Binukot’s story wins national book award for Panay epic Ginlawan

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By Francis Allan L. Angelo

She was a well-kept maiden, honored and shielded from the outside world. Her story, chanted for generations in the mountains of Panay, has now won the Philippines’ most prestigious book award.

Ginlawan, Volume 8, No. 4 of the Suguidanon (Epics) Series of Panay Island, has won the National Book Award for Poetry in Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a at the 43rd National Book Awards, given jointly by the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle.

The epic tells the story of the hero Humadapnon, who sets out on a sea voyage in search of another wife, leaving behind Malitong Yawa — a binukot, or a well-kept maiden honored in the community.

In his absence, another man takes Malitong Yawa, setting off a conflict that ends in her death, before she is brought back to life through the gahum, or supernatural power, of Humadapnon’s sister.

The story reflects the beliefs, traditions, and way of life of the Panay Bukidnon people, an indigenous group from the hinterlands of Central Panay whose oral literature has been passed down through generations of chanting.

Ginlawan was chanted by Federico Caballero, a Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan awardee widely regarded as one of the last great keepers of the Suguidanon epics.

The Suguidanon epics are long oral narratives of the Panay Bukidnon indigenous group, first researched and recorded beginning in 1993 in Calinog, Iloilo, by Dr. Alicia Magos and Anna Razel Limoso-Ramirez, with support from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The published books are part of 14 titles collected mainly from the Caballero family, whose mother, Preciosa Caballero, was herself a binukot and babaylan, or spiritual leader, who played a central role in preserving these epics for the community.

After the epics were recorded from Federico Caballero, a Balay Turun-an, or School for Living Traditions, was established to teach the epics and other Panay Bukidnon cultural practices to children in the community, ensuring the oral tradition would survive beyond its last living chanters.

The manuscripts were kept for many years at the Center for West Visayan Studies of the University of the Philippines Visayas before preparation for publication began in 2014 under then-Chancellor Rommel Espinosa of UP Visayas and then-UP System President Alfredo Pascual.

The publication project was led by Limoso-Ramirez as project coordinator, with assistance from Prof. Eliodora Dimzon, and a tripartite Memorandum of Agreement was signed among UP, the Panay Bukidnon community, and the researcher to ensure that royalties would go to the community.

The series was accepted for publication in 2015 by the University of the Philippines Press under then-Director Neil Garcia, who described the epics as the “magnum opus” of the Press.

The book was desk edited by Aivee Dulid and officially released in 2025 during the term of UP Press Director Galileo Zafra.

The main translators for the Kinaray-a texts were Limoso-Ramirez and Romulo Caballero, assisted by Anna Caballero. Limoso-Ramirez, who is from Lambunao, Iloilo — a town near Calinog — speaks Kinaray-a, the same language used by the community, and grew up with Panay Bukidnon families who lived on her grandfather’s farm.

The 14-book series is the result of decades of collaborative work, with contributors to manuscript preparation including Analina Caballero, Teresita Quezon, Agnes Dimzon, Adonis Rebong, Ma. Joji Tan, and Jemelie Limoso, and contributors to cover design and production including Caiden Ramirez, Ramon Ramirez, Alven Polido, Gian Genoveza, Jhunn Harold Manaay, Liby Limoso, and Alan Cabalfin.

Community consultants for the manuscripts were Teresita Caballero, Romulo Caballero, and Rodolfo Caballero from the Panay Bukidnon communities.

The work of preservation is far from over. In 2026, Senator Loren Legarda has initiated the digitization of other oral narratives recorded by Magos and her team in the hinterlands of Central Panay, including the Talda, Dilot, and Ulawhay recorded by Judith Pabito.

The digitization effort will be carried out in collaboration with the University of the Philippines Open University and UP Visayas under Chancellor Clement Camposano, and will add to the growing collection of Panay Bukidnon recordings kept at the UP Visayas Center for West Visayan Studies.

The project is part of Legarda’s longstanding support for local heritage in Panay Island, which has previously included the Cultural Mapping of Panay and Guimaras.

The National Book Award for Ginlawan is proof that the oral literature of the Panay Bukidnon people has finally found its place in the broader canon of Philippine letters — and with digitization efforts now underway, the next generation may yet hear these stories in the voices they were always meant to be told.

Malitong Yawa died, and was brought back to life. So, in a way, has her story.