TABUK CITY, Kalinga (PIA) – Kalinga author Joan D. Saga-oc can promote better her book, “Folktales From a Kalinga Village”, as a recipient of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Competitive Grant for 2025.
The NCCA Competitive Grants Program awards financial assistance to projects that support the safeguarding, promotion, and development of Philippine arts and culture.
Saga-oc, in her Folktales From a Kalinga Village documented 20 local stories from her village in the town of Lubuagan. These stories that have been passed down for generations through oral tradition are at the brink of vanishing as children no longer hear them from their parents.
With the grant, Saga-oc said she will print more copies to distribute to libraries across the country.
“I already started communicating with libraries all over the country about these Filipiniana books for their consideration, and I am glad they’re responding and willing to get copies,” she said.
This book, along with her other book, Stories From Kalinga: Memoir of a Village Girl, which she self-published last year, was selected by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) as one of the titles to represent the Philippines at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
Her memoir was also named one of the “Favorite Filipino Books of 2024” by Esquire Philippines.
Her books, including her latest illustrated children’s book, “Ay-ay Suwan!”, were also exhibited in the recently concluded Philippine Book Festival in Metro Manila.
Saga-oc launched all her three books on March 22, 2025, at the Kalinga State University.
She said she aims to sell more copies of her books to fund the renovation of an old classroom and the construction of a library in her village for children who endure long walk to school every day.
“My ultimate aim is to build a new classroom with a library in our village so that the children need not walk one hour each way to school,” she said.
To support her cause, readers can order copies of her books through the author’s Facebook page, BREWtiful Jo, a name she said reflects her love for her community and local coffee. (JDP/RGA-PIA CAR, Kalinga)
