i haven’t blogged in a while but this news just annoyed to the highest level that i had to write about it.

carlo j. caparas as a national artist? the man who gave us such cinematic masterpieces as The Marita Gonzaga Rape-Slay (In God We Trust!) and Kuratong Baleleng Wilson Sorronda: Leader Kuratong Baleleng Solid Group. and how can we forget his two best works of all time, The Untold Story: Vizconde Massacre 2 - God Have Mercy on Us and The Vizconde Massacre Story: God Help Us.

can you really consider him to be in the same level as artistic genuises fernando poe jr., lino brocka, ishmael bernal, f. sionil jose and my all time favorite nick joaquin? can his work Babeng Hinugot sa Aking Tadyang actually measure up to joaquin’s Summer Solstice or jose’s Mass?

a national artist is someone who has the highest recognition for having made significant contributionsto the development of Philippine arts, namely, Music, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts, Literature, Film, Broadcast Arts, Fashion Design and Architecture, and Allied Arts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Artist_of_the_Philippines)

i refuse to believe that we have run out of artists to acknowledge that we have resorted to the man who, i sincerely believe, contributed to the demise of Philippine cinema. before he produced those horrible pitu-pito movies, we were producing cinematic jewels such as Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kami Ngayon…we have a multitude of people that deserve to have this award (dolphy, ryan cayabyab, kidlat tahimik, i would even go for pol medina jr. etc). come on people! give the award to someone who actually deserves it!