By: PENMAN - Butch Dalisay - September 19, 2005
Among all that memorabilia is an envelope
of letters I treasure most – letters to me
from Bienvenido Muñoz Noriega Jr., the late
and great Filipino playwright whose modern
classic Bayan-Bayanan will be showing until
this Sunday at the Rizal Mini-Theater in
Ateneo, presented by Tanghalang Ateneo
(tel. 426-6001).
Boy Noriega was my friend, colleague,
fraternity brother, literary contest arch-rival,
and guru. Just a few years ahead of me in
UP but miles ahead in his assiduous
education as a playwright, Boy was a
genuine wunderkind – a professional
economist who headed the Policy
Coordination Staff of the National Economic
and Development Authority (NEDA) in his
early 20s and was part of the Philippine
negotiating team for the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva –
thus the setting of 1976’s Bayan-Bayanan, a
penetrating, poignant take on the Pinoy
expatriate life, written long before even the
term "OFW" came into being. Later he would
move to the Philippine National Bank as one
of its vice presidents.
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