Hail our new National Artists!
Source：philstar
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Manila
Update Time：2019/01/10
The art scene is glad that Malacañang has finally decided to confer the National Artist Awards on seven deserving artists, whose notable contributions to the arts worthy of the award has long been an open secret among the art scene since the middle of the year.
Of course, no one’s certain if the finalized list approved by the joint boards of the NCCA and CCP would remain as it is, especially since previous administrations have meddled, in ways both major and minor, with the selection process.
Almost a decade ago when an anomaly in the selection process occurred, some National Artists and the arts community in general protested the shameless manipulation before the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of decency and due process.
That was a time when people trusted the highest magistrates to uphold these factors highly. Their decision righted the course, albeit the shudder in the machine still affected the continuum by way of unwarranted delays.
Then the next president threw another hurdle in the process, by denying a popular awardee her due, something that is said to have been repeated this year.
The Chief Executive still has the rights to meddle in the process, but just a bit, that is, short of dropping properly processed names in favor of others that had not gone through any vetting.
Since a president might have such scant interest in the matter that he would simply nod acceptance of whatever his Executive Secretary deems best to convey — about yet another set of awards in a country where honors are even more frequent than public holidays.
In any case, we’re glad that the seven final choices, Ramon Muzones (literature) Kidlat Tahimik (film), Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio (theater), Francisco Mañosa (architecture), Resil Mojares (literature), Larry Alcala (visual arts), and Ryan Cayabyab (music), are as acceptable as magnificent samurai, gaining both popular and critical handclaps.
Not even the Chief Executive’s typically puzzling and infinitely pathetic speech of no-connect at their conferment honors in Malacañang could dim the broad acceptance of this cultural exaltation.
Source：https://bit.ly/2SYeilh