Maria Lourdes B. Abulencia

LOURDES B. ABULENCIA (a.k.a. Maria Abulencia) has produced five books and numerous essays and stories featured in newspapers and magazines.. The Sunday Inquirer Magazine noted her autobiography, "Agape: Maria's Notebook," in a review by Agnes Prieto:

"Maria's Notebook" is devastatingly honest. But more than a personal journey, the book reflects the life and times of a young woman coming into her own in the Seventies. It mirrors her tremendous struggle to achieve "a deeper sense of worth and destiny as a Filipino, a woman, a wife, a mother and as someone beyond all these names."

She is co-author of "Kung Ang Tao ay Maging Tao," the recipient of 1978 CATHOLIC MASS MEDIA AWARD FOR BEST BOOK IN PILIPINO. She also has published a novel, "Ang Panahon sa Liwanag ng Puso," a love story set in Lucban, Quezon. She is the lead writer and editor of two coffee table books, "Witnessing to a Glorious Heritage," and "Lucena City: Honoring Five Decades of Challenging Times." She, along with Ryan V. Palad and Necias Chaves Pataunia, has co-authored a forthcoming book entitled "La Muy Noble Villa de Tayabas: A History of Nobility."

While in Guam in 1985, she heard about events unfolding in the Philippines. She immediately returned to the country as foreign correspondent of the Pacific Daily News and covered closely the snap presidential election. Courageously, she faced the challenges during the EDSA People Power Revolution that ended martial law regime in the Philippines.

She has worked as Executive Assistant to the Executive Vice President of GMA 7 Radio TV Network of the Philippines. She has acted in film, television, and stage, and managed the public relations for "FAUSTA," a biographical film produced by Sacred Heart College, Lucena City.

An actress, dancer and painter, Lourdes Abulencia had her training in community theater at the prestigious Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) where she worked as full time artist-teacher. In 2000, she founded the Liwanag Institute of Ritual Arts (LIRA) to uphold the task of Soul Transformation for Peace by conducting workshops on leadership and conflict transformation, biography discoveries, ritual dance, community building, and child art for peace. She also is co-founder of KUTA NG SINING (Fortress of the Arts), a province-wide organization of artists and culture advocates in Quezon, Philippines.