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Ya Manunuwat (the writer), loves reading, writing, and travelling. He is enthused with the Power and Bureaucracy in Politics, the Life and Culture of Mindanawons (particularly Lumads), and the melting pots of possibilities that thrive when those areas coincide.
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ON STATUS QUO
The writer was born in President Roxas (a territory of old Kidapawan) and was raised in Kidapawan City, both in the Province of Cotabato. Having been born and raised in Mindanao, he can speak 4 languages: English, Filipino, Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), and Binisaya. Although the writer spent some childhood time in Kabacan, Cotabato, and was exposed to the Ilocano dialect, he has not become fluent in speaking it.
After high school, he nerved a pro bono job in their alumni association. He moved to Davao and entered a Jesuit university where he’s been taking Industrial Engineering. In the university, he joined a historical political club that promotes social democracy. He was a former member of the National Secondary Editors Guild (NSEG), and as of writing, a member of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). He co-founded LIYAB and subsequently became its founding Editor-in-Chief. He has a published poem in the Cotabato Literary Journal. He is an advocate of refurbishing the Mindanawon identity. Particularly, at present time, he’s working for his advocacies in the greater Kidapawan area: Anak Mindanaw’s Advocacies.
The writer does not intend to sugarcoat himself in this post. Some people around his circle are not even fully aware of the organizations he has been working with.
He seasoned himself with life challenges, and he is proud that he had experienced those. Moving to college was his liberating transition. He had experienced a distance from a routine-centered life, a life exemplified by a constant pressing of traditional norms and rules at home and at a stringent nun-managed Catholic School.
College life has been filled with school activities and external organizations. Yet he felt empty. He pushed his liberty until he took strides. He started to take extreme risks, in the attempt of experiencing the inexhaustible variety of “life.” He found friends. He found drinking, while balancing it with studying. He had failed some subjects, which is a hurtful reality for most engineering students. He’s been reading about Hedonism. Generally, he stacked machinations one on top of the other. But, does he regret those machinations? Find out here.
“I am not downtrodden by some failures. Failure became the ululating call to strive harder, to become better. With these on my life’s pages now, I take risks, calculated risks, especially for the next half of my college life.”
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ON OPTIMISM
The writer loves to dream. He dreams of becoming an industrial engineer and hopefully pursue Law or Philosophy.
Why Industrial Engineering (IE)?
Political Science sounded apt but practicality did not work with him. Consequently, he chose Industrial Engineering. Although IE will not grant him the topics of power and bureaucracy in a broader scope, he knew that its applications will. If there’s one realm that is as interesting as Politics, it’s got to be Business, he deems.
As a viable profession, he anticipates Industrial Engineering will pave more opportunities for his upcoming plans. Moreso, his interest in the Lumad together with Industrial Engineering, could provide more future prospects (Social Entrepreneurship).
Why Law?
As a childhood dream, law came with the ardour for politics. He’s reflecting about this track though. But he does not close his doors.
Why Philosophy?
Having been born in North Cotabato, which was known for insurgencies, Anak Mindanaw grew up with grassroots stories. From a grandfather who led a CAFGU group, to a grandmother who was a public school principal during Martial Law Years, stories abound in his lens of the grassroots.
Just recently, under a CAP Journalism Workshop, he found that his writing style and his comfort is towards the reader-response approach. He dreams of taking further study in Philosophy, and write a paper about it.
Yet, he doesn’t want to simply be a dreamer. Here’s why.
“I will continue to dream. But I don’t want to tag myself as a dreamer. I want to become a dreamweaver, someone who weaves his dreams into reality. Someday, I will become a dreamweaver, the weaver of my dreams, for my own masterpiece – My Life.”
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ON REALISM
It’s too much for a dream? No, it’s not! As what Philosophy taught him, there’s is no limit to whoever he wants to become. It is the alignment of resources that have realistic limits.
As an industrial engineering student, he had attended a Social Entrepreneurship Workshop at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He was inspired by this experience.
In 2012, the writer joined an essay writing contest organized by the Ateneo de Davao Legal Advocacy Works (ADDLAW) of the Ateneo de Davao Universiy Law School. He won 2nd place. Anak Mindanaw just tried to test the waters if he has potential for law school, although an essay contest is not a direct source of affirmation to this.
Given the chance, he’d like to study Philosophy of the Many Peaces at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck because of its esteemed integrity. Maybe, someday, he’ll make the shot. But he’ll just put this dream, with fingers crossed, to the future.
Dreams, dreams, dreams. Weh, Pfffft! How does the writer react to detractors? Find out here.
“I will fight to be able to dream. I believe everything starts with a vision. The challenge lies in fortifying such visions with actions. I know that reality’s one hell of a fight. I may fall short, but I know my endeavours will stand waiting for me. And, I’m not backing down.”
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Ambitious as he might have sounded with his dreams above, but the writer loves the simple things. He has a great fascination for pens. No, not that it’s a phallic symbol, but because it’s been part of his life since then. He’s been using only one brand of pen since 5th grade, and his high school speech even revolved around a pen. Not to the point of fetishism, but he thinks that the pen is a very powerful weapon – as history tells when you backtrack it.
The writer’s writing pivots to be Marxist in nature. He loves satires. If that’s not the case, he’ll probably be writing about culture and traditions especially of the Lumad, which he attributes to the upbringing he got in Kidapawan, the present capital of the former Empire Province of Cotabato.
Pa-lemlunay!
Vincent Carlo D. Cuzon
Vincent Carlo Duran Cuzon 
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