PHILIPPINES NEWS SERVICE — President Macapagal-Arroyo has proclaimed seven new National Artists.
The new National Artists are the late filmmaker Manuel Conde, late Tagalog novelist Lazaro Francisco, painter Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, architect Francisco “Bobby” Manosa, fashion designer Jose “Pitoy” Moreno, comics author Magno Jose “Carlo” J. Caparas and theater artist Cecilia Guidote Alvarez.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced the names of the new National Artists shortly before the President left for the United States to meet with President Barack Obama. The date of the conferment of the National Artist Awards has yet to be decided.
Ermita promptly defended the selection of Alvarez as among the national artists, citing her long experience in theater arts, adding that “she is really good.” He said an honors committee also decided on the list of the artists.
The President confers the award based on the recommendation of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Alvarez is the current executive director of the NCCA and presidential adviser on cultural affairs.
The award is the highest national recognition given to Filipinos who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts. Its categories are Music, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts, Literature, Film and Broadcast Arts, and Architecture and Allied Arts.
A National Artist receives a monthly stipend of P24,000 and annual medical and hospitalization benefit worth P750,000.The heir of a posthumous National Artist will receive P75,000 upon the proclamation.
The award will be posthumously conferred on Conde, who was earlier declared as “the father of independent filmmaking,” and Francisco who was recognized as the “most important Tagalog fictionist.”