TWO PROFESSORS of the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters have been elected to the board of trustees of the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), the country’s largest organization for authors and publishers involved in book trade.
Department of Literature Prof. John Jack Wigley and Asst. Prof. Benedict Parfan were among the 13 newly-elected BDAP officers announced by the organization’s Facebook page last Monday, Jan. 15. They will remain in their posts until December 2025.
Parfan, the director of the UST Publishing House (USTPH), said he wants a stronger collaboration in the book industry to foster “more interactions” among authors and readers.
“As trustees, our participation in BDAP will also open doors to the [U]niversity as regards major international book events and organizations,” he said in an article published on UST’s website.
“[Being in BDAP] will also give the USTPH a voice in influencing policies concerning the publishing industry,” he added.
Wigley, a former literature department chair, said the association would take part in local and international book fairs and awarding ceremonies to strengthen readership and book publishing in the country.
Wigley has served different posts in the association since 2013. He was a treasurer and committee chair on membership from 2013 to 2015. From 2015 to 2017, he was a member of the association’s industry grants and programs and projects committees. During the same period, Wigley was a board member and treasurer of BDAP.
Established in 1979, BDAP aims to boost the Philippine publishing industry’s global competence. It is involved in managing the Manila International Book Fair, the country’s largest and longest-running book-selling event, and the Gintong Aklat Award, a biennial recognition launched in 1981 to recognize outstanding publishers. F
