Highly deserving artist

This column wishes to congratulate Pambansang Samahan ng mga Tagamasid at Tagapagtaguyod ng Filipino (PASATAF) for its wise decision to grant its Gawad Balagtas to Balintataw aired on DZRH and Sining Gising broadcast on NBN 4 for its promotion of the national language. Both programs which provide food for the brain and spirit were conceived, produced and hosted by Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. She is the youngest to have received the Ramon Magsaysay Outstanding Asian Award in the arts. Even in exile she reaped honors for the country with a United Nations Human Rights Day Award for Cultural Innovation by the Fund for Free Expression, besides sharing with the world class Bread and Puppet Theatre, the outstanding Political Theatre Award with her staging of Philippine Educational Theatre Arts League (PETAL) Ensemble presentation in New York, Off-Broadway. Her direction of the Earthsavers DREAMS Ensemble merited a UNESCO Artists for Peace. Her exceptional work as a producer, actress, director, writer animateur in the service of the country is highly deserving of the honor accorded to her. There is a Cuban saying: “Honrar, Honra” When you recognize the truly deserving, you honor yourself. In honouring Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, PASATAF officials headed by Dr. Marlene Tillah honored themselves.

Balintataw since 1967, when it was aired in Channel 5, won consecutively in 5 years the Citizen’s Award for Television (CAT) for Best Drama. Closed down during Martial Law, the rejuvenated Balintataw won again the honor roll of CMMA as well as recognition from STAR Awards. Significantly, the tri-media approach of Balintataw on TV-radio-comics was selected by CNN as early as 1994 as a Soap Opera for Social Change with an introduction by Jane Fonda in a special documentary of People Count aired globally, premiered at the Women’s Conference in Beijing in 1995. It also got a positive review in TIME Magazine. It was a training ground bridging the stage and cinema where Lino Brocka, Elwood Perez, Maryo J. Delos Reyes, Mario O’Hara, Gardy Labad, Romy Vitug, Nick Lizaso and the late Joey Gosiengfiao and many more have learned their spurs in broadcast theatre and cinema. It was also cited in the Daytime Emmy Awards, as one of the 6 Best Soap Opera in the Third World besides the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Kenya.

Let me recharge memory by quoting from my column in Manila Chronicle written in August 1972, 37 years ago when I applauded the RM Foundation for giving the award to Cecile Guidote-Alvarez at a young age of 28 recognizing her untiring efforts to bring arts to the masses through her training methodology and her flexible staging approach at Fort Santiago’s

Theatre in the Ruins:

“I used to get letters from a girl who was taking up drama in the United States way back in the mid-sixties. The letters were all about what was wrong with the Philippine theatre and what she would do about it when she got back. We wish that we kept those letters. At any rate, we first met Cecile Guidote when she arrived in Manila after her studies in the States in 1967. She narrated all her plans for Philippine theatre and I was not only impressed but touched for it was like meeting my own spirit. I told her the great problems that she would have to overcome. She was aware of all of the obstacles but dismissed them with a wave of the hand. She organized the first national convention of the PETA and asked me to be its guest speaker. I accepted and went to the Pope Pius XII Center expecting to see a handful of people. To my surprise, the place was packed. Then things began to happen in the Philippine theatre. The next convention, I told the audience that if Cecile could sustain her efforts, I had no doubt that when the history of the Philippine theatre would be recorded it would be subdivided in two parts- Before Guidote and After Guidote. The First Third World Theatre Festival held in Manila last November was an international achievement for Cecile Guidote. That took extraordinary vision, planning, dedication, and work to push through. While many producers and directors are content with presenting local versions of current Broadway hits, the PETA has worked so that someday Filipinos will not have mere theatre in the Philippines but a truly Filipino theatre. We know of all the setbacks, the frustrations, and the disappointments that Cecile had to undergo in order to realize some of her plans for the development of Philippine theatre. Suffice it to say that they were enough to have discouraged any other person”. My prophecy has come to pass.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made the enlightened choice to have Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, direct the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Under her stewardship among other things she focused on developing, documenting, disseminating the good news about the wealth of our cultural diversity as a force for Education and Social Transformation. One of the tools she conceived and executed is Sining Gising, a weekly two-hour TV Special by the NCCA chaired by Dr. Vilma Labrador, DepEd Undersecretary for Plans and Programs as an avenue for promotion of intergenerational equity of the creative works of gurus and aspiring young artists. It has been a venue to showcase the NCCA’s KALAHI Cultural Care-giving services for poverty alleviation and the creative industry of our indigenous communities linked to micro-lending, cooperative development and marketing to advance their welfare and promote their heritage. She has been able to weave in these arts modules within the TESDA Voc-Tech ladderized curriculum. Through her successful organization of the 31st UNESCO-ITI Congress and Theatre Olympics of the Nations on mobilizing cultural diversity for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) presented by the UNESCO Director General Matsuura, the Philippines was elected Asia Pacific Bureau of the UNESCO-ITI Chair for Trainors Training for Theatre for All. Cecile celebrates 50 years of cultural services to the country through her vision, perseverance, passion and faith, a rich legacy that will continue to inspire the youth.