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Thursday, May 25, 2006
Arroyo proclaims FPJ nat’l artist for cinema
President Arroyo signed yesterday the declaration of seven national artists for 2006, including the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., her chief rival in the 2004 presidential elections.
Arroyo, in separate presidential proclamations, declared the following as new national artists: Poe, film; Bienvenido Lumbera, literature; Abdulmari Asia Imao, visual arts (sculpture); Ramon Valera, architecture, design and allied arts (fashion design); Ildefonso Santos Jr., architecture; Benedicto Cabrera, visual arts (painting); and Ramon Obusan, dance.
In Proclamation 1069, Arroyo said “the works and achievements of the late Ronald Allan K. Poe also known as Fernando Poe, Jr. in the field of film are reflective of this pre-eminent excellence, and the national genius that contributes to the artistic heritage of the Philippines and the world.”
The proclamations for the other national artists have the same wording, except for the names and their respective categories.
All the awardees, except Imao, passed through a series of screenings by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Imao was eliminated during the initial screening but Arroyo inserted him in the final list.
Ermita, in his weekly press briefing, expressed hope that Poe’s widow, actress Susan Roces, will attend the awarding ceremony and receive her husband’s award from Arroyo, whom Roces has accused of stealing the presidency “not just once, but twice.”
The awarding has been scheduled on June 9.
He said Roces’ ill feelings towards the Arroyo administration may have waned.
Roces’ friend, Marichu Maceda, reportedly said Roces did not want to comment in the meantime on the award and whether she would attend the awarding.
Poe, who was born Ronald Allan Kelley Poe to Elizabeth Kelley and actor producer Fernando Poe Sr., began his career in the movies as a stuntman for Everlasting Pictures as actor Lilia Dizon’s double in “Sonaron” in 1955. His first acting role was “Anak ni Palaris” in 1950. Director Mario Barri gave him his screen name, after his father who had earlier played the title role in “Palaris” in 1946.
He threw his hat into the political ring in the 2004 elections but lost to Arroyo. However, many Filipinos who question Arroyo’s legitimacy believe it was Poe who won the elections.
Meanwhile, the creations of Valera, the first fashion designer to become a national artist, have been displayed in the National Museum. He reinvented the baro’t saya or terno into a single piece and did away with the cumbersome panuelo and tapis. The terno has since continued to morph into new forms and silhouettes.
Cabrera, a painter, is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. He has exhibited widely in the Philippines and in Asia, Europe, and the US and won several major art awards in a career spanning four decades. He lives and works in Baguio City. He and his friends have set up a 2.5-hectare artists’ village.
Lumbera published his first stories and poems in 1953. He got a Fulbright Fellowship where he earned a PhD in Comparative Literature and wrote a now-classic study of Tagalog poetry. He also established himself as a drama critic and leading scholar of Tagalog literature.
Santos is acknowledged as the Father of Philippine Landscape Architecture and is instrumental in lifting the profession of landscape architecture in the country.
Obusan earned his degrees in fisheries technology and cultural anthropology at the University of the Philippines. In 1971, he founded the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, and has since choreographed and directed for some 65 dance groups and over 100 productions nationwide.
Imao is a writer, photographer, cultural researcher, and educator. He has made the traditional sarimanok and okkit/okkir motif of Tausug and Maranao a part of national consciousness as well as a popular topic of discourses in the academe.
Imao is also an internationally recognized brass caster, the first Asian recipient of the New York Museum of Modern Art grant to Europe and Scandinavia in 1963, a recipient of the presidential merit award in 2005, and a national artist nominee in 1997.
A national artist is conferred a medallion and citation, P100,000 cash net of taxes, a monthly life pension, medical and hospitalization benefits, life insurance coverage for awardees who are still insurable, a place of honor at state functions, national commemoration ceremonies and other cultural events, and arrangements and expenses for a state funeral. (Sunnex)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 25, 2006 issue)
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