Senate okays P150M book dev't trust fund

The Senate committee on education, arts, and culture chaired by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano recently approved on second reading a measure creating the P150-million National Book Development Trust Fund to support Filipino authorship nationwide. “If passed into law, the interest derived from the Trust Fund will enable at least 65 grants worth P150,000 to be awarded annually to each region. This will enable deserving writers or researchers in the Philippines to produce or finish excellent manuscripts on a variety of topics or subject areas for publication,” Cayetano said in his sponsorship speech.

Senate Bill 2409 was authored by Cayetano, together with Senators Edgardo Angara and Jinggoy Estrada. Once enacted, the bill will create the trust fund to support Filipino authors who, at present, are unable to earn a livelihood through writing alone, and must take on regular full-time jobs in other fields. This situation is detrimental to their writing.

“The amount of the grant will depend on the quality of the manuscript, and a number of related factors including the usefulness of the study, its commercial viability, as well as the amount of time needed by the author to conduct their research, take a leave from their jobs and finish writing the manuscript,” continued Cayetano. The Senate received HB 4213, the House version of the trust fund bill that merged House Bill 1401 authored by Iloilo City Rep. Raul Gonzalez Jr. and House Bill 1948 authored Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

As fund administrator, the National Book Development Board (NBDB) will be tasked with preparing the implementing guidelines and decision-making mechanisms, and appoint a government financial institution as fund manager.

NBDB chairman Dr. Dennis T. Gonzalez observed that “if enacted into law, the fund will provide considerable support to the creative sector especially to our authors in the regions.”