Student Life & Activities

AB Honors Literature, 1976

MA English Education, 1977

Producer, director and writer for films and television

Senior Professional Lecturer, De la Salle University

Chairman and CEO, Film Development Council of the Philippines

I lead my life and make a living as a storyteller.
Contrary to what many think, I did not major in Communication Arts. I am a Literature Major at the College of Liberal Arts in De la Salle University.

AB Major in Literature (minor in Creative Writing)

Batch Year: 1996

Class Year: 2000

Faculty at Benilde Film, Film and Theater Critic, Screenwriter

I’ve been working primarily as a writer for the first 20 years after I graduated and I worked in various industries from advertising, television, publishing, film and now the academe. Definitely, the Literature program of DLSU gave me the skills to be a better writer and to adjust my style and tone depending on the audience and the platform. What surprised me was how the program prepared me for real world challenges – working with others, processing civic and socio-political issues, how to navigate through office culture, health issues, and everyday moral quandaries – the training I got from the Literature program opened up different perspectives and approaches in making decisions that would impact myself and others. Stories, poems, essays, plays – they are all reflections of living and knowing how to analyze these texts carries over to our own life choices. I was prepared for the toughest part of becoming an adult, which isn’t making money but carving a life worth living.

MFA Creative Writing

Batch Year: January 1997

Class Year: September 2000

Writer, Editor, Publisher

Sometimes, I have to pinch myself because I still can’t believe that my sole bread and butter today is what I dreamed of at some point in my childhood and what I studied for. By now, I’ve (ghost)written over a dozen memoirs, biographies, and histories and edited gazillions of other books. I am firmly ensconced in the publishing world in no small part due to the mentorship I received from such a stellar teaching faculty in the MFA program. I remember Dr Isagani Cruz telling me (and the rest of his editing class) to purchase personal copies of the Chicago Manual of Style—which I still use to this day and always the current edition. Or Dr Luisa Igloria, applauding my vignette about Count Almasy’s ankle leaning in the direction of Katharine Clifton. Their and other mentors’ voices are what I hear when tightening a line of prose or preventing a mangled metaphor from sullying a page. They prepared me for a life of the written word, which transcends geographies, cultures, and ideologies. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

AB major in Literature

Batch Year: 2013

Class Year: 2016

Lawyer/Associate at Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices

To say that my AB Literature background has helped me in my current profession would be an understatement. I can only imagine how difficult and, possibly, unbearable, law school and work would have been and would be had I not been exposed early on to the rigors of constant reading and intensive writing. This alone makes AB Literature a great course to take, regardless of which profession you end up with down the line.
The best thing about my literature background, however, has nothing to do with the practical training I received from it. Rather, it is the never-ending curiosity that it instilled in me that I find most memorable. Through my professors and their classes, I learned to appreciate schools of thought and works of art that I otherwise would not have even bothered to entertain. I was taught to be comfortable with the uncomfortable and to question and the unquestionable. In this sense, my education did not just prepare me for a career, but it also significantly impacted my worldview for the better.