Ricardo Arreola Lee (born March 19, 1948) is a Filipino screenwriter, journalist, novelist, and playwright. He was conferred the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022.
Starting in 1973, he has written more than 180 film screenplays. Aside from the Order of National Artists, which is the Philippines' highest recognition for individuals who have contributed significantly to the classical arts, his work has earned him more than 70 trophies from various award-giving bodies. This includes three life achievement awards from the Cinemanila International Film Festival, the Gawad Urian, and the PMPC. He was also the recipient of the 2015 UP Gawad Plaridel and one of the Gawad CCP awardees for 2015. In 2018 he was a Gawad Dangal ni Balagtas awardee, an Apolinario Mabini Achievement Award recipient, a recipient of a Special Citation for ABS-CBN's Walk-On-Water Awards, and was one of the recipients of the CAMERA OBSCURA awards from the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
As a screenwriter, he has worked with many of the Philippines' most notable film directors, including Lino Brocka, Marilou Diaz-Abaya and Ishmael Bernal. Many of his films have been screened in the international film festival circuit, including Cannes, Toronto, and Berlin, among others.
Early life
Lee grew up with his relatives in Daet, Camarines Norte. His mother died when he was 5 years old and only saw his father on few occasions. He studied primary and secondary school in the same town. It was said that Lee often sneaked into film houses and buried himself in books at the school library, tearing away pages with striking images. An intelligent student, he consistently topped his class from grade school to high school. His promising writing career took a first step when he won his first national literary award for a short story he wrote when he was still in high school. Driven by his passion to pursue dreams, he ran away from home and took a bus to Manila. He roamed the streets, taking on menial tasks as a waiter during the day and asking his town mates to accommodate him during the night until he collapsed one day in Avenida out of hunger.
University years, activism, and early career
He was accepted at University of the Philippines Diliman as an AB English major but never got his diploma. Ironically enough, he later taught screenwriting at its College of Mass Communication.
He started writing fiction in the late 60s, gaining confidence with the publication of his first short story "Mayon" in the Philippine Free Press while he was still in high school. His early efforts won him several national awards in the Pilipino Free Press (Pagtatapos, Third Place-1969) and first prizes in consecutive years for the short story in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Huwag, Huwag Mong Kukuwentuhan ang Batang si Weng Fung/1969 and Servando Magdamag/ 1970).
A rare achievement for a writer, two of his short stories won first prizes at the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for two years in a row (1970 and 1971).
He became an activist during those politically turbulent times and was affiliated with Panulat para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan (PAKSA, or Pen for People's Progress) along with Bienvenido Lumbera and Jose F. Lacaba.
Imprisonment during Martial Law
Since Ferdinand Marcos was arresting numerous academics and writers when he placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972, Lee and Lumbera made themselves scarce, and were not caught in the initial wave of arrests. They were both caught by Marcos' forces in 1974, however.
Lumbera had gone to Lee's house in España Boulevard to warn him about a recent wave of arrests, only to find that the soldiers were already there arresting Lee. Lumbera ran away and got as far as the corner of Banawe street, but the soldiers eventually caught up with him.
Lee later described the circumstances of his arrest, saying in Tagalog: "They asked, ‘Where’s your gun?’ I said, ‘I don’t know how to hold a gun, why would I have a gun? They would find reason even if it was not legitimate because when they captured you, they would call you detainees, not prisoners. There were no charges. You don’t know why. They would just detain you so you can’t move, you can’t be an activist. They’d detain you without any hearing, no charges, and you have no idea when you’d ever get out because you’re a detainee.
Lee and Lumbera shared a cell Ipil Detention Center in Fort Bonifacio. In the recollections of many fellow Ipil detainees, Lee is noted for having become very ill with rheumatic fever, and Lumbera is remembered as having taken a great effort to take care of Lee.