Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española Names Its New Honorary Academics

This article is available in Spanish.

MANILA, Philippines — The Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española conferred the Honorary Academic title to philanthropist Georgina Padilla y Zóbel de Mac-Crohon and publisher Gaspar Vibal for their “relevant merits as proponents of the Spanish language in the P­hilippines.”

The announcement was made July 20 on Facebook by the said institution’s current Director and President Guillermo Gómez Rivera.

Zóbel is an author and sponsor of literary and educational activities to safeguard, enhance and disseminate the Spanish language. She is also the granddaughter of Enrique Zóbel de Ayala, the founder of the Premio Zóbel literary prize.

Vibal is a top executive of the Vibal Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic arm of the textbook publisher Vibal Publishing House. He is also a scholar who has mastered the Spanish language and built an entire foundation dedicated to publishing relevant works written in Spanish by Filipinos.

Zóbel and Vibal will formally be conferred the title in a “Tertulia & Concert” event on Sunday, July 25 at 4 p.m. Philippine Standard Time. Interested participants can join the Zoom meeting in this link using the ID 863 3394 9360 and passcode vibal.

The Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española, or Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language, is an institution that regulates the Spanish language in the Philippines. It was founded on July 13, 1924 as a “further support for the preservation and expansion of the Spanish language.”

Among its prominent members are former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, poet Francisco Zaragoza and the Cardinal of Manila, Jaime Sin.

The said organization corresponds to the Real Academia Española, a cultural institution “dedicated to linguistic regularization among the Spanish-speaking world.”