- R.E. de Leon is a first time novelist and freelance writer who was once a Professor of Communication for Social Change at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. His column for Words from The Land of Juan has been coming out on the wrong day of the week lately, but he tries his best to be able to keep up.
As promised last week, my post this week on the Land of Juan weighs in on the National Artists Controversy, of which I highlighted the details in my last piece.
At this point, of course, almost anyone who has anything to say about Philippine art has already had his or her say. So let me just get it out of the way, and state my position: I hope some way can be found to reverse the proclamation. I suspect the vast majority of my readers feel that way as well, and I am going to write this post with that assumption in mind.
However, my position on the controversy isn’t the point of this post. I feel that another blog adding its voice to the protest would be superfluous. Instead, I’d like to take a close look at the arguments springing from the controversy and see what insight we might find about the role of art in the life of the Filipino.
Since my last post, there have been a few updates to the situation, but only a few of them substantial. In essence, everyone has entrenched themselves even more deeply into their respective positions. Malacañang, the artists under protest, and their various supporters are still defending the proclamation, and the rest of us are all waiting to see if Bienvenido Lumbera and the Concerned Artists of the Philippines do indeed manage to file an injunction at the supreme court so that the formal announcement of the new National Artists can be stopped. Protesters can also hope House Resolution 1305, proposed by Akbayan Representatives Risa Hontiveros and Walden Bello to seek an investigation into the matter, will prosper.
On top of that, I daresay some of us are eagerly waiting to see if more protests are ahead, since the previous protests have become a gathering of the who’s who Philippine art community, and a chance to gawk at folk like F.Sionil Jose, Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, Lourd de Veyra, Jim Paredes, and the like.
It’s amazing how the controversy has brought the Philippines’ art literati together – from teenage ballerinas to virtually all the living National Artists. We have heard from from bloggers, newspaper columnists, and rock stars. Why, even the relatives of the dead National Artists have spoken out — Celeste Lagaspi speaking on behalf of her father Cesar (Visual Arts) and Raul Locsin speaking on behalf of his late brother Leandro (Architecture).
Among my favorite voices in this fray is that of the rising Philippine Comic Book industry, as represented by graphic artist Gerry Alanguilan. From the very moment he heard that Malacañang had proclaimed Caparas and the others as new National Artists, Gerry came out roaring in protest on his site, Komikero Comics Journal. And now he has put all his posts and tweets and together and come up with a time capsule of sorts for the events as they happened. Someday historians will look at this particular moment in the history of Philippine culture, and Komikero Comics Journal will be a primary source. The historian in Gerry will be very glad of it, I’m sure.
I hope to talk more about Gerry later, and how this controversy has suddenly given this professional architect-turned-graphic-novelist a much more prominent voice in the Philippine Art Scene. But for now, let’s move on.
Two Core Issues
Much of the discussion regarding the controversy is muddled because there are two distinct but hopelessly intertwined issues behind it. The first is the question of how the persons ought to be elevated to the Order of National Artist; the second is the question of whether the four artists added by GMA to the 2009 lineup are qualified and/or worthy to be recognized as National Artists. (more…)