Region iv-b

Mimaropa
 MIMAROPA
-Officially known as the Southwestern
Tagalog Region

-Located at the heart of the archipelago

and is dubbed as the “Treasure Trove of
Southern Luzon”
-Also known as Region IV-B, is a region of
the Philippines located in Luzon. The name
is an acronym that stands for the
provinces, comprising the region, namely:
Occidental Mindoro
Oriental Mindoro
Marinduque
Romblon
Palawan

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Famous Authors in the
MIMAROPA Region

Jose Dalisay Jr. – Romblon

NVM Gonzalez – Romblon
Paz Latorena – Marinduque
Lav Diaz – Cotabato
Yam Laranas – Davao
Pete Lacaba – Davao

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Pen Name: Butch Dalisay
-Born on January 15, 1954 Romblon, Philippines. He has
won numerous awards and prizes for fiction, poetry, Jose Dalisay Jr.
drama, non-fiction and screenwriting, including 16
Palanca Awards.
He completed his primary education at La Salle Green
Hills, Philippines in 1966 and his secondary education at
the Philippine Science High School in 1970. He dropped
out of college to work as a newspaper reporter. He also
wrote scripts mostly for Lino Brocka, the National Artist
of the Philippines for Theater and Film. Dalisay returned
to school and earned his B.A. English (Imaginative
Writing) degree, cum laude from the University of the
Philippines in 1984. He later received an M.F.A. from the
University of Michigan in 1988 and a PhD in English from
the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1991 as a
Fulbright scholar.
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He has authored more than 30 books since 1984. Six of those books
have garnered National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle. In
1998, Dalisay made it to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)
Centennial Honors List as one of the 100 most accomplished Filipino
artists of the past century. These are his Notable works:
Novels
-Killing Time in a Warm Place, 1992
-Soledad's Sister, 2008
-"Soledad: Rocambolesco Romanzo Filippino" (Italian edition), 2009
-"In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines" (a combined US edition),
2011
-La Soeur de Soledad," (French edition), 2013

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Plays
-Madilim ang Gabi sa Laot at Iba Pang Mga Dula ng Ligaw na Pag-Ibig, 1993
-Pagsabog ng Liwanag/Aninag, Anino, 1996
-Ang Butihing Babae ng Timog/Mac Malicsi, TNT, 1997
Screenplays
-Tayong Dalawa, 1994
-Miguelito, 1995
-Saranggola, 1999
Nonfiction
-The Best of Barfly, 1997
-The Lavas: A Filipino Family, 1999
-Man Overboard, 2005
-"Power from the Deep: The Malampaya Story", 2005
-"Unleashing the Power of Steam: The PNOC-EDC Story", 2006
-"Portraits of a Tangled Relationship: The Philippines and the United States" (with Jose Ma. Cariño et al.),
2008

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-"Wash: Only a Bookkeeper", 2009
-"The Voices of the Mountain: The People of Mt. Apo Speak", 2009
-"Decade of Reform, Decade of Innovation: The GSIS Under PGM Winston Garcia, 2001–2010", 2010
-"Builder of Bridges: The Rudy Cuenca Story," 2010

Other books
-Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, 1998
-The Filipino Flag, 2004
-"Selected Stories," 2005
-Journeys with Light: The Vision of Jaime Zobel, 2005
-"The Knowing is in the Writing: Notes on the Practice of Fiction," The UP Press, 2006
-"Pinoy Septych and Other Poems," UST Publishing House, 2011

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 ‘’There were about eight of them; my father woke me up as gently as he could,
and I found myself staring into the barrel of a carbine. I was being arrested,
they said, for violation of the anti-subversion law. I thought they were
exaggerating; I wrote manifestos and such, and I was 18; I was a flea.

‘’A few days later we were trucked off to a new “detention” site — the Ipil-
Rehabilitation Center in Fort Bonifacio… We sat on benches in the evening and
watched the Marlboro sign in the Guadalupe skyline. Sometimes, it almost
seemed serene. There was terror roaming about the country, and it would
reach us with every new incoming batch, and now and then someone would
get picked on by the guards and beaten up…

‘’Most of us would eventually be released under one amnesty or other. My

Killing Time in a own deliverance walked straight out of Kafka: one day in August, an officer
Warm Place arrived with a sheaf of papers, among which were mine. I was taking a
shower when I heard my name being called over the PA system: “Dalisay, to
By the guardhouse!” The news, at the guardhouse, was always either very good
Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. or very bad. The officer looked at me and said: “Dalisay, are you still here?
We have nothing on you. Pack your bags and go home.” I had been in prison
for most of 1973 — seven months and four days — not bad, by martial-law
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standards.
Plot
The novel tells the story of every man, woman and child who lived during the time of martial law under
Marcos’ orders. The internal conflict of every Filipino during these times, whose blood boils at being
under the martial rule: voices suppressed, souls enchained and spirits crushed; and the human desire
to stay alive, thus; silencing the inner cries that long to be heard and simply learning to survive.
Overview
The story starts with the protagonist, Noel Bulaong, reminiscing about his childhood days in his native
land in Kangleong, somewhere in the Visayas region. He is on a flight going home from the US to bury
his father. He reminisces about how he and his friends would pick up coconuts that fell from the tree
and take these to a neighbor who would turn these into coconut candies: bucayo.
Fast-forward to college life in Manila where Noel decided to study. By his 2nd year in school, Noel was
already among the students staging protests against the Marcos government and his martial law. This
was introduced in the book via a protest being dispersed by the military,

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“In my second year of college, I ran across that field in a blind panic, hurried along by gunfire. The
university was under siege by the military; we had set up barricades of commandeered tables, benches
and chairs near the spot from where I had admired the study horses. We camped behind this makeshift
wall, students and professors alike, listening to speeches and singing revolutionary songs. Our bones
were cold, but our breath was warm. People talked of France and China and Vietnam. On the other
side of the barricades stood Marcos’ assembled legions: truncheon-wielding riot police in khakis and
cobalt-blue helmets, the army in fatigues, riding armored jeeps. All through the morning emissaries
had crossed over from one side to the other.
Having survived this attack, Noel and his comrades settled in an apartment where they talked about
the movement while in hiding. Noel by this time has decided to quit school. Talk of childhood days in
their respective homes, family anecdotes and planning for counter-attacks took up most of Noel’s
days, Fast-forward again to the future where Noel now serves as assistant to the Deputy Minister and
writes his speeches, among other things. He has decided to leave the movement after being released
from prison. He has lost contact with his other comrades.
Laurie, a former comrade in their apartment-hidden days ran into Noel one day and she has likewise
decided to leave the movement. Perhaps both feeling misplaced, and disoriented, wanting to connect
with each other in a way that would touch the persons that they used to be, Noel and Laurie made
love.

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But nothing came of this. They both decided it was too much too handle… too overwhelming
an emotion that they wouldn’t be able to cope. They once again lost touch and last Noel
heard, Laurie had gone back to the movement and is hiding in the mountains.
Their leader during their student-activist days, Benny, was also imprisoned and after pulling
some strings, Noel managed to have Benny released. A few days later, Benny was found dead,
floating in the river, eyes gouged out and signs of torture were evident. He was killed for being
a traitor.
As the novel nears its end, Noel is depicted as a somewhat still misplaced soul, crying to be
free from the restraints that society has enchained him with; and yet torn inside because he
wants to remain alive. Alone, orphaned with the death of his father, orphaned with the burial
of his beliefs and true self in order to survive, Noel ends his story on this note:
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

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