Writer Sylvia Mayuga passes away

Award-winning writer, author and editor Sylvia Mayuga passed away on Tuesday, as confirmed by family and friends on social media.

Several of Mayuga's friends who are also prominent writers, editors and journalists, such as Inday Espina Varona, Alma-Anonas Carpio, Lualhati Bautista and Joel Pablo Salud, posted heartfelt eulogies for her.

"Never goodbye, Mader Sylvia Mayuga...Even while talking of great challenges, your humor shone so that a times it seemed it was a wild, impish, fey flower child across the table, instead of someone who intimidated “this may be goodbye'," wrote journalist and activist Varona.

Meanwhile, novelist writer Lualhati Bautista recalled that Mayuga was one of her friends who would stay up late at night and talk to her on Messenger.

"Dahil ang kaibigan naman, kahit maraming taon pa kayong di magkita, alam mong andiyan lang. Andiyan kahit dis-oras ng gabi. Kaso minsan, biglang wala na pala diyan. Paalam, Sylvia Morningstar Mayuga. I love you, Ibyang. Paalam," said Bautista.

Mayuga, who won three prestigious National Book Awards, also wrote for GMA News Online as a contributor. She was a passionate advocate for the arts, for Filipino culture, and for democracy.

She was 77. — Angelica Y. Yang/BM, GMA News