Francis C. Macansantos ? Butch to his
friends and family ? considered many places home. Born in Cotabato City in
1949, he spent his boyhood in Zamboanga City, hometown of his parents. A
Zamboangueno at heart (and palate), his memories of growing up with boyhood
friends in Zamboanga were vivid and came to life in many of his poems written
in English and his native Chabacano. Though he earned his A.B. (English) degree
from Ateneo de Zamboanga (where he also completed his high school education),
he earned some of his collegiate units at MSU Marawi, where he came under the
mentorship of talented Literature teachers such as Nena Marohombsar. On the
recommendation of fellow Zamboangueno writer Cesar R. Aquino, Butch attended
the Silliman Writers? Workshop in the early 1970s, and was drawn to the
Dumaguete community of writers and teachers, enough for him to subsequently
enroll in the university?s MA Creative Writing program. He lived the writer?s
life in Dumaguete for close to a decade, learning to speak Cebuano, and
enjoying the company of friends both in the university and in the city. This
stay in Dumaguete afforded him regular attendance in the annual summer
workshop, where he later served (formally and informally) on the critics?
panel, with his mentors Dr. Edith Tiempo and Dr. Edilberto Tiempo. At Silliman,
Francis also worked at some point with the late Antonio Enriquez, who taught
briefly at the University, and who remained a close friend until he passed on
in 2014.
Butch taught for close to two years
at MSU Marawi until 1980, when he had to leave after incurring the ire of the
then University president, for a parody performed in public by Francis? group
of faculty members. Mindanao during Martial Law was not the best place for
outspoken academics and writers, and though the stories seemed unbelievably
horrific, it was later confirmed by fellow teachers (who hid Butch and his
fellow offenders in the women?s dorm) that indeed gunmen were on the lookout
for the group. In 1981 Butch relocated to Baguio to join his spouse Priscilla ?
whom he met in 1976 at Silliman. He has since lived in this mountain city, save
for a five year stay in Newark, Delaware in the US, in 1990 until 1995. Though
he learned only a smattering of Ilocano, the lingua franca of Baguio, Francis
considered Baguio and the Cordilleras his home for more years than the periods
of stay elsewhere. He was a regular market-goer and had many sukis in the
market and the neighborhood. One of his sukis at the local talipapa was the
wife of a writer in Ilocano ? Jimmy Agpalo- and he interspersed literary banter
with everyday neighborhood gossip whenever he had the chance to chat. (At his
wake, friends from the university were joined by his loyal market vendor
friends and members of the barangay council.) Teaching briefly at UP Baguio, he
made friends with the visual artist Darnay Demetillo, a fellow Sillimanian, and
joined the artists? collective Tahong Bundok, founded by Darnay and fellow
Baguio visual artist Pyx Picart. Before the turn of the century, Butch also
formed, together with the late National Artist Cirilo Bautista, the Baguio
Writers Group. He mentored young writers in and out of the university, and
sometime in 2007, initiated the holding of the Cordillera Creative Writers
Workshop at UP Baguio. It was also during this period when he served in the
Literary Arts Committee of NCCA as representative of Baguio and the Cordillera
region. The essay that follows was read at the last Cordillera Writers workshop
in which he participated as panel member.
Read More
Gilford Doquila 
Raya Martinez 
Astrid Ilano 
Kevin Amante 
Francis Macansantos