Roilinguel Calilung

Roilinguel P. Calilung: A Biography

One of the active Kapampangan poets that we have is Mr. Roilinguel P. Calilung. Mr. Calilung, or Roi, as he prefers to be called, was born on the 31st of January 1987 at Lubao, Pampanga by his proud parents Mr. Rogelio Calilung and Mrs. Melinda Calilung. He gladly shares to us that his parents’ fruitful marriage had been a result of love-at-first-sight story, wherein they had met at a nearby river while his mother was taking a bath. The said marriage has blessed the couple with three children, namely Roimel, Roilinguel, and Micah. Roilinguel’s first name was derived from both his father and mother’s first name and the same goes for his elder brother Roimel.

Roi’s hometown had been at Bacolor, Pampanga before the disastrous volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo had forced them to relocate at Bulaon Resettlement. Some of his years had also been spent at Pulungbulu, San Jose since this had been nearer to the places where he had studied. Roi finished his primary schooling at Angeles Elementary school, while both his secondary and thirtiary years had been spent at the Holy Angel University at Angeles City, Pampanga. He had recently finished his degree in Bachelor of Library Information Science and has recently started his career as a librarian at St. Scholastica’s Academy at San Fernando, Pampanga.

On The Way to Success

As aforementioned, Roi spent some of his years with his grandfather since this had been nearer to the places where he went to school. Having lived with his grandfather, Mr. Virgilio Calilung, who is also one of our Kapampangan poets, Roi tells us that his grandfather is his main inspiration and mentor for writing and reciting poems. Apparently, his grandfather also inherited his great grandfather’s skills in reading and writing poetry. To give a brief background, it has been a part of the Kapampangan tradition to write poems and read them aloud on occasions like weddings. His great grandfather used to write poems for his grandfather to read and it was through these practices that his grandfather learned to write his own poems.

On the other hand, Roi had been fond of reading poems written by his grandfather and as well as other people’s works. Through reading them, he was inspired to write his own since he finds that the works of other people to be unconvincing while his grandfather’s poems had always been his view of the standard.