NCCA holds Taboan Satellite Project in MSU-IIT

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – The National Commission for Culture and the Arts’s (NCCA) National Commission for Literary Arts, the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM), and the Mindanao Creative Writers Group, Inc.,  organized the writers’ festival entitled, “Halad 3: Passing on the Fire” which is a first Taboan satellite project for Northern Mindanao joined by 12 emerging writers, at the IPDM Building in Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology last February 25.

The project is in line with the celebration of the Philippine Arts Festival (PAF) as part of the National Arts Month (NAM) where ten (10) poems and two (2) short stories written in English, Filipino, Higaonon, or Cebuano.

The fellows for the event are: MSU-IIT students Earvin Borromeo (2^nd Year BS Physics), Johanne Roise Clavano (2^nd year BS Psychology), Tzaddi Esguerra (BS Business Administration) Merbhen Ganzon (1^st Year BS Psychology), Ladylyn Rehas Llames (AB Filipino), Angelito Nambatac, Jr. (3^rd Year AB English), Johnrey Ortiz (2^nd Year AB English), Floraime Pantaleta (2^nd Year AB English), Romnick Tahud (AB Filipino), a Central Mindanao University’s AB English student Shem Linohon, and MSU-Main law student JR Lopez Gonzales.

The 'roasters': Prof. German Gervacio, Dr. Christine Godinez-Ortega, and Dr. Anthony L. Tan.

The panel members for the said beginner writers workshop included MSU-IIT-based writers German V. Gervacio, Dr. Christine F. Godinez-Ortega , and Dr. Anthony L. Tan. Professor Gervacio is a three-time Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awardee and one of the first fellows to the Iligan National Writers Workshop in 1993. Doctor Ortega is a poet, journalist, cultural worker, and the National Committee on Literary ArtsVice Head and Festival Director. Doctor Tan, on the other hand, is an award-winning poet who also won the Palanca Awards for poetry and essay. Also, English Professor Sittie Noffaisah B. Pasandalan of the IPDM served as the presenter for the event.

The Taboan festival (“taboan” is a Visayan word for “market”) is held every year since 2009, where writers, readers, scholars, researchers, and lovers of Filipino literature exchange ideas on culture, history and the literary arts. A literary reading of local literary art was also held a day after the writing workshop at the MSU-IIT Mini-Theater.