Apart from being a novelist, Bautista was also a screenplay writer with her film “Bulaklak sa City Jail,” starring Nora Aunor, which won best story and best screenplay at the Metro Manila Film Festival in 1984.
She also served as vice president of the Screenwriters Guild of the Philippines and as chair of the Kapisanan ng mga Manunulat ng Nobelang Popular.
She was deemed a national fellow for fiction by the University of the Philippines (UP) Creative Writing Center in 1986 and later received the Diwata Award for best writer at the 16th International Women’s Film Festival of the UP Film Center.
Just last year, she received an offer from international publishing company Penguin Classics to republish her novel "Dekada 70," a story that follows a couple trying to raise their family during the years of the dictatorship.
The book is currently self-published and has since been adapted on-screen. Bautista's first cousins, Maria Rosario and Sonny Ross Samonte, confirmed the sad news through Facebook posts on Sunday.
"My first cousin, Ms. Lualhati Baustita[,] [well-known] writer, novelist, a feminist, known for her advocacy on women's rights, passed away this morning," Rosario wrote in the caption.
The family has yet to finalize funeral arrangements for Bautista.
“Gusto namin siyang maalala ng lahat bilang inspirasyon sa paggawa ng mga sining na malaya at mapagpalaya,“ said Salazar, further describing her as “a fierce writer and critic, with a pen as mighty as her and with convictions and wits that made fascists tremble in fear to most; and a loving mother and grandmother.“
Bautista was a force to reckon with in the literary and screenplay fields, churning out memorable ‘70s and ‘80s films such as “Sakada,” “Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap,” and “The Maricris Sioson Story.”
She also wrote the prize-winning short stories “Tatlong Kwento ng Buhay ni Juan Candelabra,” and “Buwan, Buwan, Hulugan mo Ako ng Sundang: Dalawang Dekada ng Maiikling Kuwento.”
In 2020, Bautista was among the awardees of the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining, the highest award given by the CCP to individuals or groups in recognition of their “outstanding achievements and contributions to Philippine arts and culture.”
In his Facebook post, Salazar paid homage to his grandmother as “beyond reproach, always with the intent of advancing the social consciousness especially about women‘s rights and toppling the macho-feudal society we collectively live in.”
”A woman that has braved the regime of Marcos Sr. himself, never wavering and never backing down even when the dictator himself had the gun directly at her throat.”
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