Karel Julianne Uy

ABM12A-1

2009 Selection of National Artist Controversy

Article: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2009/08/26/499075/supreme-
court-stops-conferment-2009-national-artist-awards

1. What is the controversy stated in the article?

It is when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo added national artists on the
list without going through the selection process. Because of that, people are
rendering verdict on this year’s nominee and on the credibility of the awards
itself.
The National Artists Awards is “the highest national recognition given to
Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the
development of Philippine arts.” The CCP board of trustees explains the
process of selection: “A Research Group of 10 to 20 members sift through
the information submitted on nominees. They verify research and validate. A
council of Experts is created during the NCCA and CCP Boards. In the third
and final stage, the two Boards, along with National Artists themselves,
deliberate and vote from final list of recommended nominees. The final
selection is then sent to the President of the Philippines for confirmation. And
if all goes according to plan, the award ceremonies are held in Malañang.”
In 2009, the painstaking selection process resulted in four names: Lazaro
Francisco for literature, Manuel Conde for Film, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz for
Visual Arts, and Ramon Santos for Music. However, the president named
not four but seven new National Artists, adding Caparas for film, Pitoy
Moreno for Fashion Design, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez for Theatre, and
Francisco Manosa for Architecture – the four of which did not go through the
selection process – and dropping Santos.
2. Who are involved in the controversy?
• Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
• Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
• Department of Budget and Management
• Cultural Center of the Philippines
• National Commission of Culture and the Arts
• Malacañang-named National Artist awardees Cecille Huidote-Alvarez,
Carlo Caparas, Jose Moreno, and Francisco Mañosa.
 • Petitioners were National Artists Virgilio Almario, Bienideo Lumbera,
Benedictor Cabrera, Napoleon Abueva, and Arturo Luz. Joined by the
Concerned Artists of the Philippines, and several university professors
and private persons.
3. What are the actions taken by the following groups or individuals regarding
the controversy?
• Malacañang Palace - Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul
Gonzalez said he expects the Office of the Solicitor General to
defend and insist on the list of National Artist awardees approved by
the Office of the President. President Arroyo was well within her
rights to choose the awardees from outside the list of the CCP and
NCCA and the president’s prerogative to broaden her choice outside
of the NCCA and CCP recommendations was based on Executive
Order 236 establishing the Honors Code of the Philippines.Gonzalez
said the EO, which was issued on Sept. 19, 2003, created a
committee on honors comprised of members of the Cabinet and other
officials in the executive branch to assist the President in evaluating
nominations for recipients of honors. The Arroyo administration was
quick to defend its choices of individuals to be named to the Order of
National Artists. Acting Executive Secretary and Presidential political
adviser Gabriel Claudio told reporters that: "I think we can defend
[their] track record and qualifications and reasons [for their
selection].”He also said the administration would “stand by the
qualifications, qualities, track record and reputation of those named
as National Artists.”

• NCCA and CCP - NCCA sub-commission on the arts head Ricardo de

Ungria, one of the panelists involved in the selection process, insisted
before a congressional committee meeting on the matter that the arts
community “were never apprised of the existence of this animal since
the start of the selection process this year or eight years ago.”

• The person who is/is not proclaimed as National Artist -

Caparas defended his proclamation, saying that other aspirants to the
honor ought to wait their turn. Caparas said that instead of criticizing
his award, entertainment people “should unite and work together to
revive the ailing movie and komiks industry.” He attributed his win to
the fact that he managed to cross over from comic books to film and
 television, and saying that his triumph was significant because he was
a National Artist who came from the working class. “I am a National
Artist who came from the masses," the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted
him as saying. "I work and struggle with them.” He said it was time for
a National Artist “who the masses can identify with—someone who
walks beside them, someone who can inspire them.” Noting that some
Filipinos did not even know the National Artists he said “Hopefully,
since I am still active in TV and in the movies, this will encourage our
countrymen to learn more about our National Artists.”
Guidote-Alvarez also defended her qualifications for receiving the
award. “Before you make a judgment," she said, "read my
achievements first as an artist. Was I an idiot before I became a
national artist?" As proof of her achievements, she cited previous
awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay public service award for the
arts, the CCP Gawad Sining Award for Literature, and the Outstanding
Women in the Nation's Services award. She also cited her important
role in the development of Philippine theater, having founded
the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA) in 1967. She
asserted that the President had the prerogative to name national artists
who were not named in the selection committee's shortlist, and denied
lobbying for the award, saying that President Arroyo had “never talked
to [her] about it."

• Other National Artists – Other National Artists asked the SC to stop the
DBM from releasing “the monetary benefits, entitlements and
emoluments arising from such conferment” to Alvarez, Caparas,
Moreno and Mañosa.
They accused Malacañang of “grave abuse of discretion” when it
disregarded the results of the selection process in inserting the names
of Alvarez, Caparas, Moreno and Mañosa and dropping the name of
Dr. Ramon Santos, the only nominee for the music category.
The petitioners said Alvarez was not qualified for a National Artist
award, being NCAA executive director and presidential adviser on the
culture and the arts. The petitioners said there was no explanation
given for the dropping of Santos from the final list despite his having
passed the rigorous screening and selection process under the
guidelines. Film director Eddie Romero, himself a National Artist for
Film and the Broadcast Arts, explained in an interview that the rules
allow the President to pick a National Artist. He noted, however, that:
“It seems it’s the first time the presidential prerogative was used to
declare four artists. It’s like a wholesale declaration.”
National Artist for literature chairman of the Concerned Artists of the
Philippines Bienvenido Lumbera, said that in the 2009 nominations,
there was “heavy campaigning because the government wanted to
ensure the selection of four people.”

In addition, specific protests were raised regarding the nomination of

NCCA executive director Guidote-Alvarez, because it was purportedly
a breach of protocol and propriety, and of Carlo Caparas, because
protestors assert that he is not qualified to be nominated under either
the "Visual Arts" or "Film" categories in which he was proclaimed to the
order.
Lumbera, who happened to be a member of the combined “final
selection committee" of the NCCA and CCP, noted that: “It was Cecile
Guidote-Alvarez, as executive director of the NCCA, who had insisted
on the President’s right to add names that were not discussed in the
committee.”
Calling the situation "outrageous", he said that: “She should have not
allowed herself to be named as national artist. She’s close to the
President. Nobody in the committee thought that she deserved to be
named."
Alvarez heads the NCCA secretariat that receives nominations for
national artists. Complaints regarding Caparas' proclamation centered
on the complaints that he did not illustrate the comic books he wrote
and therefore did not meet the qualifications for being honored under
the visual arts category, and the assertion of protesting artists that his
work in the category of Film is supposedly "sub-par", being largely
exploitation films: "pito-pito" ("seven-seven") films rush-finished in
seven days, and "massacre films" whose focus was sensational
crimes.
Bienvenido Lumbera remarked that Caparas’ nomination was twice
rejected by two NCAA panels: “[Caparas] was first proposed as a
nominee for literature, but the committee rejected him. He was again
proposed as nominee for visual artist but the panel again turned him
down."
Film Academy of the Philippines director general Leo Martinez noted
that "He was obviously added by Malacañang." Caparas is known as
a vocal supporter of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
 • Supreme Court – SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the
Court saw the urgency to stop the conferment of the national
artist awards pending resolution of the issues raised by
petitioners. Malacañang, Alvarez, Caparas, Moreno, Mañosa
and other respondents were ordered to comment on the petition
within 10 days.

In August 2009, the Supreme Court voids Arroyo’s 4 picks for

National Artist Award.
4. How was the controversy resolved by the groups and individuals involved?
On August 19 a group of National Artists and supporters, led by National
Artists for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera and Virgilio Almario, asked filed a
38-page petition at the Supreme Court "for prohibition, certiorari and
injunction with prayer for restraining order to prevent the Palace from
conferring the title to respondents," to stop "the release of the monetary
benefits, entitlements and emoluments… to private respondents arising
from such conferment," and the "holding of the acknowledgement
ceremonies for their recognition." The petition asserted that:
"For the President to cavalierly disregard the collective judgment of the
CCP and NCCA boards, and substitute her own judgment without a clear
indication of the reasons and bases, therefore, is an unacceptable and
manifestly grave abuse of discretion."
On August 25 the Supreme Court issued a status quo order, stopping
Malacañang from conferring the honor pending deliberation of the petition
to disqualify Alvarez, Caparas, Mañosa, and Moreno. Supreme Court
spokesman Jose Midas Marquez noted that: "The court saw the urgency to
issue the status quo order and stop the conferment of the awards. It has
the same affect as a temporary restraining order."
On September 14, 2009, the Philippines' House of Representatives began
its committee inquiry into the National Artist controversy. In her testimony
before the committee, CCP director and lawyer Lorna Kapunan alleged that
the Malacañang honors committee had not actually held a meeting to
deliberate on the nominees, and that minutes of the said meeting were
therefore forged. Alvarez denied the allegations and insisted that the
selection process for National Artists of the Philippines had always involved
the participation of three committees – those of the CCP, the NCCA and
the Malacañang honors committee.
On the same day, the CCP submitted to the Supreme Court its 31-page
comment regarding the petition to disqualify the National Artists added by
Malacañang to the list of nominees. The CCP reiterated its position that the
four had not been in the original list of nominees. It also requested the
Supreme Court to order the proclamation of its four original choices as
2009's National Artists.
On July 16, 2013, the Supreme Court voided former President Arroyo's
proclamations awarding National Artists to Alvarez, Caparas, Mañosa and
Moreno, four years after the said proclamations. Arroyo inserted these
names although they were not part of the recommendations created by the
Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission on Culture
and Arts. The original nominees were Lazaro Francisco (literature), Dr.
Ramon Santos (music), Manuel Conde (film and broadcast) and Federico
Aguilar Alcuaz (visual arts, painting, sculpture and mixed media). The
justices voted 12-1-2 that struck down the 4 proclamations.[3]
On June 20, 2014, Dr. Ramon Santos was named as one of six new
National Artists.