ON ITS 33rd year, Gawad Ustetika, the country’s longest-running campus literary derby, will bestow lifetime achievement awards to literary giant Fr. Rodolfo Villanueva and, posthumously, to the late philosopher Emerita Quito.
Villanueva, a recipient of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, and Quito, one of the greatest Filipino philosophers, will awarded the Parangal Hagbong for outstanding Thomasian writers.
Villanueva, who hails from the Archdiocese of Cebu, is known for his liturgical music and plays written in English and Cebuano. He was a music and English professor in various universities and seminaries. Villanueva, who writes under the name Renato Madrid, obtained his bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology from San Carlos Seminary in Cebu, and his master’s degree in English from UST and music from the Minnesota State University in the United States.
Quito, who passed away in September 2017, graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University. She took higher studies at the Universite de Fribourg in Switzerland and the Sorbonne in Paris where she was awarded with Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques—France’s highest academic decoration.
Quito was dean of De La Salle University Manila’s graduate school, where she held the rank of professor emeritus. She was named the Philippines’ most outstanding educator in 1984.
Quito spent the last years of her life defining philosophy for the masses. “The term ‘pilosopo’ has seeped into the academic consciousness with a damaging effect,” she wrote in her essay analyzing Filipinos’ cultural aversion to rigorous thinking.
Her belief in critical thinking and independent action gave her the reputation of being “the darling of student philosophers, rebels, intellectuals and even demonstrators.”
Thomasian student-writers in categories such as poetry, fiction, essay and one-act play will also be recognized in an awarding ceremony on March 10 at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building.
