NATIONAL ARTISTS from NCR

Antonio J. Molina
- (26 December 1894 – 29 January 1980) was a Filipino composer,
conductor and music administrator. He was named a National Artist of the
Philippines for his services to music. He was also known as the Claude
Debussy of the Philippines due to his use of impressionism in music. At an
early age, he took to playing the violoncello and played it so well it did not
take long before he was playing as orchestra soloist for the Manila Grand
Opera House. Molina is credited with introducing such innovations as the
whole tone scale, pentatonic scale, exuberance of dominant ninths and
eleventh cords, and linear counterpoints. As a member of the faculty of the UP
Conservatory, he had taught many of the country’s leading musical personalities and
educators like Lucresia Kasilag and Felipe de Leon.

Molina’s Work
1. Hatinggabi
2. Misa Antoniana Grand Festival Mass
3. Ang Batingaw, Kundiman- Kundangan
4. String Quartet
5. Kung sa Iyong Gunita
6. Pandangguhan
7. Amihan
8. Awit ni Maria Clara
9. Larawan Nitong Pilipinas

Juan F. Nakpil
- Juan F. Nakpil, architect, teacher, and civic leader is a pioneer and
innovator in Philippine architecture. In essence, Nakpil’s greatest
contribution is his belief that there is such a thing as Philippine
Architecture, espousing architecture reflective of Philippine traditions and
culture. It is also largely due to his zealous representation and efforts that
private Filipino architects and engineers, by law, are now able to
participate in the design and execution of government projects. He has
integrated strength, function, and beauty in the buildings that are the
country’s heritage today. He designed the 1937 International Eucharistic
Congress altar and rebuilt and enlarged the Quiapo Church in 1930 adding a dome and
a second belfry to the original design.

Nakpil’s Work
1. The Quiapo Church
2. Quezon Institute
3. The Capitol Theater
4. The University of the Philippines – Diliman Administration Building
5. Quezon Hall
6. The UP Carillon
 7. San Carlos Seminary
8. Gala-Rodriguez Ancestral House
9. Alonso Hall, UP College of Home Economics
10. UP Conservatory of Music and Auditorium

José Garcia Villa

- Jose Garcia Villa is considered as one of the finest contemporary poets
regardless of race or language. Villa, who lived in Singalong, Manila,
introduced the reversed consonance rime scheme, including the comma
poems that made full use of the punctuation mark in an innovative, poetic
way. The first of his poems “Have Come, Am Here” received critical
recognition when it appeared in New York in 1942 that, soon enough,
honors and fellowships were heaped on him: Guggenheim, Bollingen, the
American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards. He used Doveglion (Dove,
Eagle, Lion) as pen name, the very characters he attributed to himself, and
the same ones explored by e.e. cummings in the poem he wrote for Villa (Doveglion,
Adventures in Value). Villa is also known for the tartness of his tongue.

Villa’s Work
1. God Said, I Made a Man
2. Emperor’s New Sonnet
3. It Is What I Never Said
4. In My Desire to Be Nude
5. Leaned in My Eyes and Loved Me
6. Between God’s Eyelashes I Look at You
7. When The World Shall Come To Its End
8. I Will Break God’s Seamless Skull
9. It’s A Hurricane of Spirit
10. If My Sun Set in The West
11. Come To a Conference with Me
12. Bashful Ones

Nick Joaquin
- Nick Joaquin, byname of Nicomedes Joaquín y Márquez, (born May
4, 1917, Paco, Manila, Philippines—died April 29, 2004, San Juan),
Filipino novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and biographer whose works
present the diverse heritage of the Filipino people. He was the greatest
Filipino writer of his generation. Over six decades and a half, he produced
a body of work unmatched in richness and range by any of his
contemporaries. Living a life wholly devoted to the craft of conjuring a
world through words, he was the writer’s writer. In the passion with which
he embraced his country’s manifold being, he was his people’s writer as well.

Joaquin’s Work
1. The Woman Who Had Two Navels
2. A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino
 3. Manila
4. My Manila: A History for The Young
5. The Ballad of The Five Battles
6. Rizal in Saga
7. Almanac for Manileños
8. Cave and Shadows

Pablo S. Antonio
- Born at the turn of the century, National Artist for Architecture
Pablo Sebero Antonio pioneered modern Philippine architecture. His
basic design is grounded on simplicity, no clutter. The lines are clean
and smooth, and where there are curves, these are made integral to
the structure. Pablo Jr. points out, “For our father, every line must
have a meaning, a purpose. For him, function comes first before
elegance or form.“ The other thing that characterizes an Antonio
structure is the maximum use of natural light and cross ventilation.
Antonio believes that buildings “should be planned with austerity in
mind and its stability forever as the aim of true architecture, that
buildings must be progressive, simple in design but dignified, true to a purpose without
resorting to an applied set of aesthetics and should eternally recreate truth.”

Antonio’s Work
1. Far Eastern University Administration and Science Building
2. Manila Polo Club
3. Ideal Theater
4. Lyric Theater
5. Galaxy Theater
6. Capitan Luiz Gonzaga Building
7. Boulevard-Alhambra (now Bel-Air apartments)
8. Ramon Roces Publications Building (now Guzman Institute of Electronics).

Gerardo De Leon
- Gerardo “Gerry” De Leon, film director, belongs to the Ilagan clan and as
such grew up in an atmosphere rich in theater. Significantly, De Leon’s first
job — while in still in high school — was as a piano player at Cine Moderno
in Quiapo playing the musical accompaniment to the silent films that were
being shown at that time. The silent movies served as De Leon’s “very good”
training ground because the pictures told the story. Though he finished
medicine, his practice did not last long because he found himself “too
compassionate” to be one, this aside from the lure of the movies. His first
directorial job was “Ama’t Anak” in which he directed himself and his
brother Tito Arevalo. The movie got good reviews. De Leon’s biggest pre-war hit was “Ang
Maestra” which starred Rogelio de la Rosa and Rosa del Rosario with the still unknown
Eddie Romero as writer.

De Leon’s Work
 1. Daigdig Ng Mga Api
2. Noli Me Tangere
3. El Filibusterismo
4. Sisa
5. Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo
6. Dyesebel
7. The Gold Bikini
8. Banaue
9. The Brides of Blood Island

Atang De La Rama
- Honorata “Atang” Dela Rama was formally honored as the
Queen of Kundiman in 1979, then already 74 years old singing the
same song (“Nabasag na Banga”) that she sang as a 15-year-old girl
in the sarsuela Dalagang Bukid. Atang became the very first actress
in the very first locally produced Filipino film when she essayed the
same role in the sarsuela’s film version. As early as age seven, Atang
was already being cast in Spanish zarzuelas such as Mascota, Sueño
de un Vals, and Marina. She counts the role though of an orphan in
Pangarap ni Rosa as her most rewarding and satisfying role that she
played with realism, the stage sparkling with silver coins tossed by
a teary-eyed audience. Atang firmly believes that the sarswela and
the kundiman expresses best the Filipino soul, and even performed
kundiman and other Filipino songs for the Aetas or Negritos of
Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and other Lumad of Mindanao.

Dela Rama’s Work

Among the kundiman and the other songs, she premiered or popularized were:
1. Pakiusap by Jose Corazon de Jesus
2. Ay, Ay Kalisud by Jose Corazon de Jesus
3. Kung Iibig Ka by Jose Corazon de Jesus
4. Madaling Araw by Jose Corazon de Jesus
5. Mutya ng Pasig by Deogracias Rosario and Nicanor Abelardo

She also wrote her own sarzuelas:

1. Anak ni Eba
2. Aking Ina
3. Puri at Buhay
Francisco Arcellana
- Francisco Arcellana, writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist, and teacher,
is one of the most important progenitors of the modern Filipino short story in
English. He pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic
form. For Arcellana, the pride of fiction is “that it is able to render truth, that is
able to present reality”. Arcellana kept alive the experimental tradition in fiction,
and had been most daring in exploring new literary forms to express the
sensibility of the Filipino people.

Arcellana’s Work
1. Selected Stories (1962)
2. Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today
(1977)
3. The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990)
4. Frankie (short story)
5. The Man Who Would Be Poe (short story)
6. Death in a Factory (short story)
7. Lina (short story)
8. A Clown Remembers (short story)
9. Divided by Two (short story)
10. The Mats (poem)
11. The Other Woman (poem)
12. This Being the Third Poem This Poem is for Mathilda (poem)
13. To Touch You and I Touched Her (poem)

Cesar Legaspi
- A pioneer “Neo-Realist” of the country, Cesar Legaspi is remembered for
his singular achievement of refining cubism in the Philippine context. Legaspi
belonged to the so-called “Thirteen Moderns” and later, the “Neo-realists”. His
distinctive style and daring themes contributed significantly to the advent and
eventual acceptance of modern art in the Philippines. Legaspi made use of the
geometric fragmentation technique, weaving social comment and juxtaposing
the mythical and modern into his overlapping, interacting forms with
disturbing power and intensity.

Legaspi’s Work
1. Gadgets I
2. Gadgets II
3. Diggers
4. Idols of the Third Eye
5. Facade, Ovary
6. Flora and Fauna
7. Triptych, Flight
8. Bayanihan
9. Struggle
 10. Avenging Figure
11. Turning Point
12. Peace
13. The Survivor
14. The Ritual

Hernando R. Ocampo
- A self-taught painter, Hernando R. Ocampo was a leading member of the
pre-war Thirteen Moderns, the group that charted the course of modern art
in the Philippines. His works provided an understanding and awareness of
the harsh social realities in the country immediately after the Second World
War and contributed significantly to the rise of the nationalist spirit in the
post-war era. It was, however, his abstract works that left an indelible mark
on Philippine modern art. His canvases evoked the lush Philippine
landscape, its flora and fauna, under the sun and rain in fierce and bold
colors. He also played a pivotal role in sustaining the Philippine Art Gallery, the
country’s first.

Ocampo’s work
1. Genesis
2. Ina ng Balon
3. Calvary
4. Slum Dwellers
5. Nude with Candle and Flower
6. Man and Carabao
7. Angel’s Kiss
8. Palayok at Kalan
9. Ancestors
10. Isda at Mangga
11. The Resurrection
12. Fifty-three “Q”
13. Backdrop
14. Fiesta.

Wilfrido Maria Guerrero

- Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero is a teacher and theater artist whose 35 years of
devoted professorship has produced the most sterling luminaries in Philippine
performing arts today: Behn Cervantes, Celia Diaz-Laurel, Joy Virata, Joonee
Gamboa, etc. In 1947, he was appointed as UP Dramatic Club director and
served for 16 years. As founder and artistic director of the UP Mobile Theater,
he pioneered the concept of theater campus tour and delivered no less than
2,500 performances in a span of 19 committed years of service. By bringing
theatre to the countryside, Guerrero made it possible for students and
audiences, in general, to experience the basic grammar of staging and acting in
 familiar and friendly ways through his plays that humorously reflect the behavior of
the Filipino.

Guerrero’s Work
1. Half an Hour in a Convent
2. Wanted: A Chaperon
3. Forever
4. Condemned
5. Perhaps
6. In Unity
7. Deep in My Heart
8. Three Rats
9. Our Strange Ways
10. The Forsaken House
11. Frustrations

Rolando Tinio
- Rolando S. Tinio, playwright, thespian, poet, teacher, critic, and
translator marked his career with prolific artistic productions. Tinio’s chief
distinction is as a stage director whose original insights into the scripts he
handled brought forth pro ductions notable for their visual impact and
intellectual cogency. Subsequently, after staging productions for the Ateneo
Experimental Theater (its organizer and administrator as well), he took on
Teatro Pilipino. It was to Teatro Pilipino which he left a considerable
amount of work reviving traditional Filipino drama by re-staging old theater forms like
the sarswela and opening a treasure-house of contemporary Western drama. It was
the excellence and beauty of his practice that claimed for theater a place among the
arts in the Philippines in the 1960s.

Tinio’s Work
Aside from his collections of poetry (1) Sitsit sa Kuliglig, (2) Dunung – Dunungan, (3) Kristal
na Uniberso, (4) A Trick of Mirrors among his works were the following: film scripts for
1. Now and Forever
2. Gamitin Mo Ako
3. Bayad Puri
4. Milagros
5. Ang Mestisa
6. Ako
7. Ang Kiri
8. Ana Maria
9. Ang Larawan, the musical
Levi Celerio
- Levi Celerio is a prolific lyricist and composer for decades. He effortlessly
translated/wrote anew the lyrics to traditional melodies: “O Maliwanag Na
Buwan” (Iloko), “Ako ay May Singsing” (Pampango), “Alibangbang” (Visaya)
among others. Born in Tondo, Celerio received his scholarship at the
Academy of Music in Manila that made it possible for him to join the Manila
Symphony Orchestra, becoming its youngest member. He made it to the
Guinness Book of World Records as the only person able to make music
using just a leaf.

Celerio’s Work
1. Saan Ka Man Naroroon?
2. Kahit Konting Pagtingin
3. Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal
4. Kapag Puso’y Sinugatan
5. Ikaw
6. O Maliwanag na Buwan
7. Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak
8. Sa Ugoy ng Duyan
9. Bagong Pagsilang
10. Sapagkat Kami’y Tao Lamang

While his folk songs include:

1. Ang Pipit
2. Tinikling
3. Tunay na Tunay
4. Itik-Itik
5. Waray-Waray
6. Pitong Gatang
7. Ako ay May Singsing
8. Alibangbang
9. Alembong
10. Galawgaw
11. Caprichosa
12. Ang Tapis ni Inday
13. Dungawin Mo Hirang
14. Umaga na Neneng
15. Ikaw Kasi
16. Basta’t Mahal Kita

Celerio also wrote nationalistic songs such as:

1. Ang Bagong Lipunan
2. Lupang Pangarap
3. Tinig ng Bayan.
José Maceda
- Jose Maceda, composer, musicologist, teacher and performer, explored
the musicality of the Filipino deeply. Maceda embarked on a life-long
dedication to the understanding and popularization of Filipino traditional
music. Maceda’s researches and fieldwork have resulted in the collection of
an immense number of recorded music taken from the remotest mountain
villages and farthest island communities. He wrote papers that enlightened
scholars, both Filipino and foreign, about the nature of Philippine
traditional and ethnic music. Maceda’s experimentation also freed Filipino musical
expression from a strictly Eurocentric mold.
Maceda’s work
1. Ugma-ugma(1963)
2. Pagsamba (1968)
3. Udlot-udlot (1975)

Other major works include:

1. Agungan
2. Kubing
3. Pagsamba
4. Ugnayan
5. Ading
6. Aroding
7. Siasid
8. Suling-suling

Andrea Veneracion
- Andrea Veneracion is highly esteemed for her achievements as
choirmaster and choral arranger. Two of her indispensable contributions
in culture and the arts include the founding of the Philippine Madrigal
Singers and the spearheading of the development of Philippine choral
music. A former faculty member of the UP College of Music and honorary
chair of the Philippine Federation of Choral Music, she also organized a
cultural outreach program to provide music education and exposure in
several provinces. Born in Manila on July 11, 1928, she is recognized as
an authority on choral music and performance and served as adjudicator
in international music competitions.

Veneracion’s work
1. Aginaldo
2. Alay sa Diyos
3. Pag-aalay ng Bayan
4. Kahit Hindi na Takipsilim
5. Anima Christi
6. Now That I Have You
7. Light of a Million Mornings
8. Sa Ganitong Panahon Din
9. I Will Sing Forever
Ishmael Bernal
- Ishmael Bernal was a filmmaker of the first order and one of the very few
who can be truly called a maestro. Critics have hailed him as “the genius of
Philippine cinema.” He is recognized as a director of films that serve as
social commentaries and bold reflections on the existing realities of the
struggle of the Filipino. His art extends beyond the confines of aesthetics.
By polishing its visuals, or innovating in the medium, he manages to send
his message across: to fight the censors, free the artists, give justice to the
oppressed, and enlighten as well as entertain the audience.

Bernal’s work
1. “Pahiram ng Isang Umaga” (1989)
2. “Broken Marriage” (1983)
3. “Himala” (1982)
4. “City After Dark” (1980)
5. “Nunal sa Tubig” (1976)

José T. Joya

- Jose Joya is a painter and multimedia artist who distinguished himself by

creating an authentic Filipino abstract idiom that transcended foreign
influences. Most of Joya’s paintings of harmonious colors were inspired by
Philippine landscapes, such as green rice paddies and golden fields of
harvest. His use of rice paper in collages placed value on transparency, a
common characteristic of folk art. The curvilinear forms of his paintings
often recall the colorful and multilayered ‘kiping’ of the Pahiyas festival. His
important mandala series was also drawn from Asian aesthetic forms and concepts.

Joya’s work
1. Beethoven Listening to the Blues
2. Space Transfiguration
3. Hills of Nikko
4. Abstraction
5. Dimension of Fear
6. Naiad
7. Torogan
8. Cityscape

Alejandro Reyes Roces

- Alejandro Roces, is a short story writer and essayist and considered as the
country’s best writer of comic short stories. He is known for his widely
anthologized “My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken.” In his innumerable newspaper
columns, he has always focused on the neglected aspects of the Filipino
cultural heritage. His works have been published in various international
magazines and have received national and international awards.
Fernando Poe Jr.

- Ronald Allan K. Poe, popularly known as Fernando Poe, Jr., was a cultural
icon of tremendous audience impact and cinema artist and craftsman–as
actor, director, writer and producer.

Fernando’s work
The image of the underdog was projected in his films such as:
1. Apollo Robles (1961)
2. Batang Maynila (1962)
3. Mga Alabok sa Lupa (1967)
4. Batang Matador
5. Batang Estibador (1969)
6. Ako ang Katarungan (1974)
7. Tatak ng Alipin (1975)
8. Totoy Bato (1977)
9. Asedillo (1981)
10. Partida (1985)
11. Ang Probisyano (1996)
12. Ang Alamat (1972)
13. Ang Pagbabalik ng Lawin (1975)
14. Panday series (1980, 1981, 1982, 1984)

And the action-adventure films adapted from comics materials such as:
1. Ang Kampana sa Santa Quiteria(1971)
2. Santo Domingo (1972)
3. Alupihang Dagat (1975)

Federico Aguilar Alcuaz

- Federico Aguilar y Alcuaz, who signed his works as Aguilar Alcuaz

was an artist of voluminous output. He is known mainly for his
gestural paintings in acrylic and oil, as well as sketches in ink,
watercolor, and pencil. He was also a sculptor of note and has
rendered abstract and figurative works in ceramics, tapestries and
even in relief sculptures made of paper and mixed media, which he
simply calls “Alcuazaics.” The preference to use his maternal name
was more for practical reasons; Alcuaz was rarer than the name
Aguilar, and thus ensured better recall; it was also simpler to drop the customary y
between the two names.

Alcuaz’s work
1. Pretty Tweety, 1978
2. Basket, 1978
3. Abstract, 1970
4. Lady, 1974
 5. Serie Madrid #6, 1975
6. Collaboration 1, 1977
7. Landscape, 1972
8. Quatro Marias (Tres Marias Series), 1985
9. Portrait of Barbara Gonzalez, 1975
10. Seascape, 1978

Alice Reyes
- The name Alice Reyes has become a significant part of Philippine
dance parlance. As a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director, she
has made a lasting impact on the development and promotion of
contemporary dance in the Philippines. Her dance legacy is evident in
the dance companies, teachers, choreographers and the exciting
Filipino modern dance repertoire of our country today.

Reyes’s work
1. Amada (1969)
2. At a Maranaw Gathering (1970)
3. Itim-Asu (1971)
4. Tales of the Manuvu (1977)
5. Rama Hari (1980)
6. Bayanihan Remembered (1987)

Cirilo Bautista
- Cirilo F. Bautista is a poet, fictionist and essayist with exceptional
achievements and significant contributions to the development of the
country’s literary arts. He is acknowledged by peers and critics, and
the nation at large as the foremost writer of his generation.

Bautista’s work
1. Summer Suns (1963)
2. Words and Battlefields (1998)
3. The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus (2001)
4. Galaw ng Asoge (2003)
José María V. Zaragoza

- José María V. Zaragoza’s place in Philippine architecture history is

defined by a significant body of modern edifices that address spiritual
and secular requirements. Zaragoza’s name is synonymous to modern
ecclesiastical architecture. Notwithstanding his affinity to liturgical
structures, he greatly excelled in secular works: 36 office buildings, 4
hotels, 2, hospitals, 5 low-cost and middle-income housing projects;
and more than 270 residences – all demonstrating his typological
versatility and his mastery of modernist architectural vocabulary.

Zaragoza’s work
1. Meralco Building (Pasig Cty)
2. Sto. Domingo Church and Convent (Quezon City)
3. Metropolitan Cathedral of Cebu City, Villa San Miguel, Mandaluyoung
4. Santo Domingo Church
5. Our Lady of Rosary in Tala
6. Don Bosco Church
7. the Convent of the Pink Sisters
8. the San Beda Convent
9. Villa San Miguel
10. Pius XII Center
11. the Union Church
12. the controversial restoration of the Quiapo Church,