PALACE SUBVERTED NATIONAL ARTIST SELECTION PROCESS - CHIZ

Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero yesterday said that the Palace subverted the selection process in naming the latest National Artist awardees by choosing nominees who did not go through the traditional peer review process.

"I agree with the position of some national artists vs Malacanang not because the choices are undeserving but because the process was subverted," he said.

"As with the Judicial Bar Council (JBC), the Palace tried to insist on their own list but did not succeed. Unfortunately, they succeeded in the case of the selection of National Artists," said Escudero, who is the Senate representative to the JBC.

The opposition senator was referring to the JBC stand not to expand its original list of six nominees to the Supreme Court as the Palace had suggested so it could have more choices for the two vacant positions in the High Tribunal.

Faced with the unanimous position of the JBC, the Palace was left with no choice but to name the new justices from the original list.

In the case of the selection of the new National Artists, the Palace decision to include NCCA chair Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, and film director and komiks writer Carlo J. Caparas, Jr. sparked an outcry from some national artists and cultural workers.