Miguel Syjuco won the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize!!!

I am so happy that a Filipino won the Man Asian Literary Prize. Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado was adjudged as the 2008 winner last Thurday, November 13, at a celebratory dinner held at the Peninsula Hongkong. Four other shorlisted novels also vied for the prize: Kavery Nambisan's The Story that Must Not be Told Siddharth, Dhanvant Shanghvi's The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, Yu Hua's Brothers and Alfred A. Yuson's The Music Child. This award came two months after this same novel won the 2008 Palanca Awards for Best Novel in English. This year's Man Asian Literary Award is a rich harvest for Philippines as four Filipino works were longlisted. Last year, Jose Dalisay, Jr.'s Soldedad's Sister was among the five shortlisted novels.

HIMALA won Viewers Choice Award in Asia Pacific Screen Awards

Among Asia's film greats , Bernal's Himala won the Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of all Time in the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. This 1982 film vested some of the best Asian films: Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, and Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express, among others.