Senate Bill 2409

One of the most hard-working government agencies is the National Book Development Board (NBDB). I say this not only because I saw myself how NBDB works very hard and very efficiently (when they managed and funded the awarding ceremonies of the National Book Awards), but also because of the very visible results of their various other projects, including the National Book Month that is winding down as you read this.

One of NBDB’s biggest efforts this year is to have Senate Bill 2409 passed into law.

What is SB 2409? It is entitled “Creating a National Book Development Trust Fund to Support Filipino Authorship.” It was sponsored by Senators Edgardo J. Angara, Alan Peter S. Cayetano, and Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada.

The bill aims to create a fund “exclusively for the support and promotion of Filipino authorship especially in Science and Technology and in subject areas wherein locally authored books are either few or non-existent.”

The bill has already passed the House and the Senate. Unfortunately, an amendment was introduced into the original bill that paradoxically works against the interests of Filipino authors.

The original idea was to help writers that cannot get published because their works are non-marketable or commercially unviable. The Fund would then subsidize the publication of such works. The revised bill calls for the Fund to limit itself to works that can be used by DepEd as textbooks or supplementary materials. But such DepEd-related books are very much marketable and commercially viable!

It is not too late for the bicameral committee to remedy this terrible mistake. There is no need for a fund for textbook writers; such writers are already or potentially wealthy. The point is to help starving writers, those that write books that publishers will ordinarily not touch (such as books of plays or literary theory, books in vernacular languages other than Filipino, books on local history, or books about scientific experiments or discoveries).

PUBLIC APOLOGY: As the emcee at the National Book Awards ceremonies, I goofed, not once, not twice, but many times. Among the grievous errors I committed were not properly introducing the NBDB governors, executive director, and staff; not calling to the stage the NBDB-appointed judges to read the lists of finalists (even if I myself had written the script that had them in it); not mentioning our various sponsors (such as the Yuchengco Museum and Fuji Xerox); not even asking all the winners to come together at the end for a group photo.

I have no excuses, since I cannot even plead having senior moments, not being as senior as others that have much better memory and poise. I offer this public apology to those that deserve much more extensive and immediate public acknowledgment of their contributions to the awards. In particular, I want to publicly acknowledge the tremendous work put in by NBDB’s executive director, Atty. Andrea Pasion-Flores, without whom the whole thing (from getting NBDB and MCC together to putting up the show itself) would never have happened. I am sorry, and I say that sincerely.

CHRISTMAS GIFT SUGGESTIONS: If you’re looking for a significant Christmas gift for your significant other, try Lies My Yaya Should Have Told Me: RJ Ledesma’s Imaginary Guide to Whine and Women, by STAR columnist RJ Ledesma, one of my brightest former students. I couldn’t stop laughing and applauding as I read through the book.

If your significant other wants something heavier, both literally and figuratively, you could give her or him the magnificent volume entitled A Continuing Narrative on Philippine Theater: The Story of PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association), which is not just about PETA nor even just about theater, but about the country. Like all PETA products, this is an ensemble product.

If your significant other studied or worked in the University of the Philippines between 1987 and 1993, you could try pleasing her or him with Reinventing U.P. as the National University: Learning for Truth, Leadership and Social Transformation, by Jose V. Abueva. It is a combination of autobiography and history, with a lot of insights on nationhood.

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: Dec. 1 Monday: 1. join/wire, 2. noise/witch, 3. smoke/wood, 4. broken/work, 5. record/worm, 6. manager/worship; Dec. 2 Tuesday: 1. leaf/xenon, 2. farm/xi, 3. smooth/xerography, 4. sugar/xeric, 5. request/xanthophyll, 6. amuse/xanthic; Dec. 3 Wednesday: 1. line/xerox, 2. poor/xylem, 3. stick/xylocarp, 4. apple/xylograph, 5. scissors/xenogamy, 6. tendency/xanthoma; Dec. 4 Thursday: 1. left/x-ray, 2. silk/xylophone, 3. shock/xystus, 4. ever/xylonite, 5. parcel/xenophobia, 6. condition/xenograft; Dec. 5 Friday: 1. dear/yakap, 2. quick/yaman, 3. slope/yuko, 4. even/yasyas, 5. damage/yanig, 6. elastic/yagyag. The numbers after the dates indicate grade level. The dates refer to the official calendar for public elementary schools. For definitions of the words in Filipino, consult UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.