Frankie Sionil Jose National Artist - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

We can’t understand why very often the people who most deserve recognition are the very last to be recognized. A few years back, Nick Joaquin was given the Magsaysay Award for Literature. We thought that it was a much-belated recognition. He should have been one of the very first to have been recognized as a national artist. That should have been done years ago.

Frank Sionil Jose has been recognized as a great writer even abroad. Only a few months ago, the French government awarded him the Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. We are happy to say, however, that our academic world has acknowledged Sionil Jose’s contribution to Philippine art and letters. Three universities – University of the Philippines, La Salle and Far Eastern – conferred on him honorary doctorates in humanities.

In the Philippine Graphic, Nick Joaquin wrote, "Francisco Sionil Jose, Asia’s white hope (or tan stand?) for the Nobel, has been translated into every major language, including Scandinavian, and is, hands down, the most-widely-read Filipino author." Other Asians share this view. Tokyo’s Mainichi Shimbun said ". . . an outstanding saga writer. If ever a Nobel Prize in literature will be awarded to a Southeast Asian writer, it will be F. Sionil Jose . . ." Singapore Strait Times made a similar observation: "Considered by many to be Asia’s most likely candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature . . . he’s a fine writer and it would be welcome recognition of cultural achievement in his troubled country. (He) is widely known and acclaimed in Asia."

Time has acknowledged him as "one of the (Philippines’) most distinguished men of letters." James Fallows of The Atlantic even compared him favorably to American writers. "America has no counterpart – no one who is simultaneously a prolific novelist, a social and political organizer, an editor and a journalist, a small-scale entrepreneur . . . Jose’s identity had equipped him to be fully sensitive to his nation’s miseries without succumbing, like many of his characters, to corruption or despair.

We have known Frankie for years and what has impressed us most about him is his humility. We knew Frankie when he could hardly make both ends meet. That Frankie and today’s Frankie are the very same person.

When you go with artists like Frankie and Nick Joaquin, you don’t hear them talk about being champions of freedom of expression. Yet both stood their ground and fought the Marcos regime. Only mediocre movie directors fancy themselves as the avant garde champions of freedom of expression, meaning pornography.

It may be pure coincidence, but the mere fact that Frankie Sionil Jose was recognized as National Artist in the first two months of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration is a good reflection of her regime.