CARMEN GUERRERO-NAKPIL, whose distinguished, decades-spanning work in journalism and creative nonfiction earned her widespread acclaim as one of the Philippines’ best essayists, died on Monday at the age of 96.

In a text message to historian and Manila Times columnist Michael Charleston “Xiao” Chua that he shared on Facebook, Guerrero-Nakpil’s eldest child, writer and former Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta, said her mother died at 1:30 a.m.