The Office of the President (OP) declared Wednesday that the conferment of the rank and title of the Order of National Artist on seven persons is final and can no longer be overturned by the courts, not even the Supreme Court (SC).

In a comment filed by Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, the SC was told that the award of the Order of National Artist is an exclusive prerogative of the President and with the issuance of seven proclamations on national artists, there is no other action necessary to consummate the
awards.

Thus, Devanadera said, the subsequent presentation of the gold medallion and citation to the awardees is a mere formality which has no bearing at all on the conferred status. She asked the SC to dismiss the petition challenging the conferment of the awards to four persons.

The solicitor general pointed out that on July 6, 2009, President Arroyo issued Proclamation Nos. 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829 declaring Manuel Conde (posthumus, Film and Broadcast), Lazaro Francisco (posthumus, Literature), Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (Visual Arts), Cecilia Guidote-Alvarez (Theater), Carlo J. Caparas (Visual Arts and Film), Francisco Manosa (Architecture), and Jose “Pitoy” Moreno (Fashion Design) as national artists, respectively.

Devanadera cited the case of the late action star Fernando Poe Jr., whose proclamation as a national artist by the President was not followed by a ceremonial presentation of gold medallion and citation because his family had refused to accept the same.

But, she said, Poe remains in the official roster of national artists.

The Concerned Artists of the Philippines had earlier challenged the legality of the President’s proclamation of Caparas, Moreno, Manosa, and Alvarez as national artists.

Among those who filed the petition were National Artists Virgilio Almario (literature), Bienvenido Lumbera (literature) Benedicto Cabrera (visual arts, Painting) Napoleon Abueva (Visual Arts, Sculpture), and Arturo Luz (Painting and Sculpture).

Joined by university deans, professors, and private individuals, the petition stated that President Arroyo committed a grave abuse of discretion when she disregarded the results of the rigorous selection process and inserted the names of Alvarez, Moreno, Caparas, and Manosa in the shortlist submitted by the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) boards for proclamation as 2009 Order of National Artists.

The petitioners said the President violated the constitutional provision on equal protection when she included Alvarez’s name in the shortlist although the latter was not nominated and subjected to screening process by the National Artist Award Experts Panel.