Paging all Filipino textbook writers!

When we were Americanized (and hambur-gerized) by the Americans a long, long time ago, Filipino grade school teachers were teaching their pupils something like, "John jumps over the fence." Or "Jack and Jill went up the hill." Or remember the typing exercise "The little brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"?

Fast forward to year 2001: Today, students of Sibika at Kultura are saying, all together now, "Si Juan ay lumukso sa bakod." They’re playing basketbol, balibol, beysbol. And yes, they’re fond of eating bistik, tsokolate, keyk.

"Back then, students in Catholic schools had their Faith and Freedom Series," Alegria Sibal, a magna cum laude graduate of Centro Escolar University College of Dentistry in 1934, leafs through the pages of time. "But then I asked, ‘This is the Philippines but how come our students are studying about the United States of America?’ So we thought of publishing a similar series but adapted to the Philippine setting, like Pearl of the Orient."

But that’s getting ahead of our story that’s one for the books.

Alegria Rodriguez met young lawyer Ernesto Sibal and married him when she was 24. They had nine children – Ernesto targeted 12, believing in the saying "cheaper by the dozen." The children came one after the other: Lita, Tony, Cora, Jesse, Bing, Manny, Frankie, Lynda and Penny.

During the war, the Sibal family fled to San Mateo, Pampanga with the family of Don Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez. The Sibals had a house in Bacolor where family friend Diosdado Macapagal, the poor boy from Lubao, would often dine. After the war, they bought a house and several lots in what was then just developing as New Manila. That house served as the command post of the Japanese during the war. When the Japanese fled, they left behind lots of office supplies, including bond paper, toilet paper and soap, enough to open a store with. Which was exactly what Alegria did.

"I asked a cousin who had a furniture store on Avenida Rizal if I could put a small table in front of her store to sell my wares," Alegria recalls. "Since the furniture business was slow anyway right after the war, they put me inside the store. I paid a modest rent and soon, the little stand began to grow."

But soon, the stocks left by the Japanese started running out and Alegria had to think of other things to sell. She noted that there was a market for second-hand books so she added this to her merchandise offerings. So her now big stand grew some more until it occupied the greater part of the store. But Alegria felt that her husband’s skills were not being put to good use. A practicing corporate lawyer and professor, Ernesto Sibal took time out to organize a company which they named Alemar’s.

"It was named after my mom Alegria and us, her Marias," says Bing Sibal Limjoco.

"I would leave our house in Quezon City at 6 a.m. and take the karetela to go to Quiapo every day (all through her last five pregnancies)," relates Alegria, who chose to be more than just a housewife way back when women didn’t have much of a career – or a life. "There were no jeepneys yet then, there was no pollution. We would go home at 9 p.m.."

Ever on the lookout for other opportunities, Alegria decided to buy a second-hand printing press. She encouraged Ernesto to go into publishing. They put up the Phoenix Publishing House as a pioneer in Filipino-authored textbooks. The couple’s vision was to take the Filipino students beyond the then proliferating American schoolbooks being imported and reprinted here. A staunch believer in developing a sense of nationalism among students, Ernesto lobbied for Filipino-authored textbooks in the education sector.

With the Phoenix Publishing House incorporated in 1958, the Sibal couple developed the Reading for Living and Learning Series. Later, there was the English Communication Arts Series. Soon, Phoenix earned a name in the pages of Philippine textbook history.

"Behind every successful man is a woman," says proud daughter Bing Sibal Limjoco. "Behind my father is my mother, who prodded my father to make the first step in textbook Filipinization, providing an impetus towards publishing quality instructional materials for and by Filipinos."

Says Penny Sibal Balbin: "Our parents took the risk. Before, PECO only imported books and wanted schools to read only American books."

Phoenix aims to: 1) introduce Philippine materials into all textbooks, 2) encourage Filipino textbook writers, 3) bring down the cost of textbooks and other teaching materials, 4) make available a steady supply of textbooks.

"A book for every Filipino student – that was the dream of our parents," says Bing. "Our strengths are in English, reading and grammar."

When Ernesto Sibal passed away in 1977, his son Jesus Ernesto Sibal assumed the presidency of the family business and, with his siblings, continued his father’s ideal of giving Filipino children more Filipino-crafted books.

The Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) has approved and endorsed to private and public schools alike a considerable number of Phoenix-produced textbooks, reference, instructional and supplementary materials from grade school to college.

"We want to give Filipino authors a chance," say the Sibals. "We want to give these brilliant teachers a chance to earn extra income so they can stick to their profession. We want to help improve not only the quality of education but also the quality of life for our teachers. Yes, they get handsome royalties – in the millions. That’s how they can buy fine homes and nice cars."

To help teachers teach better, Phoenix publishes flow charts for teachers and funds training seminars. "We’re upgrading not only the textbooks but also the teachers who use them," says Penny.

Now, Phoenix is revising textbooks in response to the new curriculum. "They’ll teach more Filipino values, more values about the environment," Penny points out.

So in the Sibika at Kultura class, students are learning to "magpakita ng pagpapahalaga sa kalikasan."

Now, how do you say "Class dismissed" in Filipino?