Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista has ordered the Quezon City Public Library to dedicate a section featuring the works of the late Dr. Cirilo Bautista, 2014 National Artist for Literature, to honor his valuable contribution to Philippine literature.
Bautista, an Outstanding Citizen Awardee of Quezon City in 1996, died on May 6 due to a lingering illness at age 76.
Bautista wrote the foreword of the book “Lessons and Legacies” in which he connected his experience as a resident of the city to Quezon City’s growth as a “global city.”
Aside from earning local and national awards, he’s also known for helping shaping young talents through founding various writing center and organizations, such as the Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center, Philippine Literary Arts Council, Iligan National Writers Workshop and Baguio Writers Group. Among his most notable works are the books Summer Suns (1963), The Cave and Other Poems (1968), Charts (poetry, 1973), Stories (1990), Words and Battlefields (1998), Sugat ng Salita (poetry, 1986), The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus (2001), Galaw ng Asoge (2003).