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Farce Comedy, Rap on EJKs Win Palanca Awards
This year’s Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature had 51 successful writers garnering distinction, with 23 joining the elite list of winners for the very first time. Leading the pack of new winners is 33-year old Dustin Edward Celestino, who won two first-place prizes for his works “Ang Pangahas na si Pepe Rodriguez” and “The Story of This Father,” which competed in the categories Dulang Ganap ang Haba and Full-length Play, respectively. Celestino is the only winner this year who won two first-place awards, and this success also places him closer in the running for a position in the Palanca Hall of Fame, a distinction given to those who have five first-place awards under their belt.
”Ang Pangahas na si Pepe Rodriguez” tells the tale of how dangerous an ideology can be, regardless of the accuracy of interpretation. “It’s a metaphor. In the entire play, Pepe Rodriguez… doesn’t actually exist and was just made up. But because of having so many believers, and with most of them being liars, the belief of Pepe Rodriguez becomes dangerous,” Celestino said.
Originally written as a short story, Celestino turned the piece into a farce, a type of comedy that makes use of highly exaggerated and funny situations. “It’s a different type of comedy that’s not common here in the Philippines, because it’s really in your face. It acknowledges that there is an audience by breaking the fourth wall.”
“The Story of This Father,” on the other hand, provides viewers a discourse about politics and family relationship. In the middle of a heated political climate riddled with cases