Davaoe�o Palanca winner writes for the poor

Ferdinand Balino has always been drawn to the work of social realist authors like Maxim Gorky. It is no surprise then that the first short story he wrote was about a poor child selling softdrinks at a bus terminal. The story that won him this year�s second prize in the Palanca awards (for the Cebuano short story) is about school children too poor to have decent shoes. It is this kind of stories that haunt — and inspire — him.

By Germelina A. Lacorte
Davao Today

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — His story about high school children, who are so poor they don�t even have a pair of shoes to wear to school, won him a Palanca this year.

But Ferdinand Balino, 41, who wrote �Absent, Ma�am,� the short story that placed second in the Cebuano category in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award, refused to take the triumph solely as his own.
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One Comment to “Davaoe�o Palanca winner writes for the poor”

1. Rey B. Araneta says:

   April 8, 2008 at 11:20 am

   Dear Ms. Lacorte,

   “Absent Ma’am” really moved me to tears. When I read the story in Bisaya magazine, I couldn’t help to put the magazines for a while inorder to shed some tears (I had done this more than three times).

   The story was very moving. I got the same feeling when I read Dickens.

   I would like to meet the author in person and shake his hand for such emotion in a story. And maybe to read more of him (his stories).

   Thank you also for writing a comment about his story and a background of his works.

   Keeping in touch,

   Rey B. Araneta, CM
   St. Vincent School of Theology
   221 Tandang Sora Avenue
   Quezon City
   April 08,2008