Of the 10 new National Artists declared, four are from UP Diliman (UPD).
On Sept. 9, the Office of the President through Proclamation No. 1414, declared Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, Rafael “Nonoy” Froilan, Armando “Bing” Lao (posthumous), and Nicanor G. Tiongson, PhD as National Artists for visual arts, dance, film and broadcast arts, and literature, respectively. This is the first time that a Filipina was bestowed the National Artist for Visual Arts (Cajipe-Endaya).
Cajipe-Endaya. A known printmaker, Cajipe-Endaya carved her artistic career devoted to contemporary social issues from the viewpoint of women empowerment, such as cultural identity, human rights, migration, family, reproductive health, globalization, children’s rights, environment, and peace.
A writer, curator, and art projects organizer, she co-founded KASIBULAN, a collective of women artists, in 1987, and Pananaw: Philippine Journal of Visual Arts, an initiative in contemporary art discourse, in 1997.
She was part of the Philippine Association of Printmakers (1970-1976) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Committee on Visual Arts (1995-2001).
Cajipe-Endaya earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication from the UP College of Fine Arts (CFA) in 1970. She considers CFA faculty member and printmaker Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi as one of her primary mentors in printmaking.
Cajipe-Endaya’s works are in the collection of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, CCP, Philippine National Art Gallery, Metropolitan Museum Manila, Security Bank Corporation, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, Banco De Oro, Ateneo Arete, the National Gallery of Singapore, Okinawa Prefectural Museum, and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.
She was honored with the CCP Thirteen Artists Award (1990), Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan by the City of Manila (1998), CCP Centennial Honors (1999), ALiWW [Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings] Honors for Women in the Arts (2008), Irwin and Florence Zlowe Memorial Art Award by the American Society of Contemporary Artists in New York, USA (2008), and the Ani ng Dangal award by the NCCA (2009). In 2013, the College of the Holy Spirit, her high school alma mater, gave her the institute’s Centennial Award.
Froilan. A well-known choreographer and one of the country’s leading male ballet dancers for more than two decades, Froilan finished his Bachelor of Science in Education from UP in 1977.
He entered the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Dance School in 1972 and joined Ballet Philippines in 1973.
Not long after, Froilan rose on to become Ballet Philippines’ principal male dancer who trained under ballet masters Norman Walker, Jean Deroc, and William Morgan.
At Ballet Philippines, he performed more than 100 leading roles in classical, modern, and contemporary productions. Froilan danced opposite Philippines’ foremost ballerinas, including Lisa Macuja, Anna Villadolid, Maniya Barredo, Cecile Sicangco, Effie Nañas, and wife and fellow dancer-choreographer Edna Vida. He also performed with renowned international dancers Dame Margot Fonteyn and Yoko Morishita.
Several works were specifically created for him, including Walker’s Songs of a Wayfarer (1974) and Song of Adarna (1987), and Deroc’s Roi David (1978); as a choreographer, Froilan created Study for Four Boys (1974), One Afternoon (1988), and Ako ay Ikaw Rin (1991).
Froilan continued to support dance through teaching, coaching, acting, and video documentation after retiring as principal dancer. His documentary Encantada: The Creation of a Dance (1994) won first prize in the CCP Alternative Film and Video Competition.
He is a recipient of the Gawad CCP para sa Sining for Dance (2020) and the Metro Manila Commission on Culture Award (1981).
Lao. A multi-awarded screenwriter and film teacher, Lao believed that “a writer did not always have to manufacture a store. Sometimes, the story was already there—in a crowded street, a cramped home, a provincial bus, a family struggling to survive.”
The UP Film Institute (UPFI) described him as the institute’s cherished mentor from 2019 to 2022.
He had written several screenplays and won Gawad Urian for Best Screenplay for the films Takaw Tukso (1986), Itanong Mo sa Buwan (1988), Pila Balde (1999), Tuhog (2001), and La Vida Rosa (2001).
His collaborations with director Brillante Mendoza produced Serbis, which competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and Kinatay, which brought Mendoza the Best Director award at the Cannes in 2009.
He was the creative consultant in Filipino movies Masahista (2005), Thy Womb (2012), Ma’ Rosa (2016), and John Denven Trending (2019), among others.
Lao was a teacher to generations of writers and directors through his Found Story School of Filmmaking. His workshops challenged filmmakers to move beyond convenient formulas and search instead for drama in the rhythms, contradictions, and accidents of actual life.
Lao received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) in 2024.
Tiongson. Scholar, playwright, critic, editor, mentor, and cultural administrator, Tiongson brings Filipino culture closer and more inclusive to every Filipino, especially traditions that are often overlooked by colonial education and urban-based institutions.
Among his major works are Kasaysayan at Estetika ng Sinakulo at Ibang Dulang Panrelihiyon sa Malolos (1975), Kasaysayan ng Komedya sa Pilipinas: 1766–1982 (1982), Komedya: Philippine Theater History and Anthology 2 (1999), and Komedya sa Parañaque: Kasaysayan at Estetika (2024).
Tiongson authored the play Pilipinas Circa 1907, a contemporary sarsuwela based on Severino Reyes’s Filipinas para los Filipinos, and the musical Mabining Mandirigma.
He published the pioneering studies in Philippine film and theater The Cinema of Manuel Conde and the four volumes of The Urian Anthology.
Tiongson edited the 10-volume CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, serving as editor-in-chief of its 1994 and 2018 editions.
He was the CCP vice president and artistic director (1986-1994), co-founder of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (1976) and served its chair (1982-1983), and co-founder of Cinemalaya Independent Film Congress (2005) and served its director (2005-2012).
Tiongson is a distinguished member of the University academe, where he finished his master’s degree and doctorate in Philippine studies in 1974 and 1979, respectively.
From 1974 to 1986, Tiongson taught Filipino and Philippine literature at the then UP College of Arts and Sciences. He started teaching film and media courses at UPFI of then College of Mass Communication, now College of Media and Communication (CMC), in 1998. He was CMC dean from 2003 to 2006, and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Film and Audio-Visual Communication in 2012.
According to the CMC, Tiongson is “one of the visionary minds behind the UP Gawad Plaridel awards [which started in 2004 during his deanship], he institutionalized the University’s highest recognition for media practitioners who embody integrity, social responsibility, and excellence.”
Tiongson received the UPD Gawad Chanselor para sa Pinakamahusay na Guro ng Arts and Letters Cluster in 2001 and the FDCP Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.
Meanwhile, National Artist for Visual Arts Nunelucio M. Alvarado began his tertiary education at the then UP School of Architecture and Fine Art in 1969, before moving back to his hometown in Negros Occidental where he finished his college degree.