Brunio Joshua Bacomo

Region 4A - Philippines
Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Rizal

1. Nestor Vicente Madali González - born on 8 September 1915 in Romblon,

Philippines. González, however, was raised in Mansalay, a southern town of the
Philippine province of Oriental Mindoro. González was a son of a school supervisor
and a teacher. González attended college at National University (Manila) but he was
unable to finish his undergraduate degree. While in Manila, González wrote for the
Philippine Graphic and later edited for the Evening News Magazine and Manila
Chronicle. His first published essay appeared in the Philippine Graphic and his
first poem in Poetry in 1934.

2. Jose P. Rizal - a filipino nationalist writer and a reformist. He is

widely considered the greatest national hero of the Philippines. He was the author
of Noli Me Tángere, El Filibusterismo and a number of poems and essays. He was
executed on December 30, 1896. Jose Rizal wrote mostly in Spanish, the then lingua
franca of scholars, though some of his letters (for example Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga
Malolos) were written in Tagalog. His works has since been translated into a number
of languages including Tagalog and English.

3. Bayani Abadilla - To his colleagues, Bayani Abadilla or Ka Bay is the

hero of the Filipino people because he was not a simple teacher, poet and
journalist; he also went underground to fight Marcos dictatorship and later on
became a fighter in the cultural sphere. Until his last breath, he served as the
associate of the Pinoy Weekly, a progressive weekly newspaper, to wave his struggle
for national freedom and genuine democracy. Together with Bienvenido Lumbera,
Abadilla worked in Panulat para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan or PAKSA which was
formed in 1971. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) and
the organizer for the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) IN 1970. He was persistent in
removing imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism in the country. 

Region 4B - Philippines
Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro and Palawan

1. Paz Latorena - Born on Jan. 17, 1908 in Boac, Marinduque. She was the
oldest
among the ten children of Magda Manguera and Ricardo Latorena She finished basic
schooling at St. Scholastica's College in Manila and the Manila South High School
(as the Araullo High School). In 1926, she took up Education at the University of
the Philippines (UP) in Manila where she also attended a short story writing class
under Paz Márquez-Benitez. In 1927, Latorena received an invitation from Benitez to
write a column for the Philippines Herald Magazine, of which Benitez was the
literary editor. That same year, Latorena, along with other campus writers, founded
the UP Writers' Club. The Literary Apprentice, the UP Writers' Club's publication,
then ran a short story by Latorena titled "A Christmas Tale." Latorena also wrote
poetry under the pseudonym, Mina Lys, which, according to Tanlayco, had a "romantic
significance," for the then young writer. Before the year ended, she won the third
prize in Jose Garcia Villa's Roll of Honor for the Best Stories of 1927 for her
story, "The Small Key."

2. Ricardo Vidal - Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, Archbishop emeritus of Cebu

(Philippines), was born on February 6, 1931 in Mogpog, Marinduque. He did his
studies at the minor seminary of the Most Holy Rosary and at the seminary of San
Carlo. He was ordained on March 17, 1956. The bishop of Lucena entrusted him as
spiritual director of the local seminary of Mount Carmel. On April 13, 1981, he was
named Coadjutor with the right of succession to the Archbishop of Cebu. He was
named Archbishop on August 24, 1982. Ricardo Vidal also served as president of the
Bishops' Commission for vocations within the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the
Philippines. On April 2005, he participated at the conclave which elected Pope
Benedict XVI.

3. Kanakan Balintagos - Aureus Solito, also known as Kanakan-Balintagos,

is a Palawan-Filipino author and film maker and an indigenous peoples rights
advocate who comes from a lineage of shaman-kings from the Palawan Tribe. He was
the one of the first to be born outside of his tribal land of South Palawan. He was
born in the city of Manila and, after graduating from the Philippine Science High
School, studied theater at the University of the Philippines, where he received a
degree in Theater Arts.