It’s a sad moment for the arts community and the local entertainment industry.
It is even sadder for the people of Lipa City.
Bienvenido Lumbera, National Artist for Literature and member of the prestigious Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP) which gives annually the credible award Gawad Urian, is gone.
Bienvenido, better known as Bien Lumbera, passed away mid last week due to complications with strokes. He was 89.
The first person to announce Lumbera’s demise was Roland Tolentino, a protégée of Bien, a fellow teacher at UP (when his mentor was still active in the academe) and a fellow member of the MPP.
Roland paid tribute to his teacher and friend and said that the arts community is sad about his passing.
Lipeños and Lipeñas must also be shedding tears on the death of their national treasure in the arts and literature.
Bien was a true blue Lipeño who was born, grew up and studied in the city. He was an orphan early on in his life. He was taken care of by his paternal grandmother after his parents died. When his grandma passed on, he lived with his childless godparents but must be cousins, Enrique and Amanda Lumbera who he thought could send him to school.
In college, Bien went to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas where he took up Bachelor of Literature (Litt.B).
Later, he studied his master’s course, also in literature, in the same university. For his doctoral degree, Lumbera took up Comparative Literature at the Indiana University in the US.
Bien had taught most of his teaching years at UP and Ateneo. After his retirement from UP, he taught at De La Salle, UST, and Hanover College, among others.
This writer is lucky I was once a student of Dr. Lumbera in my unfinished Master of Arts in Philippine Literature in UP. Eventually, I got my MA in Theater Arts from the Philippine Normal University. I learned a lot from Sir Bien.
Lumbera was one of the founding members of MPP and also had chaired the critics group in intermittent years.
He was a recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Creative Communication. He was also a consistent winner at the Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
In his lifetime, Bien was a leader of the struggle for freedom and democracy in the Philippines and was one of the organizers of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) with Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, Joel Lamangan, Mel Chionglo, Bibeth Orteza, Jo-Ann Maglipon etc.
Almost all artists in the Philippines have paid homage to Bien, one of the many was actor, director, producer, writer and technician Dennis Marasigan, a kababayan from Lipa City.
“Kilala ko siya bilang may akda ng titik ng awitin ng aming alma mater at kasabay na nagtapos ng aking ama sa mataas na paaralan (The Mabini Academy), kapatid ng aking inang-binyag at idolong laging itinataas aking mga magulang bilang halimbawa para sa akin. Salamat sa iyong buhay at sining (I knew him as the one who wrote the lyrics of our alma mater hymn, graduated from the Mabini Academy with my dad, brother of my godmother, and idol who was always the pride of my parents as a guiding example for me. Thank you for your life and arts),” said Dennis.
Bienvenido Lumbera’s vision of freedom and equality will always be alive in every artist’s heart and mind.