MANILA, Philippines ? Local publishing is expected to get a big boost from a new law providing support for authors to help them develop their book projects.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently signed into law Republic Act 9521, or the National Book Development Trust Fund Act - ?An Act Creating a National Book Development Trust Fund to Support Philippine Authorship.?
Originally authored by then Iloilo City Representative Raul T. Gonzalez Jr. and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on the one hand, and Senators Edgardo Angara, Allan Peter Cayetano, and Jose Estrada on the other, the law sets up an endowment fund to provide authors from all regions of the country a grant for them to complete their manuscripts for publication.
The National Book Development Board (NBDB) had pushed for the legislation to support local authors to develop works, especially in science and technology as well as in the creative fields.
?This will benefit veteran and promising authors working or researching on topics in which local books are either few or nonexistent,? said NBDB chairman Dennis T. Gonzalez.
Andrea Pasion-Flores, NBDB executive director, said the trust fund would allow authors to devote more time to writing.
?With the National Book Development Trust Fund, perhaps more people will write those titles that may not be necessarily as lucrative as other books, but are important for the Filipino?s development,? said Flores.
?Through the fund, we want our writers and professionals to create more?write about different aspects of the country, develop more books about science and technology.
?We want to be able to give our people more access to knowledge?local, that is?and get people to rely on Philippine-authored books for knowledge about the Philippines.
?We want our country to contribute more to the development of mankind by sharing more of our own knowledge with the world.?
The new law seeks to put up a P150-million endowment fund within a year. The interest from the fund will provide annually at least 50 grants to authors in all the regions.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., Philippine Charity and Sweepstakes Office, and the National Treasury will each contribute P50 million to the endowment, Flores said.
The NBDB shall be the administrator of the fund. It shall appoint a government financial institution as portfolio manager.
The trust fund will assist authors to produce books especially on science and technology, local history, indigenous children?s stories, translations of classic works into local languages.
?This will motivate and inspire veteran and budding authors to produce new titles or complete their manuscripts,? says Gonzalez.
Book publishing is considered a sunrise industry in the Philippines. Local publishers seek a bigger pie in publishing as imported books still dominate the trade books scene in the country.
According to data gathered by NBDB, the United Kingdom exported ?2.23 million worth of books to the Philippines in 2007. The United States exported US$18.89 million worth of books to this country that year.
The United States? book exports to the Philippines in 2008 (US$19.20M) is 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).
