My Bucket List 3

Third on my bucket list is institutionalizing the National Book Awards.

In 1981, Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta, Alfrredo Navarro Salanga, Alfred A. Yuson, and I met in a small eatery across the street from the University of Santo Tomas and decided to establish the Manila Critics Circle. Except for textbooks, there were very few books being published then in the Philippines. We wanted to honor the authors and publishers of the best of the non-textbooks. The next year, we gave the first of what would be annual National Book Awards, with trophies donated by Eduardo Castrillo.

We eventually invited more book reviewers to join us. We unfortunately also eventually lost some of our members – Salanga himself, Leonidas V. Benesa, and Doreen G. Fernandez. Right now, the members of the Circle are, aside from the three surviving founders, Virgilio S. Almario, Juaniyo Arcellana, Cirilo F. Bautista, Fr. Miguel A. Bernad, S.J., Ruel de Vera, Resil B. Mojares, Danton R. Remoto, and Soledad S. Reyes. Our honorary member who does not join our deliberations because he lives in Michigan is Roger Bresnahan.

Except for a couple of years when I was either abroad or in government, I did most of the secretarial work for the Circle, such as asking publishers for copies of their books, soliciting funds and trophies, and setting up the awarding ceremonies.

Since I was not getting any younger, and neither were most of the other members of the Circle, we decided sometime last year to find a way to get an institution to take over the National Book Awards. We still wanted to be the ones to decide which books should get awards, but we (certainly, I) no longer had the energy to run around looking for money, sculptors, and venues.

We turned to the National Book Development Board (NBDB), which had been supporting us financially in recent years. (In our early years, the Circle even sat on the Board.) We were very lucky that the Chair of the Board, Dennis T. Gonzalez, and its Executive Director, Andrea Pasion-Flores, loved good books as passionately as we did. We asked them and the members of the current NBDB board (also a particularly well-chosen group of governors) to take over the awards, and they agreed.

As authors and publishers already know, the process of choosing finalists for the awards has been democratized, with professional organizations now invited to help the Manila Critics Circle choose the best books in their respective fields. Now, instead of having to read all the books published in a given year (last year, each of us in the Circle had to read something like 400 books, which probably contributed to my having to have a laser operation recently), we have to read only 50 or so pre-selected books.

Now, I have one less thing to worry about.

I believe that a project manager should be able to let go of the project and watch on the sidelines as it becomes more successful once he or she is out of the picture.

Through the years, I accumulated a lot of debts of gratitude, most especially to Primetrade Asia, which hosted the awards during the Manila International Book Fair. To Primetrade and to all the government agencies (such as NCCA), publishers, sponsors, universities, sculptors, and others that supported the National Book Awards, thank you very much! (To be continued)

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL: I am a member of the Advisory Board of an international school in Alabang, the MIT International School. If you are an expatriate looking for a place for your child or a Filipino parent looking for an international school with an Asian ambiance, you might want to take a look at this school.

The Korean-run school offers what other international schools offer – a K-12 curriculum, small classes, highly qualified teachers, and excellent facilities (including two grand pianos!). In addition, it has a very strong social orientation. It offers numerous full scholarships to children from nearby squatter areas, allowing the Filipino children to have an international education and also allowing the expatriate children to have a more realistic view of what our country is like.

Here is the philosophy behind the school, as announced in its brochure:  “The essence of the school’s philosophy of education is embedded in the  slogan, ‘Fostering willful learning and living well with others.’ The slogan is an expression of the school’s conviction that properly motivated students can master basic skills and reach their respective potentials for success. Consonant to this overriding faith is the confidence that the school can be effective regardless of the varied social and cultural factors affecting schooling. Nonetheless, the philosophy of education embraces the principle that the highest standards of learning and conduct are better achieved when teachers and school staff work in close collaboration with families. The school, therefore, affirms that students respond positively to the challenges of rigorous academic work and to the demands of responsible citizenship within a warm and supportive community and through the life example of their mentors.”