NationalArtistinthePhilippines

National Artist
Researcher:
JAN JAN DOMAGTONG SIERAS

National Artist Award
The National Artist Award is the highest
distinction/MERIT bestowed upon Filipino Artists
whose body of work is recognized by their
peers and more importantly by their
countrymen as sublime expression of
Philippine music, dance, theatre, visual arts,
literature, film and media, arts, architecture
and design.

 These are artists who have promoted Filipino
cultural identity and dignity through their art.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos through
proclamation no.1001 dated April 2, 1972,
confers the award to deserving individuals
as recommended by the Cultural Center of
the Philippines (CCP) and the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts
(NCCA).

Criteria:
• Living artists who have been Filipino citizens for the last ten years prior to nomination as well as
those who have died after the establishment of the award in 1972 but were Filipino citizens at
the time of their death;
• Artists who have helped build a Filipino sense of nationhood through the content and form of
their works;
• Artists who have distinguished themselves by pioneering in a mode of creative expression or
style, making an impact on succeeding generations of artists;
• Artists who have created a significant body of works and/or have consistently displayed
excellence in the practice of their art form, enriching artistic expression or style; and
• Artists who enjoy broad acceptance through prestigious national and/or international recognition,
awards in prestigious national and/or international events, critical acclaim and/or reviews of their
works, and/or respect and esteem from peers within an artistic discipline.

Fernando Amorsolo
Antipolo, depicting Filipinos
celebrating a town fiesta.
 The country had its first National Artist & the
official title “Grand Old Man of Philippine
Art”
 He developed the backlighting technique
that became his trademark where figures, a
cluster of leaves, spill of hair, the swell of
breast, are seen aglow on canvas.
 This light, Nick Joaquin opines/LECTURES, is the
rapture of a sensualist utterly in love with
the earth, with the Philippine sun, and is an
accurate expression of Amorsolo’s own
exuberance.
 His citation underscores all his years of
creative activity which have “defined and
perpetuated a distinct element of the
nation’s artistic and cultural heritage”.

Carlos “Botong” Francisco
 National Artist for Painting (1973)
 The poet of Angono, single-handedly revived
the forgotten art of mural and remained its
most distinguished practitioner for nearly three
decades.
 In panels such as those that grace the City
Hall of Manila, he turned fragments of the
historic past into vivid records of the legendary
courage of the ancestors of his race.
 He was invariably linked with the “modernist”
artists, forming with Victorio C. Edades and
Galo Ocampo what was then known in the
local art circles as “The Triumvirate”.

Victorio C. Edades
 Painting distorted human figures in rough, bold
impasto strokes, and standing tall and singular in
his advocacy and practice of what he believes is
creative art
 Emerged as the “Father of Modern Philippine
Painting”.
 Unlike, Amorsolo’s bright, sunny, cheerful hues, he
colors were dark and somber/DARK with subject
matter or themes depicting laborers, factory
workers or the simple folk in all their dirt, sweat
and grime.

Vicente Silva Manansala
National Artist for Painting (1981)
His paintings are described as… …visions of
reality teetering/SHAKING on the edge of abstraction.
As a young boy, his talent was revealed
through the copies he made of the
Sagrada Familia and his mother’s portrait
that he copied from a photograph.
He believes that… the beauty of art is in the
process, in the moment of doing a particular
painting, closely associating it with the act of
making love.
“The climax is just when it’s really finished.”
Mother and Child, 1967

Jerry Navarro Elizalde
 He is a versatile artist, being both a proficient
painter and sculptor.
 His devotion to the visual arts spans 40 years of
drawing, printmaking, graphic designing, painting
and sculpting.
 His masks carved in hardwood merge the human
and the animal; his paintings consists of abstracts
and figures in oil and watercolor; and his
assemblages fuse found objects and metal parts.
 He has done a series of figurative works drawing
inspiration from Balinese art and culture, his
power as a master of colors largely evident in his
large four-panel The Seasons (1992: Prudential
Bank collection).

Jose Joya
 National Artist for Visual Arts (2003)
 A painter and multimedia artist who
distinguished himself by creating an
authentic Filipino abstract idiom that
transcended foreign influences.
 Most of his paintings of harmonious
colors were inspired by Philippine
landscapes, such as green rice paddies
and golden fields of harvest.
 He use of rice paper in collages placed
value on transparency, a common
characteristic of folk art.

Cesar Legaspi
National Artist for Visual Arts (1990)
A pioneer “Neo-Realist” of the country.
Remembered for his singular
achievement of refining cubism in the
Philippine context.
He belonged to the so-called “Thirteen
Moderns” and later, the “Neo-realists”.
Combancheros, 1954
WORKERS

Hernando R. Ocampo
 A self-taught painter, was a leading member of
the pre-war Thirteen Moderns, the group that
charted the course of modern art in the
Philippines.
 His works provided an understanding and
awareness of the harsh social realities in the
country immediately after the Second World
War and contributed significantly to the rise of
the nationalist spirit in the post-war era.
 It was, however, his abstract works that left an
indelible mark on Philippine modern art.
 His canvases evoked the lush Philippine
landscape, its flora and fauna, under the sun
and rain in fierce and bold colors. He also
played a pivotal role in sustaining the Philippine
Art Gallery, the country’s first.
Genesis. 1969
Ocampo’s acknowledged masterpiece Genesis served as
the basis of the curtain design of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines Main Theater.

Arturo Luz
 A painter, sculptor, and designer for more than
40 years, created masterpieces that exemplify
an ideal of sublime austerity in expression and
form.
 From the Carnival series of the late 1950s to
the recent Cyclist paintings, Luz produced
works that elevated Filipino aesthetic vision to
new heights of sophisticated simplicity.
 By establishing the Gallery that
professionalized the art gallery as an
institution and set a prestigious influence over
generations of Filipino artists, he inspired and
developed a Filipino artistic community that
nurtures impeccable/PERFECT designs.

Ang Kiukok (Ang Hwa Shing)
National Artist for Visual Arts (2001)
Born to immigrant Chinese parents
Vicente Ang and Chin Lim, he is one
of the most vital and dynamic figures
who emerged during the 60s.
As one of those who came at the
heels of the pioneering modernists
during that decade, he blazed a
formal and iconographic path of his
own through expressionistic works of
high visual impact and compelling
meaning.

Benedicto R. Cabrera (BenCab)
 Who signs his paintings “Bencab,” upheld the
primacy of drawing over the decorative color.
 Bencab started his career in the mid-sixties as a
lyrical expressionist.
 His solitary figures of scavengers emerging from
a dark landscape were piercing stabs at the social
conscience of a people long inured to poverty and
dereliction.
 Bencab, who was born in Malabon, has
christened the emblematic scavenger figure
“Sabel.”
 For Bencab, Sabel is a melancholic symbol of
dislocation, despair and isolation–the
personification of human dignity threatened by
life’s vicissitudes/CHANGES, and the vast
inequities of Philippine society.

Abdulmari Asia Imao
 A native of Sulu, is a sculptor, painter,
photographer, ceramist, documentary film maker,
cultural researcher, writer, and articulator of
Philippine Muslim art and culture.
 Through his works, the indigenous ukkil,
sarimanok and naga motifs have been popularized
and instilled in the consciousness of the Filipino
nation and other peoples as original Filipino
creations.
 With his large-scale sculptures and monuments of
Muslim and regional heroes and leaders gracing
selected sites from Batanes to Tawi-tawi, Imao has
helped develop among cultural groups trust and
confidence necessary for the building of a more
just and humane society.

Federico Aguilar Alcuaz
 Signed his works as Aguilar Alcuaz was
an artist of voluminous output.
 He is known mainly for his gestural
paintings in acrylic and oil, as well as
sketches in ink, watercolor and pencil.
 He was also a sculptor of note and has
rendered abstract and figurative works in
ceramics, tapestries and even in relief
sculptures made of paper and mixed
media, which he simply calls
“Alcuazaics.”
 The preference to use his maternal
name was more for practical reasons;
Alcuaz was rarer than the name Aguilar,
and thus ensured better recall; it was
also simpler to drop the customary y
between the two names.

Francisco V. Coching
 Acknowledged as the “Dean of Filipino
Illustrators” and son of noted Tagalog
novelist and comics illustrator Gregorio
Coching, was a master storyteller – in
images and in print.
 His illustrations and novels were products of
that happy combination of fertile imagination,
a love of storytelling, and fine draftsmanship.
 He synthesized images and stories
informing Philippine folk and popular
imagination of culture. His career spanned
four decades.
 In 1934, he was a central force in the formation
of the popular art form of comics. He was a part
of the golden age of the Filipino comics in the
50’s and 60’s.

Guillermo E. Tolentino
 National Artist for Sculpture (1973)
 A product of the Revival period in Philippine
art.
 Returning from Europe (where he was
enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts,
Rome) in 1925, he was appointed as
professor at the UP School of Fine Arts
where the idea also of executing a
monument for national heroes struck him.
 The result was the UP Oblation that became
the symbol of freedom at the campus.
 Acknowledged as his masterpiece and
completed in 1933, The Bonifacio
Monument in Caloocan stands as an
enduring symbol of the Filipinos’ cry for
freedom.

Napoleon V. Abueva
 National Artist for Sculpture (1976)
 At 46 then, Napoleon V. Abueva, a native of Bohol, was
the youngest National Artist awardee.
 Considered as the Father of Modern Philippine
Sculpture, Abueva has helped shape the local sculpture
scene to what it is now.
 Being adept in either academic representational style or
modern abstract, he has utilized almost all kinds of
materials from hard wood (molave, acacia, langka wood,
ipil, kamagong, palm wood and bamboo) to adobe, metal,
stainless steel, cement, marble, bronze, iron, alabaster,
coral and brass.
 Among the early innovations Abueva introduced in 1951
was what he referred to as “buoyant sculpture” — sculpture
meant to be appreciated from the surface of a placid pool.
 In the 80’s, Abueva put up a one-man show at the
Philippine Center, New York.
 His works have been installed in different museums here
and abroad, such as The Sculpture at the United Nations
headquarters in New York City.

Francisca R. Aquino
 National Artist for Dance (1973)
 Acknowledged as the Folk Dance Pioneer.
 This Bulakeña began her research on folk dances in
the 1920’s making trips to remote barrios in Central
and Northern Luzon.
 Her research on the unrecorded forms of local
celebration, ritual and sport resulted into a 1926
thesis titled “Philippine Folk Dances and Games,”
and arranged specifically for use by teachers and
playground instructors in public and private schools.
 In the 1940’s, she served as supervisor of physical
education at the Bureau of Education that
distributed her work and adapted the teaching of folk
dancing as a medium of making young Filipinos
aware of their cultural heritage. In 1954, she
received the Republic Award of Merit given by the
late Pres. Ramon Magsaysay for “outstanding
contribution toward the advancement of Filipino
culture”, one among the many awards and
recognition given to her.
Her books include the following: Philippine
National Dances (1946); Gymnastics for
Girls (1947); Fundamental Dance Steps
and Music (1948);Foreign Folk Dances
(1949); Dances for all Occasion (1950);
Playground Demonstration (1951); and
Philippine Folk Dances, Volumes I to VI.

Leonor O. Goquingco
 National Artist for Dance
Dubbed the “Trailblazer”, “Mother of Philippine
Theater Dance” and “Dean of Filipino Performing
Arts Critics”, pioneer Filipino choreographer in
balletic folkloric and Asian styles, produced for
over 50 years highly original, first-of-a-kind
choreographies, mostly to her own storylines.
 These include “TREND: Return to Native,” “In a
Javanese Garden,” “Sports,” “VINTA!,” “In a
Concentration Camp,” “The Magic Garden,”
“The Clowns,” “Firebird,” “Noli Dance Suite,”
“The Flagellant,” “The Creation…” Seen as her
most ambitious work is the dance epic
“Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and
Lore.” With it, Orosa brought native folk dance,
mirroring Philippine culture from pagan to
modern times, to its highest stage of
development.

Lucrecia R. Urtula
 A choreographer, dance educator and researcher,
spent almost four decades in the discovery and study
of Philippine folk and ethnic dances.
 She applied her findings to project a new example of
an ethnic dance culture that goes beyond simple
preservation and into creative growth.
 Over a period of thirty years, she had choreographed
suites of mountain dances, Spanish-influenced
dances, Muslim pageants and festivals, regional
variations and dances of the countryside for the
Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company of which she
was the dance director.
 These dances have all earned critical acclaim and rave
reviews from audiences in their world tours in
Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Ramon A. Obusan
 A *dancer, choreographer, stage designer
and artistic director.
 He achieved phenomenal success in
Philippine dance and cultural work.
 He was also acknowledged as a
researcher, archivist and documentary
filmmaker who broadened and deepened
the Filipino understanding of his own
cultural life and expressions.
 Through the Ramon Obusan Folkloric
Grop (ROFG), he had effected cultural
and diplomatic exchanges using the
multifarious aspects and dimensions of
the art of dance.

Alice Reyes
 The name Alice Reyes has become a
significant part of Philippine dance
parlance/DIALECT.
 As a dancer, choreographer, teacher and
director, she has made a lasting impact
on the development and promotion of
contemporary dance in the Philippines.
 Her dance legacy is evident in the dance
companies, teachers, choreographers
and the exciting Filipino modern dance
repertoire of our country today.

Amado V. Hernandez
 National Artist for Literature (1973)
 A poet, playwright, and novelist, is among the
Filipino writers who practiced “committed art”.
 In his view, the function of the writer is to act as
the conscience of society and to affirm the
greatness of the human spirit in the face of
inequity and oppression.
 Hernandez’s contribution to the development of
Tagalog prose is considerable — he stripped
Tagalog of its ornate character and wrote in
prose closer to the colloquial than the “official”
style permitted.
 His novel Mga Ibong Mandaragit, first written by
Hernandez while in prison, is the first Filipino
socio-political novel that exposes the ills of the
society as evident in the agrarian problems of the
50s.

Jose Garcia Villa
“Art is a miraculous flirtation with Nothing!
Aiming for nothing, and landing on the Sun.”
― Doveglion: Collected Poems
 Considered as one of the finest contemporary poets regardless of
race or language.
 Villa, who lived in Singalong, Manila, introduced the reversed
consonance rime scheme, including the comma poems that made
full use of the punctuation mark in an innovative, poetic way.
 The first of his poems “Have Come, Am Here” received critical
recognition when it appeared in New York in 1942 that, soon
enough, honors and fellowships were heaped on him:
Guggenheim, Bollingen, the American Academy of Arts and
Letters Awards.
 He used Doveglion (Dove, Eagle, Lion) as penname, the very
characters he attributed to himself, and the same ones explored
by e.e. cummings in the poem he wrote for Villa (Doveglion,
Adventures in Value).
 Villa is also known for the tartness of his tongue.

Nick M. Joaquin
“Before 1521 we could have been anything and everything not Filipino;
after 1565 we can be nothing but Filipino.” ― Culture and History, 1988
 Is regarded by many as the most distinguished Filipino writer in English
writing so variedly and so well about so many aspects of the Filipino.
 Has also enriched the English language with critics coining
“Joaquinesque” to describe his baroque Spanish-flavored English or
his reinventions of English based on Filipinisms.
 Aside from his handling of language, Bienvenido Lumbera writes that
Nick Joaquin’s significance in Philippine literature involves his
exploration of the Philippine colonial past under Spain and his probing
into the psychology of social changes as seen by the young, as
exemplified in stories such as Doña Jeronima, Candido’s
Apocalypse and The Order of Melchizedek.
 Nick Joaquin has written plays, novels, poems, short stories and
essays including reportage and journalism.
 As a journalist, Nick Joaquin uses the nome de guerre Quijano de
Manila but whether he is writing literature or journalism, fellow National
Artist Francisco Arcellana opines that “it is always of the highest skill
and quality”.

Carlos P. Romulo
 Carlos P. Romulo‘s multifaceted career spanned 50 years of public
service as educator, soldier, university president, journalist and
diplomat.
 It is common knowledge that he was the first Asian president of the
United Nations General Assembly, then Philippine Ambassador to
Washington, D.C., and later minister of foreign affairs.
 Essentially though, Romulo was very much into writing: he was a
reporter at 16, a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher
at 32.
 He was the only Asian to win America’s coveted Pulitzer Prize in
Journalism for a series of articles predicting the outbreak of World
War II.
 Romulo, in all, wrote and published 18 books, a range of literary
works which included The United (novel), I Walked with Heroes
(autobiography), I Saw the Fall of the Philippines, Mother
America, I See the Philippines Rise (war-time memoirs).

Francisco Arcellana
 A writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher,
is one of the most important progenitors of the
modern Filipino short story in English.
 He pioneered the development of the short story as a
lyrical prose-poetic form.
 For Arcellana, the pride of fiction is “that it is able to
render truth, that is able to present reality”.
 Arcellana kept alive the experimental tradition in
fiction, and had been most daring in exploring new
literary forms to express the sensibility of the Filipino
people.
 A brilliant craftsman, his works are now an
indispensable part of a tertiary-level-syllabi all over
the country.
 Arcellana’s published books are Selected Stories
(1962), Poetry and Politics: The State of Original
Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977),
The Francisco Arcellana Sampler(1990).

Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez
 A better known as N.V.M. Gonzalez, fictionist, essayist,
poet, and teacher, articulated the Filipino spirit in rural,
urban landscapes.
 Among the many recognitions, he won the First
Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940, received the
Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1960 and the Gawad
CCP Para sa Sining in 1990.
 The awards attest to his triumph in appropriating the
English language to express, reflect and shape Philippine
culture and Philippine sensibility.
 He became U.P.’s International-Writer-In-Residence and a
member of the Board of Advisers of the U.P. Creative
Writing Center.
 In 1987, U.P. conferred on him the Doctor of Humane
Letters, honoris causa, its highest academic recognition.

Carlos Quirino
 National Artist for Historical Literature (1997)
 A biographer, has the distinction of having written one
of the earliest biographies of Jose Rizal titled The
Great Malayan.
 His books and articles span the whole gamut of
Philippine history and culture–from Bonifacio’s trial to
Aguinaldo’s biography, from Philippine cartography to
culinary arts, from cash crops to tycoons and
president’s lives, among so many subjects.
 In 1997, Pres. Fidel Ramos created historical literature
as a new category in the National Artist Awards and
Quirino was its first recipient.
 He made a record earlier on when he became the
very first Filipino correspondent for the United Press
Institute.

Francisco Arcellana
 A writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher,
is one of the most important progenitors of the
modern Filipino short story in English.
 He pioneered the development of the short story as
a lyrical prose-poetic form.
 For Arcellana, the pride of fiction is “that it is able to
render truth, that is able to present reality”.
 Arcellana kept alive the experimental tradition in
fiction, and had been most daring in exploring new
literary forms to express the sensibility of the Filipino
people.
 A brilliant craftsman, his works are now an
indispensable part of a tertiary-level-syllabi all over
the country.
 Arcellana’s published books are Selected Stories
(1962), Poetry and Politics: The State of Original
Writing in English in the Philippines Today
(1977), The Francisco Arcellana Sampler(1990).

Carlos Quirino
 National Artist for Historical Literature (1997)
 A biographer, has the distinction of having written one of the
earliest biographies of Jose Rizal titled The Great Malayan.
 Quirino’s books and articles span the whole gamut of
Philippine history and culture–from Bonifacio’s trial to
Aguinaldo’s biography, from Philippine cartography to culinary
arts, from cash crops to tycoons and president’s lives, among
so many subjects.
 In 1997, Pres. Fidel Ramos created historical literature as a
new category in the National Artist Awards and Quirino was
its first recipient.
 He made a record earlier on when he became the very first
Filipino correspondent for the United Press Institute.

Edith L. Tiempo
 A poet, fictionist, teacher and literary critic is one of the finest
Filipino writers in English whose works are characterized by a
remarkable fusion of style and substance, of craftsmanship and
insight.
 Born on April 22, 1919 in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, her
poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant
experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized
pieces, “The Little Marmoset” and “Bonsai”.
 As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound.
 Her language has been marked as “descriptive but unburdened
by scrupulous detailing.”
 She is an influential tradition in Philippine literature in English.
Together with her late husband, Edilberto K. Tiempo, she
founded and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop
in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the country’s
best writers.

F. Sionil Jose
National Artist for Literature (2001)
F. Sionil Jose’s writings since the late 60s, when taken collectively
can best be described as epic. Its sheer volume puts him on the
forefront of Philippine writing in English. But ultimately, it is the
consistent espousal of the aspirations of the Filipino–for national
sovereignty and social justice–that guarantees the value of his
oeuvre.
In the five-novel masterpiece, the Rosales saga, consisting of The
Pretenders, Tree, My Brother, My Executioner, Mass, and Po-
on, he captures the sweep of Philippine history while
simultaneously narrating the lives of generations of the Samsons
whose personal lives intertwine with the social struggles of the
nation. Because of their international appeal, his works, including
his many short stories, have been published and translated into
various languages.

Virgilio S. Almario
Virgilio S. Almario, also known as Rio Alma, is a
poet, literary historian and critic, who has revived
and reinvented traditional Filipino poetic forms,
even as he championed modernist poetics. In 34
years, he has published 12 books of poetry, which
include the seminal Makinasyon and
Peregrinasyon, and the landmark trilogy
Doktrinang Anakpawis, Mga Retrato at
Rekwerdo and Muli, Sa Kandungan ng Lupa. In
these works, his poetic voice soared from the lyrical
to the satirical to the epic, from the dramatic to the
incantatory, in his often severe examination of the
self, and the society.

Alejandro R. Roces
(July 13, 1924 – May 23, 2011)
“You cannot be a great writer; first, you have to be a
good person”
Alejandro Roces, is a short story writer and
essayist, and considered as the country’s best writer
of comic short stories. He is known for his widely
anthologized “My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken.” In his
innumerable newspaper columns, he has always
focused on the neglected aspects of the Filipino
cultural heritage. His works have been published in
various international magazines and has received
national and international awards.

Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera
Literature (2006)
Bienvenido Lumbera, is a poet, librettist, and scholar.
*As a poet, he introduced to Tagalog literature what is now known as
Bagay poetry, a landmark aesthetic tendency that has helped to
change the vernacular poetic tradition. He is the author of the
following works: Likhang Dila, Likhang Diwa (poems in Filipino and
English), 1993; Balaybay, Mga Tulang Lunot at Manibalang, 2002; Sa
Sariling Bayan, Apat na Dulang May Musika, 2004; “Agunyas sa
Hacienda Luisita,” Pakikiramay, 2004.
As a librettist for the Tales of the Manuvu and Rama Hari, he
pioneered the creative fusion of fine arts and popular imagination. As
a scholar, his major books include the following: Tagalog Poetry,
1570-1898: Tradition and Influences in its Development; Philippine
Literature: A History and Anthology, Revaluation: Essays on
Philippine Literature, Writing the Nation/Pag-akda ng Bansa.

Lazaro Francisco
(February 22, 1898 – June 17, 1980)
Prize-winning writer Lazaro A. Francisco developed the social realist
tradition in Philippine fiction. His eleven novels, now acknowledged
classics of Philippine literature, embodies the author’s commitment to
nationalism. Amadis Ma. Guerrero wrote, “Francisco championed the
cause of the common man, specifically the oppressed peasants. His
novels exposed the evils of the tenancy system, the exploitation of
farmers by unscrupulous landlords, and foreign domination.” Teodoro
Valencia also observed, “His pen dignifies the Filipino and accents all the
positives about the Filipino way of life. His writings have contributed
much to the formation of a Filipino nationalism.” Literary historian and
critic Bienvenido Lumbera also wrote, “When the history of the Filipino
novel is written, Francisco is likely to occupy an eminent place in it.
Already in Tagalog literature, he ranks among the finest novelists since
the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to a deft hand at
characterization, Francisco has a supple prose style responsive to the
subtlest nuances of ideas and the sternest stuff of passions.”

Cirilo F. Bautista
Cirilo F. Bautista is a poet, fictionist and
essayist with exceptional achievements and
significant contributions to the development
of the country’s literary arts. He is
acknowledged by peers and critics, and the
nation at large as the foremost writer of his
generation.
Throughout his career that spans more than
four decades, he has established a reputation
for fine and profound artistry; his books,
lectures, poetry readings and creative writing
workshops continue to influence his peers
and generations of young writers.

Antonio J. Molina
National Artist for Music (1973)
(December 26, 1894 – January 29, 1980)
Antonio J. Molina, versatile musician, composer, music
educator was the last of the musical triumvirate, two of
whom were Nicanor Abelardo and Francisco Santiago,
who elevated music beyond the realm of folk music. At an
early age, he took to playing the violoncello and played it
so well it did not take long before he was playing as
orchestra soloist for the Manila Grand Opera House.
Molina is credited for introducing such innovations as the
whole tone scale, pentatonic scale, exuberance of
dominant ninths and eleventh cords, and linear
counterpoints. As a member of the faculty of the UP
Conservatory, he had taught many of the country’s leading
musical personalities and educators like Lucresia Kasilag
and Felipe de Leon.

Jovita Fuentes
(February 15, 1895 – August 7, 1978)
Long before Lea Salonga’s break into Broadway, there was already Jovita
Fuentes‘ portrayal of Cio-cio san in Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly
at Italy’s Teatro Municipale di Piacenza. Her performance was hailed as
the “most sublime interpretation of the part”. This is all the more
significant because it happened at a time when the Philippines and its
people were scarcely heard of in Europe. Prior to that, she was teaching
at the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music (1917) before
leaving for Milan in 1924 for further voice studies. After eight months of
arduous training, she made her stage debut at the Piacenza. She later
embarked on a string of music performances in Europe essaying the roles
of Liu Yu in Puccini’s Turnadot, Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme, Iris in Pietro
Mascagni’s Iris, the title role of Salome (which composer Richard Strauss
personally offered to her including the special role of Princess Yang Gui
Fe in Li Tai Pe). In recognition of these achievements, she was given the
unprecedented award of “Embahadora de Filipinas a su Madre Patria” by
Spain.

Antonino R. Buenaventura
(May 4, 1904 – January 25, 1996)
Antonino R. Buenaventura vigorously pursued a musical
career that spanned seven decades of unwavering
commitment to advancing the frontiers of Philippine music. In
1935, Buenaventura joined Francisca Reyes-Aquino to
conduct research on folksongs and dances that led to its
popularization. Buenaventura composed songs,
compositions, for solo instruments as well as symphonic and
orchestral works based on the folksongs of various Philippine
ethnic groups. He was also a conductor and restored the
Philippine Army Band to its former prestige as one of the
finest military bands in the world making it “the only band
that can sound like a symphony orchestra”.

Lucresia R. Kasilag
(August 31, 1918 – August 16, 2008)
Lucrecia R. Kasilag, as educator, composer, performing artist,
administrator and cultural entrepreneur of national and international
caliber, had involved herself wholly in sharpening the Filipino audience’s
appreciation of music. Kasilag’s pioneering task to discover the Filipino
roots through ethnic music and fusing it with Western influences has led
many Filipino composers to experiment with such an approach. She
dared to incorporate indigenous Filipino instruments in orchestral
productions, such as the prize-winning “Toccata for Percussions and
Winds, Divertissement and Concertante,” and the scores of the
Filiasiana, Misang Pilipino and De Profundis. “Tita King”, as she was
fondly called, worked closely as music director with colleagues Lucresia
Reyes-Urtula, Isabel Santos, Jose Lardizabal and Dr. Leticia P. de Guzman
and made Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company one of the premier
artistic and cultural groups in the country.

Lucio D. San Pedro
(February 11, 1913 – March 31, 2002)
Lucio San Pedro is a master composer, conductor, and
teacher whose music evokes the folk elements of the Filipino
heritage. Cousin to “Botong” Francisco, San Pedro produced
a wide-ranging body of works that includes band music,
concertos for violin and orchestra, choral works, cantatas,
chamber music, music for violin and piano, and songs for
solo voice. He was the conductor of the much acclaimed
Peng Kong Grand Mason Concert Band, the San Pedro Band
of Angono, his father’s former band, and the Banda Angono
Numero Uno. His civic commitment and work with town
bands have significantly contributed to the development of a
civic culture among Filipino communities and opened a
creative outlet for young Filipinos.

Felipe P. De Leon
(May 1, 1912 – December 5, 1992)
Felipe Padilla de Leon, composer, conductor, and
scholar, Filipinized western music forms, a feat aspired
for by Filipino composers who preceded him.The
prodigious body of De Leon’s musical compositions,
notably the sonatas, marches and concertos have
become the full expression of the sentiments and
aspirations of the Filipino in times of strife and of peace,
making him the epitome of a people’s musician. He is
the recipient of various awards and distinctions:
Republic Cultural Heritage Award, Doctor of Humanities
from UP, Rizal Pro-Patria Award, Presidential Award of
Merit, Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award, among others.

Jose M. Maceda
(January 31, 1917 – May 5, 2004)
Jose Maceda, composer, musicologist, teacher and
performer, explored the musicality of the Filipino deeply.
Maceda embarked on a life-long dedication to the
understanding and popularization of Filipino traditional
music. Maceda’s researches and fieldwork have resulted in
the collection of an immense number of recorded music
taken from the remotest mountain villages and farthest
island communities. He wrote papers that enlightened
scholars, both Filipino and foreign, about the nature of
Philippine traditional and ethnic music. Maceda’s
experimentation also freed Filipino musical expression
from a strictly Eurocentric mold.

Levi Celerio
National Artist for Literature / Music (1997)
(April 30, 1910 – April 2, 2002)
Levi Celerio is a prolific lyricist and composer for decades.
He effortlessly translated/wrote anew the lyrics to
traditional melodies: “O Maliwanag Na Buwan” (Iloko),
“Ako ay May Singsing” (Pampango), “Alibangbang” (Visaya)
among others.
Born in Tondo, Celerio received his scholarship at the
Academy of Music in Manila that made it possible for him
to join the Manila Symphony Orchestra, becoming its
youngest member. He made it to the Guinness Book of
World Records as the only person able to make music using
just a leaf.

Prof. Andrea O. Veneracion
(July 11, 1928 – July 9, 2013)
Andrea Veneracion, is highly esteemed for her
achievements as choirmaster and choral arranger. Two
of her indispensable contributions in culture and the
arts include the founding of the Philippine Madrigal
Singers and the spearheading of the development of
Philippine choral music. A former faculty member of the
UP College of Music and honorary chair of the Philippine
Federation of Choral Music, she also organized a cultural
outreach program to provide music education and
exposure in several provinces. Born in Manila on July 11,
1928, she is recognized as an authority on choral music
and performance and has served as adjudicator in
international music competitions.

Ernani J. Cuenco
(May 10, 1936 – June 11, 1988)
Ernani J. Cuenco is a seasoned musician born in May 10,
1936 in Malolos, Bulacan. A composer, film scorer,
musical director and music teacher, he wrote an
outstanding and memorable body of works that resonate
with the Filipino sense of musicality and which embody
an ingenious voice that raises the aesthetic dimensions
of contemporary Filipino music. Cuenco played with the
Filipino Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Manila
Symphony Orchestra from 1960 to 1968, and the Manila
Chamber Soloists from 1966 to 1970. He completed a
music degree in piano and cello from the University of
Santo Tomas where he also taught for decades until his
death in 1988.

Francisco F. Feliciano
Francisco Feliciano’s corpus of creative work attests to the
exceptional talent of the Filipino as an artist. His lifetime
conscientiousness in bringing out the “Asianness” in his music,
whether as a composer, conductor, or educator, contributed to
bringing the awareness of people all over the world to view the
Asian culture as a rich source of inspiration and a celebration of
our ethnicity, particularly the Philippines. He brought out the
unique sounds of our indigenous music in compositions that
have high technical demands equal to the compositions of
masters in the western world. By his numerous creative outputs,
he has elevated the Filipino artistry into one that is highly
esteemed by the people all over the world.

Ramon P. Santos
Ramon Pagayon Santos, composer,
conductor and musicologist, is currently
the country’s foremost exponent of
contemporary Filipino music. A prime
figure in the second generation of Filipino
composers in the modern idiom, Santos
has contributed greatly to the quest for
new directions in music, taking as basis
non-Western traditions in the Philippines
and Southeast Asia.

Lamberto V. Avellana
National Artist for Theater and Film (1976)
Lamberto V. Avellana, director for theater and film, has the
distinction of being called “The Boy Wonder of Philippine Movies”
as early as 1939. He was the first to use the motion picture camera
to establish a point-of-view, a move that revolutionized the
techniques of film narration. Avellana, who at 20 portrayed Joan of
Arc in time for Ateneo’s diamond jubilee, initially set out to
establish a Filipino theater. Together with Daisy Hontiveros, star of
many UP plays and his future wife, he formed the Barangay
Theater Guild which had, among others, Leon Ma .Guerrero and
Raul Manglapus as members. It was after seeing such plays that
Carlos P. Romulo, then president of Philippine Films, encouraged
him to try his hand at directing films. In his first film Sakay,
Avellana demonstrated a kind of visual rhythm that established a
new filmic language.

Manuel Conde
National Artist for Cinema (2009)
(October 9, 1915 – August 11, 1985)
Born on October 9, 1915 and christened Manuel Pabustan
Urbano, Manuel Conde grew up and studied in Daet,
Camarines Norte.
In the decades before and after World War II when Philippine
society was being inundated by American popular culture,
Conde invested local cinema with a distinct cultural history of
its own through movies that translated onto the silver screen
the age-old stories that Filipinos had told and retold from
generation to generation for at least the past one hundred
years. Among the narratives that Conde directed and/or
produced for the screen were three of the most famous
metrical romances in Philippine lowland culture: Siete
Infantes de Lara, Ibong Adarna, and Prinsipe Tenoso.

Gerardo de Leon
(September 12, 1913 – July 25, 1981)
Gerardo “Gerry” De Leon, film director, belongs to the Ilagan
clan and as such grew up in an atmosphere rich in theater.
Significantly, De Leon’s first job — while in still in high school —
was as a piano player at Cine Moderno in Quiapo playing the
musical accompaniment to the silent films that were being shown
at that time. The silent movies served as De Leon’s “very good”
training ground because the pictures told the story. Though he
finished medicine, his practice did not last long because he found
himself “too compassionate” to be one, this aside from the lure of
the movies. His first directorial job was “Ama’t Anak” in which he
directed himself and his brother Tito Arevalo. The movie got good
reviews. De Leon’s biggest pre-war hit was “Ang Maestra” which
starred Rogelio de la Rosa and Rosa del Rosario with the still
unknown Eddie Romero as writer.

Lino O. Brocka
(April 3, 1939 – May 22, 1991)
Catalino “Lino” Ortiz Brocka, director for film and broadcast arts,
espoused the term “freedom of expression” in the Philippine
Constitution. Brocka took his social activist spirit to the screen leaving
behind 66 films which breathed life and hope for the marginalized
sectors of society — slumdwellers, prostitute, construction workers,
etc. He also directed for theater with equal zeal and served in
organizations that offer alternative visions, like the Philippine
Educational Theater Association (PETA) and the Concerned Artists of
the Philippines (CAP). At the same time, he garnered awards and
recognition from institutions like the CCP, FAMAS, TOYM, and Cannes
Film Festival. Lino Brocka has left behind his masterpieces, bequeathing
to our country a heritage of cinematic harvest; a bounty of stunning
images, memorable conversations that speak volumes on love,betrayal
and redemption, pestilence and plenty all pointing towards the
recovery and rediscovery of our nation.

Ishmael Bernal
(September 30, 1938 – June 2, 1996)
Ishmael Bernal was a filmmaker of the first order
and one of the very few who can be truly called a
maestro. Critics have hailed him as “the genius of
Philippine cinema.”
He is recognized as a director of films that serve
as social commentaries and bold reflections on
the existing realities of the struggle of the
Filipino. His art extends beyond the confines of
aesthetics. By polishing its visuals, or innovating
in the medium, he manages to send his message
across: to fight the censors, free the artists, give
justice to the oppressed, and enlighten as well as
entertain the audience.

Eddie S. Romero
(July 7, 1924 – May 28, 2013)
Eddie Romero, is a screenwriter, film director and producer, is the
quintessential Filipino filmmaker whose life is devoted to the art
and commerce of cinema spanning three generations of
filmmakers. His film “Ganito Kami Noon…Paano Kayo
Ngayon?,” set at the turn of the century during the revolution
against the Spaniards and, later, the American colonizers, follows
a naïve peasant through his leap of faith to become a member of
an imagined community. “Aguila” situates a family’s story against
the backdrop of the country’s history. “Kamakalawa” explores the
folkloric of prehistoric Philippines. “Banta ng Kahapon,” his ‘small’
political film, is set against the turmoil of the late 1960s, tracing the
connection of the underworld to the corrupt halls of politics. His 13-
part series of “Noli Me Tangere” brings the national hero’s polemic
novel to a new generation of viewers.

Fernando Poe Jr.
(August 20, 1939 – December 14, 2004)
Ronald Allan K. Poe, popularly known as Fernando Poe, Jr., was a
cultural icon of tremendous audience impact and cinema artist and
craftsman–as actor, director, writer and producer.*
The image of the underdog was projected in his films such as
Apollo Robles(1961), Batang Maynila (1962), Mga Alabok sa Lupa
(1967), Batang Matador and Batang Estibador (1969), Ako ang
Katarungan (1974), Tatak ng Alipin(1975), Totoy Bato (1977),
Asedillo (1981), Partida (1985), and Ang Probisyano (1996), among
many others. The mythical hero, on the other hand, was
highlighted in Ang Alamat (1972), Ang Pagbabalik ng Lawin (1975)
including his Panday series (1980, 1981, 1982, 1984) and the action
adventure films adapted from komiks materials such as Ang
Kampana sa Santa Quiteria(1971), Santo Domingo (1972), and
Alupihang Dagat (1975), among others.

Juan F. Nakpil
National Artist for Architecture, 1973
(May 26, 1899 – May 7, 1986)
Juan F. Nakpil, architect, teacher and civic leader, is a
pioneer and innovator in Philippine architecture. In
essence, Nakpil’s greatest contribution is his belief that
there is such a thing as Philippine Architecture, espousing
architecture reflective of Philippine traditions and culture.
It is also largely due to his zealous representation and
efforts that private Filipino architects and engineers, by
law, are now able to participate in the design and
execution of government projects. He has integrated
strength, function, and beauty in the buildings that are
the country’s heritage today. He designed the 1937
International Eucharistic Congress altar and rebuilt and
enlarged the Quiapo Church in 1930 adding a dome and a
second belfry to the original design.

Pablo S. Antonio
National Artist for Architecture (1976)
Born at the turn of the century, National Artist for Architecture
Pablo Sebero Antonio pioneered modern Philippine
architecture. His basic design is grounded on simplicity, no
clutter. The lines are clean and smooth, and where there are
curves, these are made integral to the structure. Pablo Jr.
points out, “For our father, every line must have a meaning, a
purpose. For him, function comes first before elegance or
form“. The other thing that characterizes an Antonio structure
is the maximum use of natural light and cross ventilation.
Antonio believes that buildings “should be planned with
austerity in mind and its stability forever as the aim of true
architecture, that buildings must be progressive, simple in
design but dignified, true to a purpose without resorting to an
applied set of aesthetics and should eternally recreate truth”.

Leandro V. Locsin
(August 15, 1928 – November 15, 1994)
Leandro V. Locsin reshaped the urban landscape with a
distinctive architecture reflective of Philippine Art and
Culture. He believes that the true Philippine Architecture is
“the product of two great streams of culture, the oriental and
the occidental… to produce a new object of profound
harmony.” It is this synthesis that underlies all his works, with
his achievements in concrete reflecting his mastery of space
and scale. Every Locsin Building is an original, and identifiable
as a Locsin with themes of floating volume, the duality of light
and heavy, buoyant and massive running in his major works.
From 1955 to 1994, Locsin has produced 75 residences and 88
buildings, including 11 churches and chapels, 23 public
buildings, 48 commercial buildings, six major hotels, and an
airport terminal building.

Archt. Ildefonso P. Santos
(September 5, 1929 – January 29, 2014)
Ildefonso Paez Santos, Jr., distinguished himself by
pioneering the practice of landscape architecture–an allied
field of architecture–in the Philippines and then producing
four decades of exemplary and engaging work that has
included hundreds of parks, plazas, gardens, and a wide
range of outdoor settings that have enhanced
contemporary Filipino life.
Santos, Jr., who grew up in Malabon, made his first mark
with the Makati Commercial Center where he introduced a
new concept of outdoor shopping with landscaped walks,
fountains and sculptures as accents. Santos, Jr.’s
contribution to modern Filipino landscape architecture was
the seminal public landscape in Paco Park.

Jose Maria V. Zaragoza
National Artist for Architecture (2014)
(1912-1994)
José María V. Zaragoza’s place in Philippine
architecture history is defined by a significant
body of modern edifices that address spiritual and
secular requirements. Zaragoza’s name is
synonymous to modern ecclesiastical
architecture.Â Notwithstanding his affinity to
liturgical structures, he greatly excelled in secular
works: 36 office buildings, 4 hotels, 2, hospitals, 5
low-cost and middle-income housing projects; and
more than 270 residences – all demonstrating his
typological versatility and his mastery of
modernist architectural vocabulary.

Ramon O. Valera
National Artist for Fashion Design (2006)
(August 31, 1912 – May 25, 1972)
The contribution of Ramon Valera, whose family hails from Abra, lies in the
tradition of excellence of his works, and his committment to his profession,
performing his magical seminal innovations on the Philippine terno.
Valera is said to have given the country its visual icon to the world via the
terno. In the early 40s, Valera produced a single piece of clothing from a
four-piece ensemble consisting of a blouse, skirt, overskirt, and long scarf. He
unified the components of the baro’t saya into a single dress with
exaggerated bell sleeves, cinched at the waist, grazing the ankle, and zipped
up at the back. Using zipper in place of hooks was already a radical change
for the country’s elite then. Dropping the panuelo–the long folded scarf
hanging down the chest, thus serving as the Filipina’s gesture of modesty–
from the entire ensemble became a bigger shock for the women then. Valera
constructed the terno’s butterfly sleeves, giving them a solid, built-in but
hidden support. To the world, the butterfly sleeves became the terno’s
defining feature.

Salvador F. Bernal
Salvador F. Bernal designed more than 300 productions
distinguished for their originality since 1969. Sensitive to the
budget limitations of local productions, he harnessed the design
potential of inexpensive local materials, pioneering or
maximizing the use of bamboo, raw abaca, and abaca fiber,
hemp twine, rattan chain links and gauze cacha.
As the acknowledged guru of contemporary Filipino theater
design, Bernal shared his skills with younger designers through
his classes at the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo
de Manila University, and through the programs he created for
the CCP Production Design Center which he himself
conceptualized and organized.
To promote and professionalize theater design, he organized the
PATDAT (Philippine Association of Theatre Designers and
Technicians) in 1995 and by way of Philippine Center of OISTAT
(Organization Internationale des Scenographes, Techniciens et
Architectes du Theatre), he introduced Philippine theater design
to the world.

Honorata “Atang” dela Rama
National Artist for Theater and Music (1987)
(January 11, 1902 – July 11, 1991)
Honorata “Atang” Dela Rama was formally honored as the Queen of
Kundiman in 1979, then already 74 years old singing the same song
(“Nabasag na Banga”) that she sang as a 15-year old girl in the
sarsuela Dalagang Bukid. Atang became the very first actress in the
very first locally produced Filipino film when she essayed the same
role in the sarsuela’s film version. As early as age seven, Atang was
already being cast in Spanish zarzuelas such as Mascota, Sueño de un
Vals, and Marina. She counts the role though of an orphan in
Pangarap ni Rosa as her most rewarding and satisfying role that she
played with realism, the stage sparkling with silver coins tossed by a
teary-eyed audience. Atang firmly believes that the sarswela and the
kundiman expresses best the Filipino soul, and has even performed
kundiman and other Filipino songs for the Aetas or Negritos of
Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and other
Lumad of Mindanao.

Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero
National Artist for Theater (1997)
(January 22, 1910 – April 28, 1995)
Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero is a teacher and theater artist
whose 35 years of devoted professorship has produced
the most sterling luminaries in Philippine performing arts
today: Behn Cervantes, Celia Diaz-Laurel, Joy Virata,
Joonee Gamboa, etc. In 1947, he was appointed as UP
Dramatic Club director and served for 16 years. As
founder and artistic director of the UP Mobile Theater, he
pioneered the concept of theater campus tour and
delivered no less than 2,500 performances in a span of
19 committed years of service. By bringing theatre to
countryside, Guerrero made it possible for students and
audiences in general to experience the basic grammar of
staging and acting in familiar and friendly ways through
his plays that humorously reflect the behavior of the
Filipino.

Rolando S. Tinio
National Artist for Theater and Literature (1997)
(March 5, 1937 – July 7, 1997)
Rolando S. Tinio, playwright, thespian, poet, teacher, critic
and translator, marked his career with prolific artistic
productions. Tinio’s chief distinction is as a stage director
whose original insights into the scripts he handled brought
forth productions notable for their visual impact and
intellectual cogency. Subsequently, after staging productions
for the Ateneo Experimental Theater (its organizer and
administrator as well), he took on Teatro Pilipino. It was to
Teatro Pilipino which he left a considerable amount of work
reviving traditional Filipino drama by re-staging old theater
forms like the sarswela and opening a treasure-house of
contemporary Western drama. It was the excellence and
beauty of his practice that claimed for theater a place among
the arts in the Philippines in the 1960s.

Daisy H. Avellana
(January 26, 1917 – May 12, 2013)
Daisy H. Avellana, is an actor, director and writer. Born
in Roxas City, Capiz on January 26, 1917, she elevated
legitimate theater and dramatic arts to a new level of
excellence by staging and performing in breakthrough
productions of classic Filipino and foreign plays and by
encouraging the establishment of performing groups
and the professionalization of Filipino theater. Together
with her husband, National Artist Lamberto Avellana
and other artists, she co-founded the Barangay Theatre
Guild in 1939 which paved the way for the
popularization of theatre and dramatic arts in the
country, utilizing radio and television.

Severino R. Montano
(January 3, 1915 – December 12, 1980)
Playwright, director, actor, and theater organizer Severino Montano is the
forerunner in institutionalizing “legitimate theater” in the Philippines.
Taking up courses and graduate degrees abroad, he honed and shared his
expertise with his countrymates.
As Dean of Instruction of the Philippine Normal College, Montano
organized the Arena Theater to bring drama to the masses. He trained and
directed the new generations of dramatists including Rolando S. Tinio,
Emmanuel Borlaza, Joonee Gamboa, and Behn Cervantes.
He established a graduate program at the Philippine Normal College for
the training of playwrights, directors, technicians, actors, and designers.
He also established the Arena Theater Playwriting Contest that led to the
discovery of Wilfrido Nolledo, Jesus T. Peralta, and Estrella Alfon.
Among his awards and recognitions are the Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award
from the City of Manila (1968), Presidential Award for Merit in Drama and
Theater (1961), and the Rockefeller Foundation Grant to travel to 98 cities
abroad (1950, 1952, 1962, and 1963).

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