'Dungaw' Boys

Having their workstations situated by the window, these studs developed the penchant to gaze out the window every time there's a beautiful "sight" outside in the streets of the corporate neighborhood where the building housing Diwa Scholastic Press Inc. is located, earning them the notorious tag Dungaw Boys.

Dungaw is a Filipino word (a verb) which, in English, means "to gaze out the window."

My friends and former officemates Agapito "Aga" Toledano, Michael "Mike" Pasetes, El Dosado, and Aris Villaronte, in the picture below, were members of the so-called Dungaw Boys of Diwa's SEM-Editorial Department.

During my employment at Diwa (2000–2003), Aga was our department's messenger, Mike and El were illustrators, and Aris was a layout artist.

Mike, a fellow action-figure collector, illustrated most of the characters I conceptualized for my original fantasy novel Visionata Grandiosa, which to this day is yet to be finished.

A professional artist, El has an impressive portfolio which includes a great number of oil paintings of engkanto ('Philippine mythical beings'). If I didn't leave the country, El and I would have been coauthors of the Engkanto book I am finishing. He was my illustrator for Magica, one of the scholastic magazines I used to handle at Diwa as an editor.