So now that we've seen the ANC show and read the majority of the blogposts and newsbits and open letters, et al, just exactly where are we in the 2009 National Artists Scandal? Reading the reactions - and I suspect I've read almost all of the pertinent (read: informed) interweb effluvia about it so I can very confidently say I have an idea what people are thinking about the issue - I can't help but think that 1) we haven't been too honest about what we really think about the issue, and 2) because of the dishonesty/hypocrisy, a lot of more important/lasting/artful/societal questions are being ignored.


And let me preempt anyone thinking I'm loving the Scandal - I'm not. My opinion: in a legal (read: as per the rules) standpoint, all FOUR ought to be disqualified, and so, apologies to Moreno and Manosa, both of whom are, even for me (ie, person outside of their respective art communities), familiar names along the lines of "people in their art scenes say generally good stuff about them, and the 'ordinary people' are also somewhat familiar with the two of them," and it's unfortunate that to discount the first two - Guidote and Caparas - we'd have to discount the other two as well.


My other opinion: it can be argued that the two main Scandalisers actually deserve the National Artist Award, seeing as to how (briefly) Guidote seems to have been at the forefront of that one major nationalistic leap and bound of Philippine Theater, PETA, and that Caparas actually has made a lot of contributions towards enriching Pinoy Culture and the Arts through his komix writing, not even counting the many TV and movie permutations of works that he worked on when he was working on them in collaboration with other people. And really, let's admit it: it's the TV and movie permutations that actually have much more legs than their original komix form, and it's what's giving Caparas mileage, not his komix work. I mean, honestly: barring the meager dozens of slop that came out of Sterling a few years ago, how many of us voicing out our anger about Caparas' nomination have actually read and remembered a Caparas komix, read it and remember it clearly and critically enough to make a valued judgment about the aesthetic value of his work as we debate about its level of artfulness? I, for one, do not remember ever reading a Caparas komix. I may have, as I read tons and tons and tons of wet market komix during the 80s, and it's possible that I may have read, at the very least, one (1) of his what seems like a helluva lotta stuff.


His nomination leaves a bad taste in the mouth as Caparas is primarily AN ASSHOLE OF THE ELEPHANTINE KIND and his filmography is NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU'D WANT TO SEE BE LABELED AS ART - and I agree with those strands of questioning, but these two things are just really side issues when assessing the value of Culture and the Arts. If we won't allow assholes be National Artists, we'll need to delete quite a few names that are already in the list. And just what exactly do we want to see labeled as "Art?" I wholly disagree with the notion that POPULAR PATRONAGE is not a measure of ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT, which is how some people are spinning it. It can be a measure, without us abandoning THE MAINTENANCE OF HIGH ARTISTIC STANDARDS, which is where all the debate is really spiraling towards.


But of course, it should also be made clear that as deserving as she may be, Guidote very clearly walked over the line in the sand in the legal level as the rules clearly postulate that she is automatically disqualified as a candidate for any of these things, unless we see the presidential prerog as deus ex machina lifting her up from the stage to the parapets, when it's really noXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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XXXXXXXXXXXXBXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXing in mind that most of what we see as legit inquisitions focus on the legality of the action. With that in mind, again, my question remains to be answered: what if GMA actually prerogged Francisco Coching instead of Carlo Caparas? What if GMA bent the rules - even downright ignored them - for someone whom we regard as universally acceptable and deserving of such prestige? Will our cries be as loud as they are right now? Will we even whimper about it?