How delicadeza works - or not

If the Palace imagines that the current uproar over its outrageous selection of some “dagdag” National Artists is going to blow over quickly, here’s more proof that it won’t. And that’s because a week has passed and we’ve yet to receive a satisfactory explanation from the Palace for its actions, beyond fuzzy generalizations like “there was a process” and “they deserve it.”

What process, we again demand to know. Who nominated whom when and for what? At what level of deliberation were the four new names introduced, and one from the original list of four dropped? What’s this “honors” super-committee that Malacañang suddenly came up with to justify its choices — who are its members, and what are their credentials? When even the chair of the CCP board of trustees, the highly respected Emily Abrera, denies that the CCP knew anything about the mystery nominations and expresses surprise over the existence of the “honors” committee, something fishy is clearly afoot.

Did I hear NCCA chair Vilma Labrador right when she was interviewed on TV? “Cecile (Guidote-Alvarez, the NCCA’s executive director and GMA’s cultural adviser) didn’t even know she was being nominated,” protesteth the lady. Then how come we, the cultural community, learned about the nomination even a week before the formal announcement, having been forewarned about it by text messages from within the highest echelons of the cultural bureaucracy itself? Are we supposed to believe that in this country where secrets have a shelf life of five minutes, the NCCA executive director had no inkling of the good fortune about to befall her?

If there’s something I hate, it’s being taken for a fool, even if I happen to be dumb and clueless about some very basic and important things in life, like the care of dogs and infants. But I didn’t get to write 20 books and as many screenplays (a dozen of them for the late National Artist Lino Brocka but none so far, unfortunately, for Carlo J. Caparas) without some notion of how people’s minds and hearts work.

What were they thinking? Tell me it isn’t so, but the irrepressible scriptwriter in me keeps coming up with this thought-balloon: “Let’s brazen this out. If we don’t get this now under GMA, we never will. In a few weeks, all will be well, people won’t care, and we can go to our graves in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.”

On the record, Mrs. Alvarez’s position seems to be, “If you don’t like what happened, then get the law changed. Besides, I deserve it.” A Palace spokesman — stepping out of his supposed specialization in economic matters — was quoted as saying that “Since Mrs. Alvarez was nominated outside of the NCCA, there was no violation of delicadeza.”

I’m sorry, my friend, but that’s not how delicadeza works. It emanates from the receiver of the boon, from his or her sense of decorum and good taste. Propriety dictates that one decline or forgo an honor that could well be deserved, but may also be clouded with suspicion because of one’s position — which explains the dismay and the sadness I’ve heard from many of Mrs. Alvarez’s longtime friends in theater over her adamant embrace of something she could have waited for to ripen in its own good time.

“I deserve it” or “She deserves it” just doesn’t cut it. The same thing could be said by or of a dozen other outstanding perennial candidates for the NAA — who, however, don’t have the good luck of having the President’s ear on matters of culture.

A lawyer-friend provided me with this apt and useful quotation to ponder: “Non omne quod licet honestum est — not everything that is allowed is honorable.”

Mr. Caparas’s reaction, on the other hand, has been a blithe “Why not me? I’m young and alive.” Young and alive or not, there are scores of other more deserving filmmakers, film artists, and real graphic artists — Dolphy, Nora Aunor, Celso Ad. Castillo, Mike de Leon, Malang, and Larry Alcala being just a few among them. And if you think that Caparas has done the komiks world a heroic favor by breaking some elitist barrier, think again. How can a non-illustrator even be a National Artist for the Visual Arts? Last Thursday, when we were both interviewed on ANC’s Media in Focus, he tried to offer proof of his drawing skills — which still doesn’t change the fact that he didn’t illustrate the comic serials he scripted.

(For anyone still in doubt about the quality of Carlo J’s directorial vision, check this out: http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2009/08/carlos-j-caparas-national-artist.html. For his achievements in comics art, see here: http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/1659.)

Again, all we’d like to know is the exact process that led to the addition of four names from left field and the dropping of one highly qualified nominee from the official list of prospective NAs. NCCA chair Labrador, for one — not know-nothing Palace spokesmen — owes the cultural community a formal, written accounting of this process, if she wishes to dispel any suspicions of impropriety.

The irony of the matter is, all this could have been avoided months ago — if people had really wanted to. Early last May, Prof. Ricardo de Ungria — a renowned poet, academic, and chair of our National Committee for Literary Arts in the NCCA — sent up a letter to Dr. Labrador and to president Nestor Jardin of the CCP to propose ways of avoiding these unseemly and embarrassing situations. He proposed a review and an overhaul of the NAA selection process. Among others, Ricky (also an NCCA commissioner, by the way, and someone privy to the process at all levels) suggested that a fixed cap on the number of National Artists be maintained; that only living artists be so honored; that other awards — not the NA — be created or considered for some other categories. More specifically, and I quote:

“… Isn’t it time to lift the veil of secrecy that seems to shroud the selection process from the public eye? I am not sure if the present process really lessens, much less prevents, the ‘lobbying’ for certain nominees…. An award as prestigious and prominent as the National Artists Award probably deserves more public scrutiny and debate than what we have now….

“While the President of the Philippines retains the prerogative — and this is the potential and inherent tragedy in the selection process — to appoint his/her candidate as National Artists, it remains incumbent upon the joint Boards of the CCP and NCCA to respectfully remind the President, when they submit the list of awardees to the President for ‘confirmation, proclamation and conferral,’ to desist from exercising such executive prerogative as it is only counterproductive and demeaning to the entire selection process, foisting only ill will and acrimony among members of the arts communities and making pariahs of these ‘backdoor National Artists’ who shall forever be treated with scorn and disdain by their fellow artists.”

I’m not surprised that Prof. de Ungria’s proposals weren’t acted upon. It would have meant shutting the door on the only way by which the proper judgment of one’s peers could be avoided. (You can find the full text of de Ungria’s letter on my blog at www.penmanila.net.)

“Magaling siya” was Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita’s defense of one appointment. Magaling nga, I’d have to admit. That person got to be a National Artist without going through hoops of fire.

I hope they bestow these awards the same way they were arrived at — through the backdoor — if they want to avert an embarrassing boycott and picket of the ceremonies by the real and reputable NAs.

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E-mail me at penmanila@yahoo.com, and visit my blog at www.penmanila.net.