Event Date: August 18, 2023, at 8:00 am

Assalamualaikum.

[STANDARD GREETINGS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GUESTS]

Madayaw ug maayong buntag kaninyong tanan. Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat.

I am delighted to join you today to emphasize the importance of the second and last installment of the First Philippine Book Festival.

We are fortunate to host this event in our beloved city in time for the Kadayawan Festival. To all our guests, welcome to Davao City.

This event exemplifies the National Book Development Board’s unwavering dedication to Filipino students.

At the same time, this highlights the dedication and achievements of everyone in the Philippine publishing industry.

The importance of your work is something that we cannot overemphasize — and the same can also be said about the significance of the books authored by people who have dedicated their lives to the profession and advocacy of sharing their expert or academic knowledge with others, giving inspiration to others, or entertaining others through their stories—fiction or non-fiction.

This is also important for the Department of Education.

Recently, we launched the MATATAG Curriculum with great emphasis on basic competencies, including writing, reading—and comprehension.

Over the past few years, we have seen a painful decline in the ability of our young learners to read and write.

The MATATAG Curriculum is a revised and improved version of the K to 10 program. It hopes to correct the previous program’s flaws that affected our learners’ writing and reading skills—contributing to learning losses.

Our direction is not only for our learners to possess the power of writing and reading—but, most importantly, for them to value this power as it could help them navigate life successfully.

Our campaign necessitates rekindling our learners’ interest in the written word through reading books and other materials that could ignite their curiosity, give space for their creativity, and nurture their intellect.

We intend to offer our learners accurate, responsive, and culturally relevant reading materials.

Books and other related reading materials could change lives.

And through books and other related and relevant reading materials, we want to change the lives of our learners.

This Book Festival is more than gathering our finest book writers, book readers and collectors, illustrators, agents, and publishers.

This is a strong assertion of the role of books in our lives as individuals and as a nation.

It’s a celebration of the infinite areas of learning that may be accessed by turning the pages of a book.

Through workshops, exhibits, and storytelling sessions, we craft an immersive “book experience” that embraces families, visitors, and children.

On this occasion, we also pay tribute to the richness of our culture, history, and language. Each piece of literature is a testament to the depth of Filipino thought, imagination, and narrative.

By promoting our homegrown authors, illustrators, and publishers, we not only give voices to stories that have been waiting to be told for so long—we also celebrate them.

Through the First Philippine Book Festival, let us stand united in our dedication to fostering lifelong learning and a culture that embraces diversity, empowers minds, and sparks the flames of imagination.

Let us also take this opportunity to honor the legacy of our literary pioneers and those yet to come.

Let us nurture the seeds of knowledge that, when planted today, will yield a bountiful harvest for generations to come.

May this festival illuminate our path toward a strong Philippines—where the pages of our shared story are etched with the enduring ink of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration.

Maging MATATAG tayo tungo sa isang Bansang Makabata at Batang Makabansa.

Lahat—para sa Diyos, sa bayan, at sa Pamilyang Pilipino.

Shukran.