DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 May) — Questions of memory, disinformation, independent publishing, and the future of Mindanawon storytelling took center stage on Thursday, May 21, as writers, scholars, publishers, journalists, and readers gathered for the opening day of the 3rd Mindanao Book Festival at the Ateneo de Davao University.
In the Miguel Pro Learning Commons, conversations among students, writers, journalists, archivists, and readers drifted between shelves and tables displaying regional histories, literary journals, and self-published titles. Nearby, archival photographs tracing Mindanao stories across the decades lined the exhibit space, as the ambient sounds of page-turning and informal discussions blended into the festival’s opening atmosphere.
Held under the theme “Writing Mindanao, Righting Mindanao,” the festival’s opening day brought together writers, publishers, journalists, scholars, and cultural workers from across the region for conversations on history, artificial intelligence, archives, independent publishing, and regional representation.
Carolyn Arguillas, Special Reports Editor of MindaNews and head of its Publications, Archives and Library, framed the festival as a space for reclaiming narratives about Mindanao amid historical distortion that the region has fallen victim to long before today’s age of rising disinformation. Explaining why the festival retained the theme “Writing Mindanao, Righting Mindanao” from the 1stbookfest in 2013 to the 2nd in 2022 and the 3rd in 2026, Arguillas said there remains “a need to continue” asserting “our right to write” stories about the region “from the lenses of Mindanao.”
MindaNews itself was founded in 2001 after Mindanao-based journalists who wrote for a national newspaper grew frustrated with how stories from the region, especially during times of armed conflict, were handled by “the Central Desk” in Manila.
“Long before the age of disinformation and misinformation,” she added, “Mindanao has been a victim of both. We have always been misunderstood… In the national narrative, Mindanao equals violence.”
You are being lied to
The festival’s first session, titled “You Are Being Lied To,” focused on disinformation and the growing challenges posed by AI-generated and manipulated media. The forum featured speakers Yas Ocampo, head of MindaNews Fact Check, Carlos “Naz” Nazareno of Democracy.Net.PH, and Janina “Jan” Santos of Doublethink Lab.
Ocampo gave an overview of MindaNews’ fact-checking work using techniques and tools such as reverse image search, verification of viral AI-generated content, and map-checking to identify the capacity of an open venue, among others. Santos spoke on election security and information operations in Mindanao, and Nazareno discussed the “Evolving Landscape of GenAI, Synthetic, and AI-Manipulated Media.”
During the open forum, Santos described how disinformation and misinformation are also shaped by power imbalances, arguing that “the voice of Mindanao is being drowned out by people who are not even from Mindanao.” She also warned against treating information integrity issues as merely technical concerns, emphasizing that, ultimately, “all these information integrity issues are human rights issues as well.”
Outside the formal panels and lectures, festivalgoers drifted between booths showcasing independent and regional publishing initiatives from across Mindanao. Among those featured were Pawikan Press, Aletheia Publishing, Tridax Zines, ElziStyle eBookShop, Aklat Alamid, Darussalam Bookshop, Mindanao Institute of Journalism, Maven Media Asia. Students browsed through pages and spoke with publishers and writers between sessions.
Elsewhere, archival and photographic displays traced the history of MindaNews since its founding in 2001, with one photograph marking each year of the news organization’s presence. The exhibit sat alongside the displays of Mindanao books and historical materials, underscoring many of the festival’s themes: memory, documentation, regional identity, the continuing struggle over how Mindanao is represented and remembered.
In his welcome remarks in the afternoon session, Jeremy ‘Bong’ Eliab, Vice President for Administration of the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU), framed the festival’s theme, ‘Writing Mindanao, Righting Mindanao,’ as both a literary and civic challenge.
“To write Mindanao,” Eliab said, “is to insist that Mindanao must not be reduced to someone else’s summary.” He noted how the region is often described “from a distance,” flattened into narratives of “conflict,” “poverty,” “danger,” or “exotic,” instead of being understood on its own terms.
“Mindanao is home,” Eliab said. “It’s not a footnote. It’s not merely a setting.” Instead, he described Mindanao as “memory,” “struggle,” “pain,” “beauty,” “grief and courage,” and “many peoples, many languages, many wounds, and many hopes.” He added that the festival’s emphasis on “righting” Mindanao was equally important because “some stories need to be corrected,” “some silences need to be broken,” and “some lies need to be confronted,” especially for those pushed to the margins.
The discussions on information and narrative continued into the afternoon through a lecture by historian and scholar Dr. Patricio N. Abinales titled “Mindanao as Historical Center,” which challenged Manila-centric understandings of Philippine history and argued that Mindanao should instead be viewed as a historical and economic center in its own right. Drawing from maritime Southeast Asian history, Abinales described Mindanao as part of the broader “Nusantara” world, with longstanding trade connections to China, Indonesia, Singapore, and beyond.
“Mindanao was the center of trade before the Spanish,” Abinales said, pointing to the Sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao as examples of political and economic centers that maintained extensive international trade relations even during the colonial period. He also questioned dominant narratives portraying Moro areas as “beleaguered,” arguing that many histories overlook how Spanish forts in Luzon and the Visayas were themselves defensive structures built against Moro resistance.
Turning to Davao, Abinales noted that “early on, Davao was exposed to the world,” tracing how the city’s hemp industry linked it economically to Japan, the United States, and Europe as early as the early 20th century. He urged participants to rethink how Mindanao is taught and remembered in Philippine history, arguing that recovering these histories is also a way of reclaiming regional identity and historical agency.
A separate forum on independent publishing gathered poets, editors, translators, and publishers working outside traditional Manila-based literary structures. Panelists included poet and former UP Mindanao chancellor Ricardo M. de Ungria, author and translator Dr. Mansoor Limba, Pawikan Press publishing director Yasmin Arquiza, and Sophia Escarza of Tridax Zines.
The panel emphasized how independent publishing in Mindanao has become both a creative practice and a response to structural exclusion in the Philippine literary industry. Escarza described Tridax Zines as a project committed to “break[ing] through the cement where mainstream literature built its wall” by nurturing marginalized voices and hybrid regional languages.
De Ungria, meanwhile, criticized the “gatekeeping by padrinos” that often shapes Manila-centered literary circles, contrasting it with independent publishing spaces in Mindanao that he describes as more experimental, collaborative, and community-driven.
Limba also shared how digital platforms, self-publishing, and online distribution allowed him to circulate translations, books on Mindanao studies, and works on Islamic spirituality internationally, with readers from both the Philippines and abroad.
Arquiza likewise stressed that independent publishing is driven less by commercial goals than by the desire to preserve and circulate underrepresented stories and voices, particularly from Mindanao and Palawan. Throughout the discussion, panelists returned to the importance of building literary communities capable of sustaining regional voices, languages, and histories outside Manila-based publishing institutions.
Around the venue, festivalgoers moved between booths featuring local publishers, zines, community archives, and independently produced books.
Day one of the festival ended with presentation of Mindanao books published between July 2022 and May 2026 (the 2nd bookfest honored Mindanao books written between 2020 and June 2022).
“To Mine or Not to Mine: Tampakan’s Copper-Gold Deposit,” written by MindaNews veteran reporter Bong Sarmiento was launched along with the Davao City launch of Fr. Reynaldo Raluto’s Integral Ecology Ministry | Doing Ecological Theology and Advocacy in Light of Laudato Si’.
Raluto’s book, published in September last year, was first launched in Libona, Bukidnon in September last year.
Raluto described his book as the culmination of a decade of theological, ecological, and pastoral work following the release of Pope Francis’ Laudato si’ in 2015, while Sarmiento called his book “almost 25 years in the making,” documenting what he described as his “single longest journalistic coverage of an issue in Mindanao.”
Sarmiento said his book seeks to serve as a “knowledge repository for the present and future generations” by examining both the promises and controversies surrounding the Tampakan mining project, including its environmental, economic, and social implications.
The books of Sarmiento and Raluto were published by the Mindanao Institute of Journalism, the publisher of MIndaNews.
As Arguillas said, “long before the age of disinformation and misinformation, Mindanao has been a victim of both.”
And as Eliab reminded, “Some stories need to be corrected, some silences need to be broken, some memories need to be recovered.”
More than a celebration of books, the festival became a wider conversation about memory, truth, and — amid political noise, historical revisionism, and rapidly changing disinformation technologies — Mindanao’s right to narrate itself.
The 3rd Mindanao Book Festival continues until May 23, with the final day featuring sessions on the Marawi siege nine years later, Bangsamoro politics beyond the transition period, and fact-checking workshops for senior citizens focused on Facebook, algorithms, and online “peyknews.”
The 3rd Mindanao Book Festival was initiated by MindaNews in partnership with the Ateneo de Davao University Libraries. Its otherpartners are the Davao Historical Society, University Archives, University Community Engagement and Advocacy Council, Department of Anthropology, Davao City Media-Citizen Council, International Fact-Checking Network and fyt. (Bea Gatmaytan / MindaNews)
