The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) celebrated the life and works of its former director and important writer-scholar Julian Cruz Balmaseda this 28 January 2026 at the auditorium of the Philippine Information Agency, Quezon City.
Julian Cruz Balmaseda (1885–1947), whose 141st birth anniversary is observed today, is an important writer and scholar whose works in Filipino captured the spirit and essence of a precarious time in Philippine history.
With a writing career spanning the recently-ended Spanish occupation and the aftermath of World War II, Balmaseda wrote about Filipino life in a wide spectrum ranging from the patriotic to the romantic and personal.
According to sources, Balmaseda penned about 820 poems and 44 plays. Some of his books of poetry include Ang Bayan ni Plaridel (1913), Pangarap Lamang (1915), and Naku, ang Maynila! (1923–1924). KWF, under its Aklat Bayan program, reissued Naku, ang Maynila! in 2015.
His plays and stories like Sangkuwaltang Abaka (1922) and Ang Tala ng Bodabil (1936–37) have been restaged and adapted into films.
As a scholar of Philippine literature, his important works include Ang Tatlong Panahon ng Tulang Tagalog (1938) and Ang Dulang Pilipino (1947).
Balmaseda, originally from Orion, Bataan, was a teacher, municipal clerk, and government employee. He served as director of the National Institute of Language (now known as KWF) from 1938–1947.
Since 2015, KWF has been paying tribute to Balmaseda by staging the Gawad Julian Cruz Balmaseda during his birth anniversary. The award recognizes outstanding theses and dissertations written in Filipino as a contribution to the intellectualization of the national language.
Winners for this 2026 are Darwin Plaza (thesis) of Ateneo de Naga University and Ferdinand P. Jarin (dissertation) of De La Salle University.
KWF also launched Dr. Lovella Gamponia-Velasco’s Ubbog Ti Asin: Kuwento at Kuwenta ng mga Babaeng Mannurat ng Nueva Viscaya. Gamponia-Velasco won the Gawad Balmaseda for her dissertation in 2017.
