Ginaw Bilog

(January 3, 1953 - June, 3, 2003)

Ginaw Bilog was a Hanunuo Mangyan poet from Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro. Intertwined within his upbringing were the distinct literary traditions of the Mangyan, particularly the ambahan. The ambahan is a unique form of poetry composed of seven-syllable lines, and etched unto pipes of fresh bamboo in a pre-colonial syllabic script called Hanunoo or Surat Mangyan. For Ginaw Bilog, the ambahan is the key to the Mangyan soul. Thus, it became mission to preserve the ambahan, by meticulously recording poems on both bamboo and notebooks, and in passionately sharing both old and new ambahans to his fellow Mangyan. For his efforts of preservation, he became the inaugural recipient of the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA) on December 17, 1993.