Baguio girl, Dawn Dela Rosa won third Place in the 2025 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for the Children’s Short Story with her piece, “Si Tala sa Mahiwagang Pila ng Jeep” (Tala in the Magic Jeepney Queue), a narrative set in the heart of Baguio City.
Dela Rosa described the story as an intersection of her life experiences and observations in the Cordillera region. The narrative blends the “mundane Baguio things” with the exploration of “both the beauty and dangers of society for a little kid.”
“It’s a glimpse into a kid’s mind and also anchored in Filipino Psychology,” Dela Rosa stated. The inspiration for the story was drawn from her years as a Baguio resident, her anthropology background, and her current studies in law, which informed her advocacy for child protection.
Dela Rosa said “Basically, it’s a mix of what I’ve learned in my years of being a resident in Baguio City, from my perspective as one originally from the lowlands, my learnings from the university, my own fears and advocacy as a law student to help protect children, and the time I spent as an art teacher.”
The concept focusing on Baguio’s distinct “pila” (queue) culture had been a rough idea since her freshman year at UP Baguio.
Dela Rosa finally wrote the story in 2025, during a period of professional burnout, crediting the children she taught during an art workshop at the SLU Sunflower PDC with her artist boyfriend, George Rosales, that summer as the most important “teachers” for her work.
“With them, I was reminded of the point of it all—it’s actually making things you’re happy about. That’s when I found myself finding peace and joy in the creatives again. The kids taught me a lot. I’ve always been too uptight and was living way too rigid, had been told to loosen up countless times. And with them, I was reminded of the point of it all—it’s actually making things you’re happy about,” she said.
Dela Rosa highlighted she built the story with the art of her boyfriend, George Rosales, in mind, alongside her life with her sister, Lia, in the city.
This marks Dela Rosa’s second Palanca award; she previously won Second Prize in the Kabataan Essay category in 2016 for the piece “Then the Abstract was Misunderstood.”
Though her legal studies have meant reading more casebooks than creative work recently, Dela Rosa emphasized the necessity of continuous writing, advising others to keep up with poetry and journaling.
“Throwing words together and mixing them with our raw feelings, it’s the mental and emotional exercise writers need. But it’s all okay to start a piece, and be unable to finish it immediately. It’s okay to push it back when the time does not feel right. Just write. The words will fall into place.” she said. She encourages writers not to fear starting a piece, even if they can’t finish it immediately, stressing that the words will “fall into place” when the time is right. Maria Elena Catajan
