Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco

Filipino Artists vs. President Arroyo’s Proclamation of 2009 National Artists: Resonating Performances of Protests Against Imperialism

In June 2009, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) released the initial list of awardees for the National Artist Awards. The National Artist Award is the highest form of recognition the country provides for its most gifted artists. The next month, Malacanang Palace released the official list, dismissing one from the original list and adding four new names including NCCA’s executive director, Cecille Guidote and a filmmaker, who was not even nominated by peers. Filipino artists were offended by the gesture of the president and staged a performance-protest (necrological service) at the CCP ramp on 7 August. This paper looks at the protest as a resonance of the drama simbolico, the seditious performances against American colonialization during the turn of the 20th century. In 1970’s at the height of martial law, a new breed of seditious artists emerged following principles of the drama simbolico. In 2009, amidst the controversy of the national artist awards, the symbolical gestures of these seditious plays are once again reworked to call the attention of the general public on corruption. In the end, this performance of protest at the CCP, like the seditious performances, is asserted to be a microcosm of the Filipino people’s disgust against imperialism.