted to write.

“By the time the call for submissions began I had written 15 poems that I thought would be a good collection so I entered it into the Palanca…I was reluctant at first, until I realized I had nothing to lose,” he said.

Similar to Crisostomo, this was also San Diego’s first time to win a Palanca.

“This is kind of a big deal to me. It makes me feel confident and proud that I can do something good with my intelligence,” he said.

“I’ve always been an underachiever, so to me, this is one big step…towards making me more mature in the way I perceive personal growth.”

As a businessman, San Diego is currently helping run his family-owned construction and real estate company. However, this does not mean that he will stop writing. “As John Lennon said, ‘life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’ So, I’m just going to play it by ear and see where the road takes me,” he said.

Road to creativity

All Ateneans can aspire to be like Crisostomo, San Diego, and Cabalza. Vilches added that Ateneo offers avenues to enhance one’s creativity.

“We are offering creative writing courses to all the students; they can take it as their free elective,” she said.

“Here in the school we do not discriminate students who wish to come to learn about the arts. I believe every Atenean is creative. It’s just that others are more attuned to their creativity, while others still need more development,” added Vilches.

To aspiring writers, San Diego said, “Believe in your own genius. Read a lot of books. And say no to drugs.”