BY: ROBBY TANTINGCO
Sun Star Pampanga: Peanut Gallery
Monday, November 14, 2011
“NOTHING is more powerful,” Victor Hugo said, “than an idea whose time has come.”
I can’t remember how many times Nora Aunor has been nominated to the National Artist Award (renamed Order of National Artists recently) since Malacañang declared Fernando Amorsolo the country’s first National Artist way back in 1972.
In the files of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), which jointly administer the award, Nora Aunor probably holds the record of being the artist with the highest number of nominations — which is actually not a good thing, because it means she is also the artist with the highest number of losses.
And this is what I don’t understand: why the same institutions that have already acknowledged her unparalleled contribution to Philippine art and culture keep giving the award to other people.
Remember, it was CCP itself that put Nora Aunor in the list of 100 Filipinos who made the greatest contribution to Philippine art and culture in the last 100 years (1900-1999), alongside Juan Luna, Felix Resureccion Hidalgo, Aurelio Tolentino, Juan Crisostomo Soto, and Claro M. Recto. She is the only Filipino film actress in the list.
That was in 1999. She had been nominated several times before and has been nominated several times since.
The first National Artist award in the category of Film was given in 1976 to Lamberto V. Avellana, who had by then made 70 films, including two classics, Anak-Dalita and Badjao.
Had Nora Aunor been nominated that year (1976), she would have already deserved to win on the strength of the two films she made that year, “Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo” and “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos”, considered classics like “Anak-Dalita” and “Badjao”, and two others she made earlier (Banaue in 1975 and Fe Esperanza Caridad in 1974).
Avellana was one of her directors in Fe Esperanza Caridad; he was so impressed with her that he called her “the perfect film actress.”
Her other director in that film was Gerardo de Leon, who also directed Banaue. It was De Leon who was conferred the second National Artist award for Film, in 1982.
De Leon was recognized for his films “Sisa”, “Ang Daigdig ng mga Api”, “Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo”, “Noli Me Tangere”, “Moises Padilla Story”, “Lilet”, and many more.
Like Avellana and Aunor, De Leon had made many movies that can be considered mediocre, but like Avellana, he was recognized for the few pearls among the bed of oysters.
Nora Aunor should have been nominated for (and also deserved) the award that year (1982), because she had by then added more pearls in her filmography: Atsay (1978), Ikaw ay Akin (1978), Ina Ka ng Anak Mo (1979), Bona (1980), Kastilyong Buhangin (1980), Bakit Bughaw ang Langit (1981), T-Bird at Ako (1982) and Himala (1982).
But De Leon had died the year before, and Aunor was only 30 years old in 1982.
And then, for five consecutive years (1987, 1988, 1999, 1990 and 1991), the government conferred the National Artist award in every possible category — architecture, dance, theatre, music, literature, visual arts — that is, except film, which seems to mean that no one in the film industry deserved to win.
Two deserving filmmakers, Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal, died in 1991 and 1996, respectively, and so in 1997, they were posthumously conferred the National Artist award. That was also what happened to Fernando Poe, Jr. who died in 2004 and was made National Artist in 2006.
According to the CCP-NCCA rules, nominees should be artists who (a) have helped build a Filipino sense of nationhood through the content and form of their works; (b) have pioneered in a mode of creative expression or style, making an impact on succeeding generations of artists; (c) have created a significant body of works and/or consistently displayed excellence in the practice of their art form; and (d) have enjoyed broad acceptance through prestigious national and international recognition, critical acclaim/reviews of their works, and respect from peers within their artistic discipline.
Noranians have been holding the torch for their idol to be formally declared National Artist — I say formally because they know in their hearts that Nora Aunor is already a National Artist in the truest, purest sense of the title.
Is there any Filipino who doesn't know Nora Aunor, who hasn't heard her songs ("Pearly Shells" in the 1960s is the best-selling record ever), watched her TV shows ("Superstar" was the longest-running musical-variety show in Philippine TV history) and her films ("Guy and Pip" broke all box-office records in the 1970s).
I don't think there is any Filipino artist whose art has permeated Filipino society and culture this much and this long (five decades). She was already a Superstar when Ninoy was alive; she helped install a President (GMA), reelect another (Marcos) and bring down a third (Erap).
Noranians are actually offended every time the government bypasses her in favor of others who probably need the award more urgently, or who deserve it ahead of (not necessarily more than) her. The height, of course, was when Carlo J. Caparas was named National Artist for Film and Visual Arts in 2007.
Is Nora Aunor being quietly disqualified for her youth? She will be 60 next year, for God’s sake. Brocka was 52 and Bernal was 58 when they died; Lamberto Aavellana was 61 when he got the award. Carlo J. Caparas was only 49 in 2007. Or is it her “questionable” lifestyle? Even if those allegations about substance abuse were true (the US courts have dismissed them), since when has ethics or morality been a criterion in the selection process? Which artist, here and abroad, living or dead, has lived a totally untainted life? Every one of them has some kind of a moral, emotional or psychological flaw or scar which precisely is the energy source that powers their art and genius.
Some Noranians are even pushing for a special category for Aunor, because her achievements transcend film: her excellence extends to theatre, television and recording.
Those who belittle her dedication to her craft and her self-discipline should have seen her in the play DH (Domestic Helper), shown at the Dulaang Rajah Sulayman in Fort Santiago in 1992, where she portrayed not one, not two, but four different characters without ever leaving the stage (she changed costumes right there!). Even National Artists for Theatre like Atang de la Rama, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero and Rolando Tinio would give her a standing ovation.
A few years ago, CNN named Nora Aunor’s Himala as the all-time best film in Asia and the Pacific, besting even Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
In the last two months alone, Aunor was awarded an unprecedented four lifetime achievement awards, including one from the Cinemanila International Awards for her several best actress awards from film festivals abroad, and another from Cinema One Originals Film Festival for being one of the country’s pioneering indie film producers (she used her own money to produce movies when Viva and Regal dominated the scene).
It used to be only Noranians who acknowledged Aunor's contributions. Now almost everyone else does, probably including Vilmanians.
It's only a matter of time before the CCP and the NCCA admit what millions of Filipinos already accept: Nora Aunor is the People's Artist -- which is just another term for National Artist.
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