Calling on authors and poetry entries

On March 5, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9521 — “An Act Creating a National Book Development Trust Fund to Support Filipino Authorship.”

This signal instance of landmark legislation bodes well for Philippine literature as well as the publishing industry, giving Filipino authors, publishers and the reading public much cause to celebrate.

The first National Book Development Trust Fund bills were filed by then Deputy Speaker and now Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez and Senator Loren Legarda during the 12th Congress in 2003.

In the present 14th Congress, Senate Bill No. 2409 or the National Book Development Trust Fund Act was filed on June 11, 2008 by senators Edgardo J. Angara and Allan Peter Cayetano, with Jinggoy P. Ejercito-Estrada, Manuel Villar, Manuel “Lito” Lapid and Juan Miguel F. Zubiri winding up as co-authors.

House Bill No. 4213 was principally authored by Iloilo City Rep. Raul T. Gonzalez Jr., Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, and Marikina City Rep. Del De Guzman, chair of the House committee on education, with several other members of the House eventually serving as co-authors.

The parallel bills were consolidated into R.A. 9521, with both Houses of the 14th Congress approving it on January 19. 

With its enactment into law, a National Book Development Trust Fund of 150 million will be established within a period of one year, with the interest from the Fund providing anywhere from 50 to 65 annual grants “to authors in all regions in order to spur creativity and support the completion of local manuscripts or research works for publication.” 

The Trust Fund will be sourced from the annual General Appropriations Act for a period of five years at P10 million a year starting on the law’s enactment. Additionally, P50 million will come from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) while another P50 million will come from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), both to be given at P5 million a month for a period of ten months. 

Tasked to administer the Fund is the National Book Development Board or NBDB, which is mandated “to appoint a government financial institution as portfolio manager, subject to guidelines and decision-making mechanisms promulgated by the NBDB.”

NBDB chair Dr. Dennis T. Gonzalez hailed the new law at the signing ceremony conducted in Malacañang Palace in the presence of several authors and book industry leaders:

“This will motivate and inspire veteran and budding authors to produce new titles or complete their manuscripts. The measure will benefit all authors working or researching on topics in which local books are either few or non-existent.”

The Trust Fund will assist authors in the production of local books, especially on science and technology, local history, indigenous children’s stories, and translations of classic works into local languages, among others.

It has been noted by the NBDB that there are many subject areas in which local books are insufficient in number and variety, with most of the books in libraries and bookstores being foreign publications.  

According to data gathered by the NBDB, the United Kingdom exported around 155 million pesos worth of books to the Philippines in 2007, while the United States’ book export of US$19.20M or close to one billion pesos’ worth in 2008 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). 

Dr. Gonzalez, who is also associate dean of the Ateneo School of Government, also thanked the President for her astute appointments to the NBDB, namely executive director Atty. Andrea Pasion Flores, deputy executive director Frances Jean Sarmiento, and governing board members DTI undersecretary Elmer Hernandez, NCCA chair Vilma Labrador, DOST assistant secretary Malou Orijola, CHED commissioner Nona Ricafort, UP vice president for Public Affairs Dr. 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, which shall award the initial grants from the interest of the Trust Fund for Philippine authors.

Now the ball is in our writers’ hands. Poets, playwrights, novelists, creative non-fiction writers, scholars, researchers and translators from all over the archipelago, writing in any language, should double their efforts, now that an average of at least one book per week can be funded owing to this most welcome new law.

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The Maningning Miclat Art Foundation is calling on young poets aged 28 and below to submit entries to the 2009 Maningning Miclat Trilingual Poetry Competition in three divisions: Filipino, English and Chinese.

An entry must have at least eight but not more than 15 poems. Authors may join all the divisions but can submit only one entry in each division. All entries should be original in any of the three languages and not a translation of another entry.

Four copies should be submitted, with the poems printed double-spaced on regular bond paper with one-inch margins on all sides, using Arial or Times New Roman size-12 font. Only a pen name must be printed on an entry, with the real name and pen name submitted in a separate sealed envelope together with the entrant’s biodata, birth certificate copy, and a notarized declaration of originality and authenticity of authorship. 

Entries must be addressed to the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, Inc. (MMAFI), 2nd Floor, Mile Long Building, Amorsolo St., Legaspi Village, Makati City (Tel No. 816-7490 to 91) not later than 5:00 p.m. of April 15, 2009. Entries sent by mail should be postmarked/invoiced not later than April 1, 2009.

The Maningning Award, handed out yearly since 2003, honors China-born Maningning Miclat, a poet in three languages, a published essayist, and a prizewinning visual artist who was also a teacher, translator and interpreter. Her collection Voice from the Underworld (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2000) is the first book of poetry in the world in Filipino, English and Chinese written solely by one author. Some of her poems were included in a book of top international women poets in Chinese published in China. She passed away in September 2000.

The Maningning Miclat Art Foundation was formed in 2001 to carry on the artist/poet’s legacy, encourage creativity, and support outstanding young poets and artists. The trilingual poetry competition is held during odd-numbered years, while the painting competition is held during even-numbered years.

Grand winners in the divisions of the Poetry Competition will each receive P28,000 together with a Julie Lluch trophy and the special collector’s edition of the books Voice from the Underworld, Beauty for Ashes: Remembering Maningning and Beyond the Great Wall: A Family Journal, which won a 2006 National Book Award for biography.

Past winners of the Maningning Poetry Awards are Naya Valdellon and Joselito delos Reyes in 2003; Allan Pastrana, Joseph Saguid and Ye Cai-sheng in 2005; and Raymond John de Borja, Erica Clariz delos Reyes and Chen Si-yuan in 2007.

For more information on the 2009 Maningning Miclat Art Competition, e-mail maningningfoundation@gmail.com or amiclat2008@yahoo.com. You may also log in to www.maningning.com.