OBSERVER Editor Receives Pedro Bukaneg Award

Manila, Philippines.-The GUMIL Filipinas, the Ilokano Writers Association of the Philippines, through Ariel Tabag, current treasurer of the association, announced that Aurelio Solver Agcaoili is this year’s recipient of the Pedro Bukaneg Award.

The award, named after Pedro Bukaneg (1590-1626), the blind Ilokano poet who was responsible for the writing of the Ilokano epic “Biag ni Lam-ang,” is the highest award given to male Ilokano writers in recognition of their extraordinary literary achievement.

Only a handful of writers have been accorded this award in the more than 40 years of existence of GUMIL Filipinas.

GUMIL Filipinas is an international organization of Ilokano writers, with chapters in major Ilokano provinces and several schools and colleges.

GUMIL has a chapter each in California, Guam, Greece, and four chapters in the State of Hawai’i, including the GUMIL Hawai’i where Agcaoili serves as an adviser.

Agcaoili, one of the youngest Ilokano poets to receive this award, has been recognized for his award-winning works of various genres in Ilokano, Tagalog, and English.

Apart from serving the Fil-Am Observer, Agcaoili coordinates the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University of Hawai’i where he also teaches Ilokano language and literature, translation and interpretation, modern Philippine films, Philippine drama, Philippine popular culture, and Philippine critical discourses. He is also the current president of the statewide Hawai’i Association of Language Teachers and the international advocacy group for Ilokano and Amianan Studies, the Nakem Conferences.

Agcaoili, a novelist, dramatist, essayist, poet, and fictionist, will receive his award at the annual conference of GUMIL Filipinas to be held April 10-12 at the Our Lady of the Angels Seminary in Novaliches, Quezon City.***
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