 She then graduated from the Southern Colleges with an Associate of Arts degree.A brief stint as a law student at Far Eastern University in Manila was followed by a job as a cub reporter for the "Manila Times".Among her awards are the Philippines Free Press Literary Award for 1994, when she won first prize in the short story contest and for her “outstanding contribution to Philippine arts and letters.” She was also the “unanimous choice” by the Creative Writing Center at the University of the Philippines for the 1995-96 National Fellowship in Literature, an honor she couldn't accept because of health reasons.