Vice President Sara Duterte stressed the importance of libraries as information providers amid technology evolution and the digital age.
Duterte said this during the opening of the 32nd Library and Information Services Month (LISM) at the National Library on Friday, November 4.
In her speech, the Vice President, who is also the Education Secretary, said that despite the digital world's features and the convenience it provides to the people, these "should only serve as a support to in-person instruction."
Duterte underscored the significant contribution of libraries to one's self-enrichment and personal development.
"This brings me back to the relevance of advocating for the importance of libraries, given that they are founded on the idea of a real community organizing a wealth of information and serving for the personal enrichment of the people," she said.
"As a repository of knowledge, libraries play a crucial role in ensuring that our people are well-informed, making them assets to our schools, communities, and nation," she added.
Vice President Duterte said that while these learning facilities have maintained their integrity, it was "not an easy task in this day and age."
"Today, we are virtually swimming through a vast, endless ocean of digital information. And just like an ocean, the information that can be had through digital information is breathtaking as it is abundant. But it is not without dangers," Duterte said.
"Those waters are often perilous. Like the deep blue sea, the digital world has an ecosystem that — if not managed well, if not utilized well — may confuse the public, steal away the quality and truthful information, contribute to miseducation, and lead them right down its darkest parts," she added.
Meanwhile, Duterte recalled that during the pandemic, when she was still mayor of Davao City, the city library launched "Share a Book," which benefited people undergoing quarantine in temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.
"The Davao City Library also continued the implementation of the Book Lending Program to give community children educational activities while the city was on lockdown," she said.
"Through the Davao City's Mobile Library — a bus loaded with books and other reading materials — books were delivered right to the barangays. And children were asked to choose which books they wanted to read," she added.