Ruth Elynia Mabanglo: ‘You are an island that explores the depths of your being’

Elynia was one of the first to be elevated to the Palanca Hall of Fame.

For the past 10 years, friends of poet Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo would wake up each morning with Tagalog verses on their phone. She has been religiously writing a prayer poem each day, uploading it on the internet at the break of dawn. A line such as “Sa silahis ng umaga’y matutupad ang pangarap” (In the morning sunbeam a dream is fulfilled), says eminent artist Imelda Cajipe Endaya, “spurs my productivity for the day.” Endaya is a member of a bible study group called Church Café, which also counts Mabanglo as member. The group is one of the recipients of the prayer-poems.

Reading her keynote speech

Endaya’s “prayerful, caring, and generous friend” ended the year 2025 with a New Year’s poem, a stanza of which reads:
Sakay ng laksang ingay / 2026 dumatal— / Naririnig pa / Ang iba’t ibang usal,
Pangarap at pag-asang / inilutang sa alangaang, / paglingap na inihain / at iniwan.
May puwang ba / ang pag-ibig / sa sandaling iyon? / Abala ang kamay / sa palakpak,
Tigib ang isip / sa paglikha ng daan / upang makaigpaw / sa taong lilisan.

Being conferred the Gawad Dangal ng Lahi by Charles Palanca and Dang Cecilio Palanca

Turning 77 on March 30, the highly regarded poet, playwright, journalist, and educator recently received the Gawad Dangal ng Lahi from the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. The lifetime achievement award is a recognition of her accomplishment as one of the first winners to be elevated to the Palanca Hall of Fame in 1995 (together with National Artists Cirilo F. Bautista and Rolando S. Tinio, Gregorio C. Brillantes, Buenaventura S. Medina, Jr., Jesus T. Peralta, and Rene O. Villanueva). It was a well-deserved recognition of the lone female awardee’s winning more than 20 Palancas, including five First Prizes—three for full-length play, one for one-act play, and one for poetry.

Elynia with (seated) National Artist Virgilio Almario and wife Lynn and (standing) Hall of Famer Dr. Luis P. Gatmaitan, Charles Palanca, Alma Miclat, Ed Cabagnot, Adarna Books’ Ani Almario, and Tahanan Books’ Frances Ong

It was also a magnificent feat for one whose only motivation at the beginning for joining the prestigious literary competition was to win the award money, as she was cash-strapped after losing her job as a desk woman in Taliba. The Tagalog broadsheet under the Manila Times Corporation, which also published Manila Times and Daily Mirror, was shut down together with other newspapers when Martial Law was declared in 1972.

In her keynote address after receiving the Palanca lifetime distinction at the Manila Polo Club last November, the poet, who is now in frail health due to several ailments, thanked the Palanca Awards. Winning the Palanca as well as other competitions like the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) literary contest and Surian ng Wikang Pambansa’s Talaang Ginto, she decided to use the prize money to enroll and take up her Masters, major in Theater Arts, at the Philippine Normal College in 1980. She later shifted to an MA in Filipino, Language, and Literature. Prior to that, she finished her Bachelor of Arts in Filipino at the University of the East in 1969. In 1985, she completed her doctorate with honors in Filipino at Manuel Luis Quezon University (MLQU).

Elynia in Hawaii

It was a magnificent feat for one whose only motivation at the beginning for joining the prestigious literary competition was to win the award money, as she was cash-strapped

Says Elynia: “My Palanca awards enhanced my curriculum vitae, which impressed many, including one who would become my boss at the University of Hawaii (UH) in Manoa. Dr. Teresita Ramos was looking for a graduate assistant who was a native speaker of Tagalog. I was then teaching at De La Salle University (DLSU), in the newly-formed department of Filipino chaired by Dr. Isagani Cruz. He casually relayed to me in a department meeting Dr. Ramos’ request.” Elynia sent her application for a graduate assistant post, even as she already had her Ph.D.

Reading a poem in Hawaii

It was around that time, too, in April 1990, that she was invited, all expenses paid by the organizer, to be a fellow at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in Australia, headed by Dr. Phillip Goldsworthy. The poet-teacher wanted to go, but was not allowed by DLSU, as she was still on probation. She decided to go anyway, at the risk of losing her job. Upon her return, she was demoted to part-time from a full-time status. “I did not regret my decision, as such fellowships were hard to come by,” she says.

By June of that year, Elynia flew to the University of Hawaii, not as a graduate assistant but as a visiting professor. And because Dr. Ramos was pleased with her performance, she offered Elynia a three-year contract as an associate professor. Eventually, Elynia taught at UH for 30 years and retired as a professor emeritus. With Dr. Ramos, she made Tagalog known in Hawaii, and even in the US mainland. She became the head of the program offering a Bachelor of Arts degree in Filipino and Philippine Literature. Applicants in the program did not only come from Hawaii, but also from other states of the USA.

What an incredible journey the lowly and lonely girl from Tondo has traversed. Her life as a child from a poor family abandoned by her father, and who had to work at the tender age of nine gathering vegetable waste from Divisoria for her Lola’s pigs’ feed, was a page out of a teleserye script.

Her mother passed away when she was 13, leaving her to take care of her three siblings as the eldest in the family. She would write later, “Lumaki akong nasusuklam sa aking ama. Nagsisimpan ako ng galit sa tuwing ilalahad ko ang kamay para manghingi ng pera sa mga kaanak kong nag-ampon sa amin. At kinaiinggitan ko ang lahat ng batang may magulang kahit na madalas nilang ireklamo ang mga iyon. Kukuwentuhan ako ng mga kaklase ko kung paano sila pagalitan, paluin o murahin ng kanilang magulang. Wala akong simpatiya. Sa loob-loob ko, at least, mga magulang mo ang pumapalo sa iyo.” (I grew up hating my father. I would be filled with anger when I opened my palm to ask for money from relatives who adopted me. And I was envious of children with parents, even when they complained about them. My classmates would talk about how they were scolded, spanked, or cursed by their parents. I had no sympathy. I thought to myself, at least, it’s your parents who are spanking you.)

All the hardships, heartaches, oppression, and misery she endured growing up became a strong impetus and force that inform her art, her poetry, her metaphor. She wrote: “Sa kahungkagan ng pag-iisa at pangungulila, natitigib ang isip ng mga alaala. Natitigmak ang papel ng mga titik. Nahahabi ang isang awit. Nabubuo ang isang katha. Nasusulat ang isang tula. At ikaw ay pulong nakayayari ng tulay patungo sa iba pang pulo. O isa kang pulong nagagalugad ang sarili hanggang kaibuturan. Isa kang libingang pasasayahin ng mga awitan ng kuliglig at kulisap na humuhudyat ng umaga. O isang libingang nag-iipon ng alaala sa araw upang mailatag iyong himlayan sa gabi. O mga matang lumilikom ng imahen para maimbak iyon sa gunita. Isa kang nanlalamig na balat na dadaluyan ng init ng iba pang balat na ang pag-ibig ay ginising ng iyong panulat.” (In the emptiness of solitude, thoughts would fill with memories. The paper would be drenched with words. Songs are woven. Stories are created. A poem is written. And you are an island building a bridge to other islands. Or you are an island that explores the depths of your being. You are a grave made happier by the songs of cicadas and bugs in the morning. Or a grave that collects memories during the day to make your bed at night. Or eyes that gather images to store in your consciousness. You are cold skin warmed by other skin whose love was awakened by your writing.)

Supling: Mga Tula (Offspring: Poems), written when Elynia was 20 years old, won First Prize in the CCP Verse-Writing contest in 1975. It was also her first published book. Mga Liham ni Pinay (Letters from Pinay), meanwhile, is poetry about the hardships of women who work as migrant workers abroad or who become mail-order brides. Not only did it win First Prize in the Palanca in 1987, it also received the National Book Award for Poetry from the Manila Critics Circle in 1990, when it was published as a book.

‘Mga Liham ni Pinay (Letters from Pinay)’ is poetry about the hardships of women who work as migrant workers abroad or who become mail-order brides

Kung Di Man (If Not): Mga Tula ng Pag-ibig (1970-1992), a collection of love poems published in 1993, was beloved by women, a poem of which was set to music,

Kung Ibig Mo Akong Makilala
Kung ibig mo akong makilala,
lampasan mo ang guhit ng mahugis na balat,
ang titig kong dagat–
yumayapos nang mahigpit sa bawat saglit
ng kahapon ko’t bukas.

Kung ibig mo akong makilala
sunduin mo ako sa himlayang dilim
at sa madlang pagsukol ng inunang hilahil,
ibangon ako at saka palayain.

Church Cafe members

“Her love poems are intensely visceral and sensual, with a fiery passion that would shame many a masculine writer,” says France-educated Jenny Juan, another member of Church Café, of Elynia’s poems. She thinks Elynia is “the most exciting living contemporary poet in the Philippines, whether in English or Filipino.”

The Dangal ng Lahi awardee has kept women’s issues close to her heart, like in this poem Gahasa, which won First Prize in the Surian ng Pambansang Wika and made Elynia Poet of the Year in 1992. Here is the poem:

GAHASA
Ginahasa ako ng mga salita / Paulit-ulit, paulit-ulit
Hanggang magutay ang diwa./ Buntis ang alaala / Sa mga alimura,
Pasa-pasa ang puso’t / Lama’y salanta.

Ginahasa ako ng mga akala / Paulit-ulit, paulit-ulit
Hanggang pagkatao’y /mapariwara.
Pumintig sa puson / Ang haplit ng tinig,

Bitak-bitak ang bungo / Sa madling hagupit.
Ginahasa ako ng pasya / Minsan lang,
Minsan lang, / At nagiba ang pag-asa.

As for the plays Elynia wrote, her full-length play, Mga Abong Pangarap (Ashened Dreams), won First Prize at the Palancas in 1983. The book edition of the play came out in 1992. In 1973, her one-act play, Si Jesus at si Magdalena, also won First Prize at the Palancas.

To list all the award-winning works of Ruth Elynia Mabanglo would be a fool’s errand. Saddled by joint pains, asthma, diabetes, heart problems, etc., she can already rest on her laurels, for she has done in her lifetime more than many could do in several lifetimes. Yet, her prayer-poem a day she shares is a morning ritual her friends have been grateful for, a ritual which expresses her gratitude to the One above for all that has been given to her, from Tondo to Hawaii and back.