Dr. Maria Lilia Fuentebella Realubit passed away on August 17. She is a retired professor of the University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters (Department of English and Comparative Literature), and a recipient of Masirang na Bituon kan Kabikolan (Lifetime Achievement Award) in the first Premio Tomas Arejola para sa Literaturang Bikolnon (Tomas Arejola Prize for Bikolano Literature) in 2004. She is the founder of Kabulig Bikol and Bikol Heritage Society, Inc.
As a prominent Bikolano writer, her writings include an English translation of Mariano Goyena del Prado’s cultural work “Ibalon: Ethnohistory of the Bikol Region” (Ibalon: Monografia historica de la region bicolana) (1983); “Bikols of the Philippines” (1984); “Bikol Dramatic Tradition” (1989); “Haliya Anthology of Bikol Poets and Poems” (2004); “Bikol Literary History” (2004); and “Jose T. Fuentebella: Nationalist and Statesman” (2004). In February 2011, she published “Bikol Poetry Galore At Last A Report,” a critique of modern rawitdawit (Bikol poetic narrative).