‘Pinoy or Finoy’ Comes Home to Bikol: Fr. Wilmer Tria’s Book to Be Launched in Naga

NAGA CITY --- After gaining attention in national and international literary and cultural circles, Fr. Wilmer Joseph S. Tria’s Pinoy or Finoy: Funny and Punny Thoughts on Decolonization and Philippine Education comes home to Bikol for a special Naga launch on October 3, 2026, at Kamarin Arts Gallery of Savage Mind Bookshop.

Published by Rex Publishing House, Pinoy or Finoy brings together humor, wordplay, reflection, and critical inquiry to examine questions of Filipino identity, language, education, culture, and decolonization.

The Naga event follows the book’s earlier presentations, including its international launch at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 17, 2025, during the Philippines’ Guest of Honour program, and its more recent presentation at Solidaridad Bookshop in Padre Faura, Manila, on August 28, 2026, as part of the third installment of the Solidaridad Literary Series.

The Manila event, titled “Translation, Decolonization and Philippine Education,” featured Fr. Tria who talked about the ideas behind the book, particularly the relationship between language, education, Filipino identity, and the continuing influence of colonial ways of thinking. According to a report on the event, Tria emphasized that translation can be understood not simply as the transfer of words between languages but as an exchange of ideas between cultures.

A Homecoming to Bikol

The Naga launch takes on particular significance because Fr. Tria’s intellectual and cultural work is deeply connected to Bikol. A philosopher, writer, translator, educator, and advocate of Bikol language and culture, Tria has long worked on questions of language, identity, and the recovery of local knowledge.

Bringing Pinoy or Finoy to Naga therefore creates another important conversation: one that connects the national questions raised by the book with the lived experiences of a region whose own languages, histories, traditions, and intellectual traditions continue to shape Philippine identity.

The title itself—Pinoy or Finoy—opens up questions about language, naming, history, and the ways Filipinos understand themselves. Through its “funny and punny” approach, the book invites readers to approach serious questions of decolonization not only through academic discourse but also through humor, linguistic play, everyday experience, and critical reflection.

The Naga launch will bring together writers, educators, cultural workers, readers, and members of the Bikol community for a conversation on the book and the larger questions it raises about language, education, identity, translation, and decolonization.

The event will be held at Kamarin Arts Gallery, Savage Mind Bookshop, Naga City, on October 3, 2026.

For Bikol readers, the occasion is more than another book launch. It is an opportunity to bring a national conversation back to the region from which much of Fr. Tria’s own cultural and intellectual engagement has emerged.