Winners of the First Dr. Arturo B. Rotor Memorial Awards Announced
As part of its Transformational Education thrust, the PCP Foundation, Inc. announced the winners of the first Dr. Arturo B. Rotor Memorial Awards for Literature last November 26, 2022. The foundation recognized the work of 10 remarkable finalists:
TRAINEES CATEGORY:
| NAME OF FINALIST | ENTRY TITLE | INSTITUTION |
| · Dr. Jessamine Dominique Cola | “Dying is Not a Spectator Sport” | Chong Hua Hospital Fuente, Cebu City (Internal Medicine Year 3) |
| · Dr. Danny Galang | “Dark Side” | Jecson’s Medical Center, Tarlac City (Year 3) |
| · Dr. Michaela Ann Montalbo | “If I Were God” | Fe Del Mundo Medical Center, Quezon City (Fellowship Year 1) |
| · Dr. Jan Joel Simpauco | “Child’s Play” | National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Quezon City (Year 1) |
| · Dr. Florge Francis Sy | “A Spark of Hope” | UP-Philippine General Hospital, Manila (Fellowship Year 2) |
CONSULTANTS CATEGORY:
| NAME OF FINALIST | ENTRY TITLE | INSTITUTION |
| · Dr. Wilfredo Liangco | “Alleviations” | PCP South Luzon |
| · Dr. Ella Mae Masamayor | “It’s Not Our Story” | PCP Manila |
| · Dr. Elvie Victonette Gonzalez | “The Courage to Heal” | PCP Western Visayas- Panay |
| · Dr. Paula Teresa Sta. Maria | “Notes from a Piano” | PCP Eastern Visayas |
| · Dr. Rogelio Tangco | “When the Heart Beats in Pace with the Universe” | PCP Quezon City |
The winners were announced at the inaugural ceremony of the Dr. Arturo B. Rotor Memorial Awards last November 26, 2022. The event was attended by Former PCP Presidents, Current PCP Board of Regents, Judges, and Finalists.
The 2022 Rotor Literary Awards Grand Prize Winner – Trainees Category was awarded to Dr. Florge Francis Sy for his work entitled “A Spark of Hope.”
Dr. Abercio Rotor, member of the panel of judges, shares “Hope is universal and extends to comfort those living in borrowed time. There is much more that hope offers; it brings genuine happiness and peace of mind in the darkest hour. It keeps optimism alive. Spark of hope ignites more hope, peace, unity, love resolve, goodness, within the precious hour of the dying. It is strange yet divine to find hope where there is hopelessness, happiness where there is grief, and peace where there is death.”
The winners of the 2022 Rotor Literary Awards– Consultants Category are as follows:
| NAME | ENTRY TITLE | PLACE |
| · Dr. Rogelio Tangco | “When the Heart Beats in Pace with the Universe” | Third Place Winner |
| · Dr. Elvie Victonette Gonzalez | “The Courage to Heal” | Second Place Winner |
| · Dr. Paula Teresa Sta. Maria | “Notes from a Piano” | First Place Winner |
The 2022 Rotor Literary Awards First Place Winner – Consultants Category was awarded to Dr. Paula Teresa Sta. Maria for her work entitled “Notes from a Piano.”
Another member of the panel of judges, Dr. Eugenio Ramos writes, “November 7, 2013, the day the music stopped in Tacloban City. The author takes us back to Ground Zero of super typhoon Yolanda as a firsthand narrator of what she saw, felt and experienced during those four days of horror, desperation, and humanity. As a mother, a wife, a sister, and an ordinary citizen, she was as scared, bruised and broken as everyone else, but she rose to the challenge as a human being who bravely attended to others’ needs as a doctor and community leader amid the gruesome atmosphere and the dwindling medical resources. With an astute eye for detail, she deftly creates a compelling movie in our mind about the wrath of nature gone mad and the many faces of human behavior under crisis, using the family piano as a metaphor for what brings comfort, creates value and is worth saving.
‘The backboard was partially damaged, lending a certain dissonance only the ears attuned to its earlier music can discern. It was brilliant music still. I could do the same with myself. I can be whole again.'”
