The Philippines as ‘Guest of Honor’ country

These past months — years, actually — I have been sharing my wife Neni’s plans and frustrations in preparation for the Philippines to be the Guest of Honor in the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the world, witha proud history and tradition that began in 1949.

- ELFREN S. CRUZ

Although this grand initiative has taken her away from home, as a lover and collector of Philippine books, I thoroughly support this endeavor which I know is a once-in-a-lifetime break for the Philippine publishing industry. On the eve of her departure, Neni writes:

“This is my nth trip to Frankfurt, Germany for the Frankfurter Buchmesse. It began during my term as chair of the National Book Development Board (NBDB) when Sen. Loren Legarda was approached by then NBDB governor and publishing icon Karina Bolasco, to help the publishing industry the way she helped Philippine art and architecture return to the Venice Biennale after a 50-year absence. And what tremendous help she has been extending — with the kind of all-out assistance the industry had never before received from anyone in government ~ so that what we all thought was another wild dream of hers will be a reality in a few days, on Oct. 14 ~ for the Philippines to be Guest of Honor (GoH), only the second Southeast Asian country to be so privileged, after Indonesia in 2015.