Bicol, Iloilo scholars win KWF award for academic writing in Filipino 

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PRESS RELEASE: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino gives the award to Darwin Plaza and Ferdinand P. Jarin. This is the first time that both winners come from outside Manila.

This is a press release from the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.

Two scholars from Luzon and Visayas won the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino’s (KWF) prestigious Gawad Julian Cruz Balmaseda on January 28, 2026 in the awards ceremony held at the PIA auditorium, in Quezon City. 

Darwin Plaza and Ferdinand P. Jarin, hailing from Bicol and Iloilo, respectively, garnered the highest distinction given by the KWF for theses and dissertations written in Filipino. 

It was the first time that both winners of the award came from outside Manila. Plaza finished his MA at Ateneo de Naga University while Jarin, who obtained his PhD from DLSU Manila, teaches at the University of the Philippines-Visayas in Iloilo City.

Plaza and Jarin’s winning academic works are entitled Gakot at Paglaban sa Kalamidad ng mga taga-Partido Erya sa Bikol and Ang Kalyeng Walang Kamatayan: Ang Paglalandas ni Leoncio Deriada sa Panitikan ng Banwa at Bansa.

Plaza, won in the thesis category for his study on the different strategies of residents in the Partido area in Camarines Sur that exemplify resilience and indigenous ingenuity in facing natural calamities.

“My study is from the people and for the people,” Plaza shared in Filipino. Plaza currently teaches at the Partido State University. 

Jarin, on the other hand, made a literary biography and critical study of the late writer Leoncio P. Deriada for his dissertation.

“Truly, he (Deriada) is a street that never dies,” Jarin exclaimed.  Deriada is considered a titan of Philippine literature who wrote in Filipino, English, Sebwano, Hiligaynon, and Kiniray-a. 

The two winners received P100,000 and an opportunity to be published under the KWF Aklat ng Bayan Program. 

The award is named in honor of Julian Cruz Balmaseda (1885–1947), prolific writer and scholar who served as the director of the Institute of National Language (now KWF). January 28 happens to be Balmaseda’s 141st birth anniversary.

KWF is now accepting entries for its 2027 edition. For more details, visit kwf.gov.ph. – Rappler.com