Patriot gets title as national artist

Alejandro Roces’ winning the National Artist award is a fitting tribute for one who has been a consistent patriot through the years, according to novelist F. Sionil Jose, himself a National Artist named under the Arroyo administration two years ago.

Roces and Jose go back a long way, dating back to about half a century, though Jose doesn’t recall when exactly they first met.

"He had just come from the States then," Jose told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.

Roces, who writes the thrice weekly column "Roses and Thorns" for this paper, is among the latest batch to win the highest award for arts and culture given by the Philippine government, along with film director Eddie Romero, poet Virgilio Almario, set designer Salvador Bernal and the late painter Jose Joya.

Roces has for many years been a regular of conferences of the PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) -Philippine chapter, having been a co-founder and chairman of the writer’s group.

Jose and another STAR columnist, Isagani Cruz, complete the PEN triumvirate with Roces during the heated panel discussions that often confound the young writers in the audience.

"I can comment on him not only as a writer and friend but also as a Filipino," Jose said, adding that Roces, who like him is 78 years old, is a "real patriot, a Rizalista, a guerrilla during the Japanese Occupation and even fought the Marcos regime."

Roces has "always been promoting Philippine interests," said Jose, noting that "sometimes that’s a measure of what a Filipino is."

For Jose, Roces deserves the award not only for his writing but for his sheer consistency as a Filipino.

Jose also said that he knows Roces — education secretary of the late President Diosdado Macapagal and former censors chief of Macapagal’s daughter, President Arroyo — to be a true friend, and that they’ve traveled a lot together.

Writer Alfred Yuson, who is doing documentaries on the latest batch of National Artists, comments on Roces as "a remarkable man of great good cheer, a raconteur of the first water and a generous repository of historical nuggets, folk wisdom, and invaluable personal insights."

Perhaps Roces’ most famous book is "Fiesta," a coffeetable tome that is considered the authority on this Philippine ritual of excess and devotion.

His short stories have been included in the syllabi of both high school and college literature classes, and their most salient feature is the humor and latent symbolism of cockfighting, a favorite Philippine pastime.

The cockfighting motif may be traced back to a chapter in Jose Rizal’s "Noli me Tangere," and the subject has lately been resuscitated in the stories of Antonio Hidalgo.

Married to Irene Yorston Viola, Roces has garnered practically every award imaginable for a man of culture and breeding, not to mention bravery — the SEA Write award from Thai royalty, the Medal of Valor as World War II veteran, and the Rizal Pro-Patria award.

He has also received several awards from governments in Europe, Asia and North America.

But nothing, admittedly, could cap it better than the National Artist award. As Cruz said in a text message when asked to deliver a one-liner on Roces: "Sooner or later the deserving get what they deserve."