You could say the brouhaha over the choice of National Artists 2009 has cost us dearly. For one, the composer Ramon Santos, whose name was stricken off the list to give way to four latecomers, underwent brain surgery the day after the controversy broke.

Whether Mr. Santos’ condition was brought on or aggravated by the loss of the title, the news added fuel to the bonfire that critics and former awardees were only too keen to build at the feet of Cecile Alvarez (for theater) and Carlo Caparas (visual arts, i.e., komiks).

Now the case has been elevated to an already harassed, overly overworked and exhausted Supreme Court, and there’s no way the other two artists, Bobby Mañosa (architecture) and Pitoy Moreno (fashion design), will be excluded from the petition to take away their title, stop the monetary reward and benefits, and cancel the conferment ceremonies. All because the architect who has been assiduously promoting the use of indigenous materials and the designer of gorgeous Filipina dresses – whose credentials the critics have not directly or indirectly challenged – were nominees of GMA rather than of the selection board.

Mr. Mañosa, it has been reported, has signified his intention not to receive the award, while Mr. Moreno remains in a daze, wondering what evil deed he has committed that has brought him to this “crisis” this late in life.

The anxieties and angst aside, there’s an economic downside to this tempest rattling in a teapot. Whether related to or occasioned by the controversy, the fact is that as of the last pay day, Aug. 15, and going back to the month of July, National Artists of previous batches have not received their monthly checks. Calls to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts produced the information that “the checks are ready but awaiting one signature.”

Is NCCA too busy fending off brickbats thrown at its executive director-awardee, Ms. Alvarez? By the way, outside of the most vociferous detractors, the opinion held by artists and pseudo-artists of a different, nonpartisan orientation is that Ms. Alvarez deserves to be called National Artist – just not now, not while she’s head of NCCA.