Palanca winners’ role in the age of fake news: write for the truth
By Nickky F. P. de Guzman, Reporter
ONE OF the winners of the 67th Carlos Palanca Awards wrote about a timely topic: trolls.
“It is about an unemployed millennial who applied in an outsourcing company and [it] turns out it hires trolls. It is also about the struggles of a millennial,” said Nicko M. de Guzman, 21, the third price winner in Maikling Kuwento category.
His piece shares the same theme as PETA’s ongoing show, Game of Trolls, which is on view for the rest of the month.
Mr. De Guzman is among the 23 writers who won in one of prestigious award’s various categories for the first time. The awards ceremony was held on Sept. 1 at The Peninsula Manila. The other 28 winners had won Palancas before.
“Nasa point na tayo ng kasaysayan na malaki ang kahingian para sa mga manunulat na magsulat tungkol at para sa lipunan kasi ’yun ang dapat ginagawa ng mga manunulat: mag expose at mag mulat ng mga tao sa mga nangyayari sa bansa (We are at a point in our history where there is a huge need for writers to write for and about society because that is what writers should do: to expose and to inform the people about what is happening in the country),” said Mr. De Guzman.
The young writer’s statement rang true for the event’s guest speaker, Dr. Butch Dalisay, a winner of 16 Palanca awards who is now in the Palanca Awards Hall of Fame. In his speech, he told the crowd of writers before him to always seek the truth.
“Writing for the truth, writing for honor and glory, writing for the love of language – these are what your being here is all about, what the Palancas have existed for these past 67 years,” he said.
He added that in today’s “post truth” environment, both here or abroad, “the best antidote to fake news is true fiction.”
“This is especially important in these darkening times, when megalomaniacal and murderous despotism threatens societies across the ocean, debases the truth, and cheapens human life,” he continued, “If you write for truth, reason, and justice, and for the beauty and value of life itself, you will always be a first-prize winner in my book,” said the prolific 63-year-old writer.
MORE YOUNG WRITERS
This year, the Palanca committee received 954 entries. While it is often thought that fewer young people are reading and writing, 18 of this year’s winners are between 21 and 30 years old. Sixteen of the awardees are between 31 and 40 years old bracket, and eight awardees are between 41 and 50.
Writing with the young audience in mind, Mr. De Guzman said millennials are often misunderstood. There is more to the youth than mundane viral videos and memes, he said.
“It is not true that millennials are uninformed. If I may use a millennial term, nakaka-shookt siya, kasi siguro (perhaps because) the prevalence of social media is strong because we get information here, but at the same time, the pool of knowledge can be overwhelming. What we need to do to is to filter the information,” he said.
(“Shookt” is millennial slang that comes from the word “shook,” but the addition of letter “t” seems to add more emphasis to what the original word mean. “Shookt” is used to express astonishment.)
But no matter their age, writers have great responsibilities on their shoulders to present honest narratives and truth.
“We can expect many of writers to document the reality around us by way of emulating their predecessors who have mastered the skills to present effective narratives in stories, or in poetry, or in eloquent articulation of arguments in an essay, or combination of these methods in completing a play or screenplay,” said Criselda Cecilio-Palanca, representing the family behind the award, in her sponsor’s remarks.
The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Palanca Awards) was established in 1950 in memory of Don Carlos Palanca, Sr., with the aim of developing Philippine literature by providing incentives for writers; serving as a treasury of the Philippine’s literary gems; and by assisting in their eventual dissemination.
WHAT DOES WINNING MEAN?
But what does winning a Palanca mean?
“The quick answer would be is that the Palanca will bring you honor, some fame, and some bragging rights to your mama and papa. And even some money, if not [enough] for a car, then for a weekend in Boracay or a new phone or laptop to replace the old one. You will be walking on air for a couple of weeks, until the novelty wears off, the money is spent, and you return to the humdrum of teaching, call-centering, Uber-driving, or whatever it is keeps you and your family alive,” said Mr. Dalisay, who won his first Palanca when he was a journalist in 1975. He was just 18 then.
After the feeling wears off, he said: “You will discover that, to most people, your literary genius makes no difference and no sense. You will begin to wonder, as I did, if it was all a fleeting illusion.”
He said that after his first win, he kept on losing – until he won again in 1980.
“To run out of time” is a writer’s greatest anxiety, he said, adding that the best reward is redemption.
“That will be your greatest victory, the realization that these awards are but an enabler, a handmaiden of books that will be validated no longer by a panel of three judges, but by a readership of thousands,” he said.
More than winning, what is valuable is the act of producing a piece. “If you keep at it, you will reach a point where the winning will matter less than the writing,” he said.
Mr. Dalisay has written 30 books, been the speech writer for five presidents, has a weekly column in The Philippine Star, and is currently the University of the Philippines Diliman’s vice-president for Public Affairs.
To date, the Palanca Awards has produced 2,385 winning works: 610 short stories, 402 collections of poetry, 244 essays, 377 one-act plays, 209 full-length plays, 60 teleplays, 71 screenplays, 177 stories for children, 34 futuristic fiction stories, 110 student essays, 42 novels, and 49 collections of poetry for children written in English, Filipino, and regional languages.
