THE PHILIPPINE Center of the International PEN (Poets & Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) will launch Joel Pablo Salud’s book of essays, “The Chief is in the House,” on July 30, 5 p.m., at the Solidaridad Bookstore, Padre Faura, Ermita, Manila.

Salud is an award-winning poet-fictionist and editor in chief of the Philippines Graphic Magazine.

Published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, “The Chief is in the House” is a collection of 50 essays that, according to the blurb, “displays a vast range of subjects—from the author’s rambunctious world within the walls of the newsroom to controversies that hounded and continue to hound the country and the world at large. It’s an experiment on humor, but one that puts context into what is otherwise needless verbiage.”