Senator Loren Legarda recently honored the deep cultural ties between the Philippines and Germany at the International Media Visit of the German media delegation visiting the country where she recounted the ambitious dream of having the Philippines take center stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair—the world’s largest and most influential book fair. 

Legarda, the visionary behind the Philippines’ Guest of Honour (GOH) role at the 2025 Frankfurter Buchmesse, said it was her personal mission for the country to achieve such a feat.

“When the Philippines made its modest return to the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2015 after a 15-year absence, I dared to ask, ‘Why not the Philippines as Guest of Honour?’ I took this as a personal mission,” Legarda said during the event held on Tuesday, May 20 at the National Museum of the Philippines. 

“In 2017, I met with Mr. Juergen Boos here in Manila, and that same year, began laying the groundwork. Even when the pandemic threatened to stall our momentum, we stayed the course, and by 2023, that imagination gave way to certainty,” she said, recalling how the invitation finally became official. 

“As you have now seen for yourselves, we are a people of many languages, layered histories, and living traditions. Our literature arises from the confluence of indigenous wisdom, colonial legacies, ecological wonder, and global conversations. Our writers speak of struggle and healing, of memory and becoming, of home and the world beyond it,” she told the German media delegation. 

At the same time, Legarda shared her own roots in the media, as a young journalist “reporting on the realities of everyday Filipinos.”

“That pursuit of truth deepened into a commitment to action when I was elected senator at the age of 38. Today, as the longest-serving female senator in our history, I continue to dedicate myself to the noble work of uplifting Filipino lives,” she said. 

Among the cultural preservation measures Legarda authored include the National Cultural Heritage Act and the Cultural Mapping Law. 

On the international front, Legarda said Sentro Rizal and the Philippine Studies Program are helping to share Filipino identity and scholarship around the world.

The senator spoke of the longstanding ties between the Philippines and Germany, especially through the legacy of Rizal, who published Noli Me Tangere in Berlin in 1887. 

Legarda recalled visiting the Ullmer vicarage in Wilhelmsfeld, where Rizal completed his novel. According to the lawmaker, she is now working to secure that historic site as a permanent space for Filipino-German cultural exchange.

With the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair drawing near, the senator expressed her hope that the stories and experiences the delegation encountered in the Philippines would carry forward into their storytelling.

“As you traveled across our islands these past days, I hope you have felt the force of imagination around you, flowing through our stories, etched in our landscapes, and alive in the spirited conversations that welcomed you,” she said.