SC asked to stop conferment of nat'l artist awards to Alvarez, 3 others

The controversy surrounding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s choice of four national artists was elevated to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. In a 38-page petition, five previous National Artist awardees, a group of artists and other private individuals asked the high court to stop Mrs. Arroyo from conferring the awards to four nominees who allegedly did not undergo the proper selection process for the highest artistic honors. These include Cecille Guidote Alvarez (theater), Magno Jose Carlo Caparas (film and visual arts), Jose "Pitoy" Moreno (fashion design), and Francisco "Bobby" Mañosa (architecture). The petitioners named the four as "private respondents." The four are among the seven awardees Mrs. Arroyo picked on July 29. The petitioners asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order or a status quo order to stop "immediately and initially" the conferment of the honors, even as Malacañang has yet to announce when the awarding ceremonies will take place. They also asked the high court to issue a writ of prohibition "enjoining the conferment of the award on the respondents and the release to them of the awards and benefits arising from such conferment and recognition." The awards are jointly administered by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), and conferred by the President upon recommendation by both institutions. National artists are given medallion and citation. They will also receive a lifetime emolument and material and physical benefits like cash award, a monthly pension, medical and hospitalization benefits. The awardees will likewise receive life insurance coverage, arrangement and expenses for a state funeral, a place of honor, in line with protocular precedence, at national state functions, and recognition at cultural events.

’Irregular, unethical’ The petitioners claimed President Arroyo committed "grave abuse of discretion" in disregarding what they said was a rigorous process for screening and subsequent selection of national artists that took almost two years. Mrs. Arroyo added the names of Alvarez, Caparas, Mañosa, and Moreno in the final list even if they were not chosen or recommended by the NCCA and CCP. The two panels submitted only four names to Mrs. Arroyo: Manuel Conde for Cinema, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz for visual arts, Lazaro Francisco for literature, and Ramon Santos for music. President Arroyo, however wrote Santos off the list and added the four instead without even consulting with the two screening agencies. The petitioners said the law makes Alvarez "ineligible" as a recipient of the award for being the NCCA’s executive director and the president’s adviser on culture. Alvarez also heads the NCCA secretariat that receives nominations for national artists. Guidelines in the nominations for national artists state that "NCCA and CCP Board members and consultants and NCCA and CCP officers and staff are automatically disqualified from being nominated." "Never having been nominated, (Alvarez) was presumably not subjected to the pre-screening and selection process. What is notable is that she even sat as a member of the Final Deliberation Panel, (making) her inclusion in the final list all the more irregular and patently illegal," petitioners said. Earlier, national artist for literature Bienvenido Lumbera noted that Caparas’ nomination was twice rejected by two NCCA panels. "He (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." Malacañang had repeatedly said it was President Arroyo’s prerogative to pick the awardees, while Caparas and Alvarez had repeatedly maintained they were deserving of the honors. Lumbera is one of the petitioners, along with four other national artists, namely: Virgilio Almario (literature), Benedicto Cabrera (visual arts), Napoleon Abueva (visual arts), and Arturo Luz (visual arts). The other petitioners include members of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, which Lumbera chairs, and 66 other private individuals, lawyers, and university professors. - Sophia M. Dedace and Carlo Lorenzo, GMANews.TV