Words without Borders

The National Book Development Board believes that the promotion of lifelong learning through readership leads to genuine human development, national poverty reduction, and book industry development in the medium to long terms.
We live in a world of words, words that work and don’t work, words that matter & don’t. Words in books can cross safely and become active beyond the borders of time and space, especially if leaders & policy-makers will continue to adhere to the UNESCO principle & the 1950 Florence Agreement on the free flow of information & knowledge.
Also, words and books that endure and spread are products usually of substantial investments in time, effort & resources on the part of creative persons and entrepreneurs. To develop authorship and the creative sector, the NBDB initiated and guided the enactment into law of the National Book Development Trust Fund to support through annual grants Philippine authorship in science and technology and other learning areas where more Philippine publications are needed.

For the very first set of Trust Fund grants, the NBDB received a total of 24 applications from budding & veteran authors. For our upcoming Book Development Month celebration this November, at least 3 deserving authors will receive grants of a minimum of 200,000 pesos each for submissions under the categories of the English Novel, Health & Wellness, and Environment & Biodiversity including Climate Change Adaptation. As the interest of the Trust Fund grows, a bigger number of grants over a wider set of categories can be given next year.
Like government support for authors, the book industry has improved through the years. The private sector has been the main driver of industry growth. Government has not been & should not be the main driver, but certainly government has the important role of preserving and enhancing the environment for healthy competition and growth in a book market with domestic and foreign players.
Through the years, I have been privileged to witness how the Philippine book industry has grown. With the spread of the digital revolution, I am confident that the fundamentals of our book industry have become solid & strong enough to meet the challenges and to grasp the opportunities of this revolution.

May we see book readership & book development in the coming years flourishing with more Philippine publications in printed & electronic forms that cross the borders of time and space, more books that contribute to lifelong learning, books that help us live with more wisdom, joy, or peace so that, whenever we turn to the book of day-to-day life, we do better in enriching its pages with trustworthy words and meaningful works, words and works that cross the boundaries of ignorance, indifference and intolerance.

Book Development for Philippine Development

I humbly propose the following contributions of the National Book Development Board to the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP 2012-2016):
(1) The NBDB shall provide technical support to the Department of Education and Philippine book publishers for the development of textbooks, both printed and electronic, for the additional 3 years of the Enhanced K+12 Basic Education program.
(2) The NBDB shall pursue programs to assist local publishers in increasing the quantity, quality and variety of higher education books, and improving their distribution in all regions of the country.
(3) The NBDB shall monitor periodically the level and quality of book readership among all age sectors of the citizenry, and formulate programs to improve readership.
(4) The NBDB shall pursue programs to support the creative sector in the book industry.
As regards (1), Section 10 of Republic Act 8047 or the 1995 Book Publishing Industry Development Act provides that “the DepEd shall consult with the NBDB in prescribing guidelines, rules, and regulations in preparing the minimum learning competencies, and/or prototypes and other specifications for books required by public elementary and secondary schools.”
As regards (2), our college students and their parents would spend less on imported books if local publishers increased the quantity, quality and variety of higher education books, both printed and electronic. In 2008 and 2009, the US book exports to the Philippines amounted to USD$19.997M and USD$21.281M, respectively (http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/ocg/exp2731.htm). The UK book exports amounted to £ 2.223M in 2008 and £ 2.246M in 2009 (http://www.publishers.org.uk).
To develop local knowledge and create local content in print and electronic formats, the NBDB has organized Academic Publishing Conferences (APC) to offer to higher education institutions several training and development opportunities in which local and foreign book industry experts are involved. We have organized APCs in Quezon City (2007), Cebu (2008), Baguio (2009), Davao (2009), and Makati City (2010).
As regards (3), the NBDB organized the NBDB Readership Survey in 2003 and 2007 with the help of the Social Weather Stations in order to provide to the reading public, educational institutions, and the book industry accurate, up-to-date, and relevant information on the state of Philippine readership nationwide. The NBDB Readership Surveys are the most comprehensive attempts to determine the reading preferences, attitudes and habits of our citizenry.
As regards (4), the NBDB introduced book development interventions to support the creative sector in the book industry by catalyzing the organization of the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society (FILCOLS), a local collective management organization that pursues fair remuneration for copyright-holders and which helps curb illegal photocopying and book piracy.
We have held copyright training activities, and represented the interests of book development stakeholders in the National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) since 2005. According to a World Intellectual Property Organization study by Atty. Emma Francisco, the press and literature sector, which includes book publishing, was the most significant contributor (2.13%) to Philippine GDP among the creative industries.
To support the creative sector the NBDB has organized the 1st Manila International Literary Festival, the 1st National Children’s Book Awards, and the National Book Development Trust Fund to support Philippine authors. We have also professionalized the annual National Book Awards.
For its part, the Philippine book industry increased its yearly output of new books in 2007 (5,518), 2008 (5,819) and 2009 (5,983), based on records from the National Library.
Source Consulted:
Francisco, Emma et al. “The Economic Contribution of Copyright-Based Industries in the Philippines.” http://www.wipo.int/ip-development /cen/creative industry/pdf/1009E-1.pdf p. 20.

Ensuring Textbook Quality

To ensure quality textbooks in the private school system, every school or school association like the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) should set up a textbook procurement system that requires all prospective books to go through an evaluation committee that has clear and established procedures.

Private schools should have an adequate screening system that carefully evaluates the books that they require parents to purchase for their children. If the schools effectively evaluate books before prescribing them, then the publishers will be forced to produce those of better quality knowing that there will be no market for substandard publications. After a textbook has been determined by reliable evaluation to be of good quality, only then should there be other considerations (e.g. discounts & incentives) for any procurement decision.

Unfortunately, it has been reported that some schools make their procurement decisions primarily on the basis of the discounts and incentives (e.g. low-interest loans to finance a school building, expensive gifts like a new school vehicle, or sponsorships of local and foreign trips of teachers & administrators) offered by the publishers. This practice is a major reason for the entry of poor quality books in some schools.

How can the National Book Development Board help private schools and their associations? The NBDB has a Textbook Review Service in which experts from different centers of excellence evaluate books or manuscripts that are voluntarily submitted by publishers and schools. Results of the evaluation are considered by the Governing Board, which then urges the publisher either to take into account the minor or major recommendations of the evaluators or, when the book has been determined to be of poor quality, to stop its production and sale.

Since 2008, the NBDB has given Quality Seal Awards to encourage publishers to produce better books. The agency solicits nominations from schools and publishers for the best books initially in Mathematics and English used in basic education. Six Math books and 1 English book so far have been awarded. These books were judged on the basis of content, editing and design.

I recommend that associations like CEAP should formulate and require their members to adopt a Code of Ethics in Textbook Procurement in which violators will be held accountable and which will promote fairness to the learners, their parents, and the publishers, and respect for rules and procedures.

Such a Code should make it easy for school administrators to answer questions like the following:

Is it right to solicit or accept gifts and sponsorships from publishers and suppliers?

Is it right for a school to demand high (e.g. 40%) discounts from the publishers and then sell the textbooks to the parents at the original prices?

Is it right for a school to monopolize the supply of its required textbooks especially before the opening of classes? (Some schools prohibit the publisher from making the books available through commercial outlets that might sell them at lower prices.)

In the particular case of CEAP schools, which are owned and managed by religious institutes or members of the clergy, should not Catholic parents rightly expect them to be models of fairness and accountability in their textbook procurement?

A Law for Authors

Philippine authors and publishers and the reading public have great reason to celebrate.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has just signed into law the National Book Development Trust Fund To Support Philippine Authorship after both Houses of the 14th Congress have passed Republic Act 9521. A milestone piece of legislation in local book development authored by Iloilo City Rep. Raul T. Gonzalez Jr., Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, Marikina City Rep. Del De Guzman, and co-authored by several members of the House as well as Senators Edgardo Angara, Allan Peter Cayetano, and Jinggoy Estrada, this law will provide authors from all regions of the country a reasonable amount to complete their manuscripts for publication.

This law will benefit veteran and promising authors working or researching on topics in which local books are either few or non-existent. There are many subject areas in which local books are insufficient in number and variety, and most of the books in our libraries and bookstores are foreign publications.

According to data gathered by the National Book Development Board, the United Kingdom exported £2.23 million (around Php 155 million) worth of books to the Philippines in 2007. The United States exported US$18.89 million worth of books to this country in the same year. Total US book export to the Philippines in 2008 (US$19.20M) was bigger than its book exports to New Zealand (US$12M), Malaysia (US$9.95M), Thailand (US$10.10M), Taiwan (US$15.06M) and Hong Kong (US$18.88M).

With its enactment into law, a Trust Fund of Php 150 million will be established within a period of one year, and the interest from the Fund will provide annually at least fifty (50) grants to authors in all regions in order to spur creativity and support the completion of local manuscripts or research works for publication.

The NBDB shall be the administrator of the Fund and shall appoint a government financial institution as portfolio manager, subject to guidelines and decision-making mechanisms promulgated by the NBDB.

The Trust Fund will assist authors to produce books especially on science and technology, local history, indigenous children’s stories, and translations of classic works into local languages. This will motivate and support veteran and budding authors to produce new titles or complete their manuscripts.

The first Book Trust Fund bills were filed by Deputy Speaker Raul M. Gonzalez and Senator Loren Legarda in the 12th Congress in 2003.

We thank the President for her competent and active appointees to the NBDB, viz. Executive Director Atty. Andrea Pasion Flores, Dep. Exec. Dir. Frances Jeanne Sarmiento, and Governing Board members DTI Usec. Elmer Hernandez, NCCA Chair Vilma Labrador, DOST Asec. Malou Orijola, CHED Commissioner Nona Ricafort, UP Vice-President Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Ateneo Professor Queena Lee Chua, and publishers Alegria Limjoco, Alfredo Ramos, and Roland Robles.

The NBDB hopes that the next President in 2010 will also appoint competent and responsible members of the Governing Board who shall be the ones who shall award the initial grants from the interest of the Trust Fund for Philippine authors.