Butch Dalisay's Pinoy Penman

Tonight I discovered Butch Dalisay's blog - Pinoy Penman.

Sino nga ba si Butch Dalisay? To me, he is one of the most accomplished PSHS graduates. Forgive me for my ignorance, pero nakilala ko siya foremost as a Pisay grad. Later on ko nalang nalaman yung ibang accomplishments niya. Also, siya pala dahilan kung bakit ang 5-year curriculum ng Pisay ay naging 4 years nalang like most high schools.

"He teaches English and Creative Writing as a full professor at the University of the Philippines, where he also serves as coordinator of the creative writing program and as an Associate of the UP Institute of Creative Writing. After serving for three years as chairman of the English Department, he assumed the post of Vice President for Public Affairs of the UP System from May 2003 to February 2005." Learn more from his resume here.

He currently has a column, "Penman", which appears every Monday in the Lifestyle section of The Philippine Star.

A while ago, I read his entry about his time in prison during the Martial Law years. He was arrested at age 19 - what was *I* doing when I turned 19? Struggling to get through my MBB degree in UP - dealing with Bio12, Math 54, Physics 71, Chem 31. And I thought *that* was bad, hehehe (though it was indeed a nasty sem).

"I WAS arrested by military intelligence agents close to midnight on January 2, 1973. Like a true Pinoy, I had gone home—after largely staying away for the past several months, the first months of martial law—to visit my folks for the New Year; this, despite a rumor that the place would be raided or “zoned”—sosonahin—Kempeitai-fashion. Home to me then was a community of squatter shanties in Old Balara, a stone’s throw from the university where I had spent much of that freshman year studying Mao instead of math." Read the rest of his entry here.