Gintong Aklat Awards

 Vibal Foundation is honored with Publisher's Award in Manila Int'l Bookfair

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte 

After receiving the prestigious "Best Academic and Scholarly Publisher" distinction at the recently-concluded Gintong Aklat Awards, the Vibal Foundation aims to sustain its momentum with the launch of ten new titles during the 2024 Manila International Book Fair at the SMX Convention Center.

"Vibal has been in the book industry for the past 72 years. Seventy per cent of our publications are textbooks, while the 30% is comprised of trade books and children's books. The government supports children's books. The Department of Education buys these books for public libraries.

"We also print textbooks for schools. Vibal always joins regional and national book fairs. Our bestsellers, to date, are the "Boxer Codex" and "Pugot." Book lovers can always visit our physical store at the Lucky Chinatown mall," shared Kristine Mandigma, executive director of the Vibal Foundation during the 'Vibal Tertulia: Book Launch, Book Talks' event. She is the first non-Vibal publisher sitting in office.

Organized by the Book Development Association of the Philippines, the Gintong Aklat Awards recognises the outstanding contributions of publishers for their exemplary books published from 2022 to 2023.

The ten new Vibal titles are:

- Colonial Philately: Philippine Postage Stamps 1854-1946 by Jose Eleazar Bersales

- The Twentieth-Century Philippines in Ten Novels: Literature as History (1913-1975) by Soledad Reyes

- Travel Notes by Paz Mendoza Guazon

- A Visual Guide to Philippine Ancient History edited by Vicente Villan

- Philippine Cinematic Art (Second Edition) by Gaspar Vibal, Andrea Peterson, Nicanor Lanom, and Christopher Datol

- Old Jolo and Zamboanga 1268-1945 by Mark Francis Francisco

- More Mindanawon Than We Admit: History, Culture, and Identity in the Philippine South edited by Jhoanna Lynn Cruz

- More Political Than We Admit: Theories and the Problematic of Philippine Politics edited by Julio Teehankee

- The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States 1898-1925 (Second Edition) by Marcial Lichauco and Moorfield Storey 

- Insular Yet Global: Selected Essays of Fernando Zialcita by Fernando Zialcita 

The vision of the Vibal Foundation is to engage Filipinos in intellectual discussion of Philippine history, culture, and the arts by providing beautiful and insightful print and digital materials.