This is an expanded version of my acknowledgment speech at the Outstanding Dumagueteño Awards, given on June 28 at Brooke’s Place in Batinguel, Dumaguete.
To be invited to speak on behalf of the honorees in the Artists & Entertainers category of the Outstanding Dumagueteño Awards feels like standing at the threshold of history and memory.
And it feels both so fitting and intimidating, perhaps simply because I know these people throughout my whole career as a cultural worker, and have championed many of their works. These are people I have worked with, admired, written about, or simply held in reverence.
The theatre artist Evelyn Rose Aldecoa who directed me in three unforgettable plays, taught me the rhythms of performance and community.
The poet Merlie Alunan is one of my literary mentors, and continues to guide me in collecting the folk literature of our Province, helping us hold onto the fragile strands of our cultural memory.
When I found the films of screenwriter and film director Cesar Jalandoni Amigo, who died in 1987, I tried to give them light again in articles I have written about him, and in screenings I try to do of his films, knowing that every frame of his cinema was a testament to his quiet genius.
The visual artist Hersley-Ven Casero is my most frequent collaborator. He has done the illustrations of most of my books, and I actually curated his first solo exhibit more than a decade ago. I am always drawn to the artistry he creates with his lens, which has chronicled the beauty and everyday wonders of our City, and I see as an artist who sees the world in textures we often miss.
I spent some time with the filmmaker Eddie Romero before he died in 2013. His stories for me moved beyond the screen into the national consciousness, and one of the highlights of my cultural work last year was curating the exhibit dedicated to his life and works at the National Museum of the Philippines in Dumaguete.
Edith Lopez Tiempo—Mom Edith—whose wisdom and grace launched countless literary careers, including my own, is the light we continue to follow.
I do not know Boboy Garovillo personally—but I feel like I do, given that almost all of us here have grown up with the songs of APO Hiking Society, their music inscribed in our hearts, and has become our very definition of the best of OPM. That I have been chosen to be in their ranks humbles me because I am first and foremost a rabid admirer of their creative life, and a champion of their works.
You will notice that among all the categories in the current iteration of the Outstanding Dumagueteño Awards, our category has the biggest number of honorees.
This underlines what for me is the biggest and often- unacknowledged truth about Dumaguete: that it is, in fact, a City of the Arts & Culture—and every means should be done by our local government unit to highlight that truth, through education, through tourism, through policy.
In the first iteration of this award in 1998, only one artist was actually honored: Canuto Villariza, a musician and songwriter who brought us Dumaguete [Do You Hear Me Calling?
Today, more than 25 years later, Dumaguete has honored eight individuals—and among us we have two National Artists, in fact! We need to embrace this, and nurture a city that is friendly to its artists.
I do hope that the Outstanding Dumagueteño Awards will become an annual honor because we have so many artists and cultural workers who deserve this distinction. Francisco Sevilla Banogon, Rene Armogenia, and Dean Sinco for architecture and interior design. Cornelito Aro, Kitty Taniguchi, Jose Laspiñas, Paul Pfeiffer, Maria Taniguchi, and Muffet Dolar-Villegas for visual arts. Luis Sinco for photography. Artemio Tadena, Cesar Ruiz Aquino, Myrna Peña Reyes, Edilberto Tiempo, Rowena Tiempo-Torrevillas, Bobby Flores Villasis, Elsa Martinez Coscolluela, Lakambini Sitoy, and Eva Rose Washburn-Repollo for literature. Priscilla Magdamo-Abraham, Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez Emmanuel B. Gregorio, Jay Cyrus Villanueva, and Enchi for music. Junix Inocian and Andy Bais for theatre. Lucy Jumawan-Sauer for dance. Dennis Trillo and Glydel Mercado for film. Tingting Delfin, Isabel “Boom” Roxas, Jeanne Ong, Digna Coo, Fred Quimat, Amir Sali, Alexis Monsanto, and Rajo Laurel for fashion design. And these are only just a few that I can remember.
We speak often of progress in terms of roads and buildings and markets. But true progress lies also in the art we create, in the songs we write, in the stories we tell each other when the lights go down, and we gather in darkened theaters to remember that we are human.
It is in these moments that we learn empathy, find courage, discover ourselves anew. The arts are not a luxury but a lifeline. They keep the soul of a community alive.
I hope this awards tradition continues, and that every year we pause to remember the artists and cultural workers who labor often in silence, sometimes in obscurity, to bring beauty into our lives. Their work is the work of spirit, of heart, of community.
Some might ask: why honor the arts when the world is beset with crisis? Why spend time celebrating when we are surrounded by hardship?
The answer is simple. Art is our response to darkness, our stubborn refusal to give in to despair. It reminds us of the beauty still possible. It gives voice to the voiceless, gives shape to the dreams we hold close at night, lets us imagine a better world.
And we gather not just to give medals but to affirm our collective belief that culture matters, that artists matter, that our stories matter.
On behalf of my fellow honorees, thank you for this recognition. We dedicate it back to the community that made us, to Dumaguete whose gentle spirit continues to nurture our own. May we all continue to live a life of culture, because in the end, it is the only life truly worth living.
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Author’s email: icasocot@gmail.com
