I’ve been going to the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) since it started, and I am glad that it has grown and that many people are trooping towards it. I can’t say that Filipino reading habit has progressed but I can celebrate that print is not yet dying. MIBF has become the longest running and the largest book fair in the country.

This year, MIBF 2024 was held from 11 to 15 September at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, and one of the recent developments is that it has grown from being a mere book sale to an event with many activities that include talks, performances, meet-and-greets, launches, etc.

In recent years, some exhibitors have also came up with conceptual or thematic booths. This year, the booth of the Vibal Group was one of the most spacious and most attractive with its Garden of Knowledge concept, with the Tree of Knowledge, a book shelf in the shape of a tree crowned with artificial branches and leaves, standing as an attraction. Moreover, they provided an full and interactive experience with a section for children where kids and their parents can lounge, read and draw, and an area for events such as performances, meet-and-greets, lectures and talks, aside from the main area where fairgoers can browse at their numerous titles and get their books signed by featured authors. In fact, their booth clinched second place in the booth design competition held by MIBF organizers.

The Vibal Group is known as a publisher of school textbooks but it established Vibal Foundation in 2007 to publish trade books as well as print and digital materials on Philippine history, culture, and arts. While the bulk of books that Vibal publishes remains to be textbooks, with about 70 percent of its whole production, its trade books have been gaining attention because of its beauty, scholarly value and intriguing subjects. According to Kristine Mandigma, Vibal Group chief executive officer and Vibal Foundation executive director, their bestselling books include their print of the 16th-century Spanish manuscript The Boxer Codex, transcribed and annotated by Isaac Jimenez Donoso and translated into English by Maria Luisa Garcia, Carlos Quirino, and Mauro Garcia; Father Manuel Blanco’s Flora de Filipinas, a book on Philippine plants first published in 1837; and Púgot: Head Taking, Ritual Cannibalism, and Human Sacrifice in the Philippines by Narciso C. Tan, among others.

Because of these efforts, Vibal was awarded the Best Academic and Scholarly Publisher citation by the Gintong Aklat Awards, organized by the Book Development Association of the Philippines.