by Atty. Dominador D. Buhain

As a founding Chairman of the NBDB, may I be privileged to state that the holding of the PBF is the culmination of the prolonged years of struggle of the book industry.

In fact, several decades have lapsed prior to the intervention of the Philippine Book Development Federation (Philbook) and the Philippine Educational Publishers Association (PEPA), among others, together with the help of my fraternity brothers at the Aquila Legis Fraternity with many representations then   in Congress with Congressman Antonio Cerilles as major proponent in the house before the Book Publishing Development Act or RA 8047 was passed in June 1995.

After the passage of the law, for the succeeding twenty-five (25) years the heart of the law (Sections 10 and 11 of RA 8047) which mandate that the publishing and distribution of textbooks to the public schools’ students be exclusively pursued by the private sector was never implemented.

It was only during the entry of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Administration through DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones that the supply of supplementary learning materials (SLMs) to the public schools by the private sector publishers was allowed although the law requires textbooks.

It was followed by the entry of the new administration through President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Vice President and concurrently DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte who similarly gave recognition to continue with what has been started by implementing fully RA 8047 particularly on the supply of textbooks to the public schools.

Another important development is the entry of the dynamic leadership of NDBD under Chairman Dante “Klink” Ang II and ED Charisse Aquino-Tugade with their highly qualified staff, who invited the other sectors like the comics and other literary materials producers to form part of the Filipinization advocacy.

It may be recalled that during the preceding twenty-five (25) years, NBDB on one occasion joined the Frankfurt Bookfair.  On the following day after the opening of the Bookfair, news on NBDB landed on the first page of a newspaper of general circulation not due to its achievements but for alleged misappropriation of funds.

Due to such development, personal funds were availed of in joining the succeeding Frankfurt Bookfairs and with the limited budget, oftentimes the booth was situated near the toilet or at a depressed area.

This scenario appears not to exist anymore as our country is now prestigiously represented in Frankfurt, London, Sharjah Bookfairs and other noteworthy places.

DepEd in coordination with the NBDB has begun implementing Sections 10 and 11 which would finally grant to the private publishers the privilege of supplying textbooks to public school students.

Finally, our struggle has ended as we have now a Filipinized bookfair through the incumbent leadership of the NBDB with the support of the stakeholders in collaboration with the Department of Education.

Marami pong salamat.