CONTEMPORARY ARTS FORMS

BASED ON THE ELEMENTS AND

PRINCIPLES

FILIPINO ARTISTS’ ROLES AND

THEIR CONTRIBUTION
CONTEMPORARY ARTS:

A. MUSIC
Elements of Music
Rhythm
Pitch
Melody
Dynamics
Timbre/tone
Texture
 Principles of Music
Variety
Repetition
Balance
Acoustics
Tension and Resolution
Transition
Unity
FILIPINO ARTISTS
 Ernani J. Cuenco is a seasoned
musician born in May 10, 1936 in Malolos,
Bulacan. A composer, film scorer, musical
director and music teacher, he wrote an
outstanding and memorable body of works
that resonate with the Filipino sense of
musicality and which embody an ingenious
voice that raises the aesthetic dimensions of
contemporary Filipino music. Cuenco played
with the Filipino Youth Symphony Orchestra
and the Manila Symphony Orchestra from
Ernani J. Cuenco 1960 to 1968, and the Manila Chamber
Soloists from 1966 to 1970. He completed a
music degree in piano and cello from the
University of Santo Tomas where he also
taught for decades until his death in 1988.
 His songs and ballads
include “Nahan, Kahit na
Magtiis,” and “Diligin Mo ng
Hamog ang Uhaw na Lupa,”
“Pilipinas,” “Inang Bayan,”
“Isang Dalangin,” “Kalesa,”
“Bato sa Buhangin” and “Gaano
Kita Kamahal.” The latter song
Ernani J. Cuenco
shows how Cuenco has enriched
the Filipino love ballad by adding
the elements of kundiman to it.
 Lucio San Pedro is a master composer,
conductor, and teacher whose music evokes the folk
elements of the Filipino heritage. Cousin to “Botong”
Francisco, San Pedro produced a wide-ranging body of
works that includes band music, concertos for violin
and orchestra, choral works, cantatas, chamber music,
music for violin and piano, and songs for solo voice.
He was the conductor of the much acclaimed Peng
Kong Grand Mason Concert Band, the San Pedro Band
of Angono, his father’s former band, and the Banda
Angono Numero Uno. His civic commitment and work
Lucio San Pedro with town bands have significantly contributed to the
development of a civic culture among Filipino
communities and opened a creative outlet for young
Filipinos.
 His orchestral music include The
Devil’s Bridge, Malakas at Maganda
Overture,Prelude and Fugue in D
minor, Hope and Ambition; choral
music Easter Cantata, Sa Mahal Kong
Bayan, Rizal’s Valedictory Poem; vocal
music Lulay,Sa Ugoy ng Duyan, In the
Silence of the Night; and band music
Lucio San Pedro Dance of the Fairies, Triumphal March,
Lahing Kayumanggi, Angononian
March among others.
 Antonio J. Molina, versatile musician,
composer, music educator was the last of the musical
triumvirate, two of whom were Nicanor Abelardo and
Francisco Santiago, who elevated music beyond the
realm of folk 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 for
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
Antonio J. taught many of the country’s leading musical
Molina personalities and educators like Lucresia Kasilag and
Felipe de Leon.
 Molina’s most familiar
composition is Hatinggabi, a serenade
for solo violin and piano
accompaniment. Other works are
(orchestral music) Misa Antoniana
Grand Festival Mass, Ang Batingaw,
Kundiman- Kundangan; (chamber
music) Hating Gabi, String Quartet,
Antonio J. Kung sa Iyong Gunita, Pandangguhan;
Molina (vocal music) Amihan, Awit ni Maria
Clara, Larawan Nitong Pilipinas, among
others.
 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”
Levi Celerio (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
Levi Celerio of World Records as the only
person able to make music using
just a leaf.
 A great number of his songs
have been written for the local
movies, which earned for him the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Film Academy of the Philippines. Levi
Celerio, more importantly, has
enriched the Philippine music for no
less than two generations with a
treasury of more than 4,000 songs in
Levi Celerio an idiom that has proven to appeal to
all social classes.
 Felipe Padilla de Leon, composer,
conductor, and scholar, Filipinized
western music forms, a feat aspired
for by Filipino composers who
preceded him.The prodigious body of
De Leon’s musical compositions,
notably the sonatas, marches and
concertos have become the full
Felipe Padilla de expression of the sentiments and
Leon aspirations of the Filipino in times of
strife and of peace, making him the
epitome of a people’s musician.
 He is the recipient of
various awards and
distinctions: Republic Cultural
Heritage Award, Doctor of
Humanities from UP, Rizal
Pro-Patria Award, Presidential
Felipe Padilla de Award of Merit, Patnubay ng
Leon Kalinangan Award, among
others.
 De Leon’s orchestral music
include Mariang Makiling
Overture (1939), Roca Encantada,
symphonic legend (1950), Maynila
Overture (1976),
Orchesterstuk(1981); choral music
like Payapang Daigdig, Ako’y
Felipe Padilla de Pilipino, Lupang Tinubuan, Ama
Leon Namin; and songs Bulaklak,
Alitaptap, and Mutya ng Lahi.
atang dela rama thumbnail
photo.
 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
Andrea of the Philippine Madrigal
Veneracion
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
Andrea on July 11, 1928, she is recognized
Veneracion as an authority on choral music
and performance and has served
as adjudicator in international
music competitions.
CONTEMPORARY ARTS:
B. DANCE
Elements of Dance
Body
Space
Time
Dynamics
Relationship
Principles of Dance
Pattern
Repetition
Contrast
Transformation
Narrative
FILIPINO ARTISTS
 Francisca Reyes Aquino is
an educator, teacher and
nationalist. First lady awarded the
National Artist of the Arts in the
dance field. He made extensive
and thorough studies of
indigenous dances in the
Francisca Reyes Philippines and, consequently, he
Aquino contributed greatly to the
advancement of Filipino culture in
the field of dancing.
 She is acknowledged as the Folk Dance
Pioneer. This Bulakeña began her research on folk
dances in the 1920’s making trips to remote barrios in
Central and Northern Luzon. Her research on the
unrecorded forms of local celebration, ritual and sport
resulted into a 1926 thesis titled “Philippine Folk
Dances and Games,” and arranged specifically for use
by teachers and playground instructors in public and
private schools. In the 1940’s, she served as supervisor
of physical education at the Bureau of Education that
distributed her work and adapted the teaching of folk
Francisca Reyes dancing as a medium of making young Filipinos aware
Aquino of their cultural heritage. In 1954, she received the
Republic Award of Merit given by the late Pres.
Ramon Magsaysay for “outstanding contribution
toward the advancement of Filipino culture”, one
among the many awards and recognition given to her.
 Leonor Orosa-Goquingco
was a Filipino national artist in
creative dance. She could play the
piano, draw, design scenery and
costumes, sculpt, act, direct,
dance and choreograph. Her pen
Leonor Orosa- name was Cristina Luna and she
Goquingco
was known as Trailblazer, Mother
of Philippine Theater Dance
and Dean of Filipino Performing
Arts Critics.
 She was a pioneer Filipino choreographer in
balletic folkloric and Asian styles, produced for over
50 years highly original, first-of-a-kind choreographies,
mostly to her own storylines. These include “TREND:
Return to Native,” “In a Javanese Garden,” “Sports,”
“VINTA!,” “In a Concentration Camp,” “The Magic
Garden,” “The Clowns,” “Firebird,” “Noli Dance
Suite,” “The Flagellant,” “The Creation…” Seen as
her most ambitious work is the dance epic
“Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and Lore.” With
it, Orosa brought native folk dance, mirroring
Leonor Orosa- Philippine culture from pagan to modern times, to its
highest stage of development.
Goquingco
She was the Honorary Chair of the
Association of Ballet Academies of the
Philippines (ABAP), and was a founding
member of the Philippine Ballet Theater.
 Ramon Obusan was a *dancer,
choreographer, stage designer and
artistic director. He achieved
phenomenal success in Philippine
dance and cultural work. He was also
acknowledged as a researcher,
archivist and documentary filmmaker
who broadened and deepened the
Filipino understanding of his own
Ramon Obusan cultural life and expressions. Through
the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Grop
(ROFG), he had affected cultural and
diplomatic exchanges using the
multifarious aspects and dimensions
of the art of dance.
  Among the full-length productions he
choreographed are the following:
 “Vamos a Belen! Series” (1998-2004)
Philippine Dances Tradition
“Noon Po sa Amin,” tableaux of Philippine
History in song, drama and dance
“Obra Maestra,” a collection of Ramon
Obusan’s dance masterpieces
“Unpublished Dances of the Philippines,”
Series I-IV
Ramon Obusan “Water, Fire and Life, Philippine Dances
and Music–A Celebration of Life
Saludo sa Sentenyal”
“Glimpses of ASEAN, Dances and Music of
the ASEAN-Member Countries”
“Saplot (Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group):
Philippines Costumes in Dance”
 Lucrecia Reyes-Urtula,
choreographer, dance educator and
researcher, spent almost four decades in the
discovery and study of Philippine folk and
ethnic dances. She applied her findings to
project a new example of an ethnic dance
culture that goes beyond simple
preservation and into creative growth. Over
a period of thirty years, she had
choreographed suites of mountain dances,
Lucrecia Reyes- Spanish-influenced dances, Muslim pageants
Urtula and festivals, regional variations and dances
of the countryside for the Bayanihan
Philippine Dance Company of which she
was the dance director. These dances have
all earned critical acclaim and rave reviews
from audiences in their world tours in
Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.
 Among the widely acclaimed dances
she had staged were the
following: Singkil, a Bayanihan
signature number based on a Maranao
epic poem; Vinta, a dance honoring
Filipino sailing prowess; Tagabili, a tale
of tribal conflict; Pagdiwata, a four-day
Lucrecia Reyes- harvest festival condensed into a six-
Urtula minute breath-taking
spectacle; Salidsid, a mountain
wedding dance ; Idaw,
Banga and Aires de Verbena.
 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
Alice Reyes dance legacy is evident in the
dance companies, teachers,
choreographers and the exciting
Filipino modern dance repertoire
of our country today.
 Perhaps the biggest contribution of Alice
Reyes to Philippine dance is the development
of a distinctly Filipino modern dance idiom.
Utilizing inherently Filipino materials and
subject matters expressed through a
combination of movements and styles from
Philippine indigenous dance, modern dance
and classical ballet she has successfully
created a contemporary dance language that
Alice Reyes is uniquely Filipino. From her early
masterpiece Amada to the modern dance
classic Itim-Asu, to her last major
work Bayanihan Rememberedwhich she
staged for Ballet Philippines, she utilized this
idiom to promote unique facets of Philippine
arts, culture and heritage.
 By organizing outreach tours to many
provinces, lecture-demonstrations in schools,
television promotions, a subscription season
and children’s matinee series, she slowly
helped build an audience base for Ballet
Philippines and modern dance in the country.

Among her major works: Amada (1969), At a

Alice Reyes Maranaw Gathering (1970) Itim-
Asu (1971), Tales of the Manuvu (1977), Rama
Hari (1980), Bayanihan Remembered (1987).
 CONTEMPORARY ARTS:

C. THEATER
 Elements of Theatre
Script/Text, Scenario, Plan
The Process
The Product
The Audience
 Principles of Theatre
1. EVERYONE SHARES THE SAME GOAL
The success of the show is top priority for every stakeholder.
2. EVERYONE SHARES AN EQUIVALENT RISK
If the show is a bust, if tickets don’t sell, the show closes and payroll stops.
3. COLLABORATION RULES!
Everyone knows what everyone else does, and respects it.
4. THE WORK MATTERS
The show has some personal meaning to every professional working on it.
5. FAILURE IS YOUR FRIEND
It’s the quickest way to learn.
6. SUCCESS REQUIRES THE COURAGE TO STEP INTO THE
UNKNOWN
Entering unexplored territory leads to defining tomorrow’s standard.
FILIPINO ARTISTS
 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
Wilfrido Ma. pioneered the concept of theater campus
Guerrero tour and delivered no less than 2,500
performances in a span of 19 committed
years of service.
 By bringing theatre to
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
Wilfrido Ma. that humorously reflect the
Guerrero
behavior of the Filipino.
 His plays include Half an
Hour in a Convent, Wanted: A
Chaperon, Forever,
Condemned, Perhaps, In
Unity, Deep in My Heart,
Three Rats, Our Strange
Wilfrido Ma.
Guerrero Ways, The Forsaken House,
Frustrations.
 Daisy H. Avellana, is an actor, director
and writer. Born in Roxas City, Capiz on
January 26, 1917, she elevated legitimate
theater and dramatic arts to a new level of
excellence by staging and performing in
breakthrough productions of classic Filipino
and foreign plays and by encouraging the
establishment of performing groups and the
professionalization of Filipino theater.
Daisy H. Together with her husband, National Artist
Avellana Lamberto Avellana and other artists, she co-
founded the Barangay Theatre Guild in 1939
which paved the way for the popularization
of theatre and dramatic arts in the country,
utilizing radio and television.
 She starred in plays
like Othello (1953), Macbeth in
Black (1959), Casa de Bernarda
Alba (1967), Tatarin. She is best
remembered for her portrayal
of Candida Marasigan in the stage and
film versions of Nick Joaquin’s Portrait
of the Artist as Filipino. Her directorial
Daisy H. credits include Diego Silang (1968),
Avellana
and Walang Sugat (1971). Among her
screenplays were Sakay (1939)
and Portrait of the Artist as
Filipino (1955).
 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 productions
notable for their visual impact and
Rolando S. Tinio 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
Rolando S. Tinio beauty of his practice that
claimed for theater a place
among the arts in the Philippines
in the 1960s.
 Aside from his collections of
poetry (Sitsit sa Kuliglig, Dunung
– Dunungan, Kristal na Uniberso,
A Trick of Mirrors) among his
works were the following: film
scripts for Now and Forever,
Gamitin Mo Ako, Bayad
Rolando S. Tinio Puri and Milagros; sarswelas Ang
Mestisa, Ako, Ang Kiri, Ana
Maria; the komedya Orosman at
Zafira; and Larawan, the musical.
 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
Honorata Dela
Rama 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,
Honorata Dela and Marina. She counts the role
Rama 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 has 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.

Among the kundiman and the other

songs she premiered or popularized
Honorata Dela
Rama were Pakiusap, Ay, Ay Kalisud, Kung Iibig
Ka and Madaling Araw by Jose Corazon de
Jesus, and Mutya ng Pasig by Deogracias
Rosario and Nicanor Abelardo. She also
wrote her own sarswelas: Anak ni Eba, Aking
Ina, and Puri at Buhay.
 Playwright, director, actor, and
theater organizer Severino Montano is the
forerunner in institutionalizing “legitimate
theater” in the Philippines. Taking up courses
and graduate degrees abroad, he honed and
shared his expertise with his countrymates.
As Dean of Instruction of the Philippine
Normal College, Montano organized the
Severino Arena Theater to bring drama to the masses.
Montano He trained and directed the new generations
of dramatists including Rolando S. Tinio,
Emmanuel Borlaza, Joonee Gamboa, and
Behn Cervantes.
 He established a graduate program at
the Philippine Normal College for the training
of playwrights, directors, technicians, actors,
and designers. He also established the Arena
Theater Playwriting Contest that led to the
discovery of Wilfrido Nolledo, Jesus T.
Peralta, and Estrella Alfon.

Among his awards and recognitions

Severino are the Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award from
Montano the City of Manila (1968), Presidential Award
for Merit in Drama and Theater (1961), and
the Rockefeller Foundation Grant to travel to
98 cities abroad (1950, 1952, 1962, and 1963).
 CONTEMPORARY ARTS:
D. VISUAL ARTS
Form Color Texture
D. VISUAL ARTS
Line ELEMENTS
Shape Value Space
 Variety
Movement Rhythm

D. VISUAL ARTS
PRINCIPLES Balance
Harmony
Proportion

Gradation Emphasis
FILIPINO ARTISTS
 The official title “Grand Old Man of
Philippine Art” was bestowed on Amorsolo
when the Manila Hilton inaugurated its art
center on January 23, 1969 with an exhibit of
a selection of his works. Returning from his
studies abroad in the 1920s, Amorsolo
developed the backlighting technique that
became his trademark where figures, a
cluster of leaves, spill of hair, the swell of
breast, are seen aglow on canvas. This light,
Fernando Nick Joaquin opines, is the rapture of a
Amorsolo sensualist utterly in love with the earth, with
the Philippine sun, and is an accurate
expression of Amorsolo’s own exuberance.
His citation underscores all his years of
creative activity which have “defined and
perpetuated a distinct element of the
nation’s artistic and cultural heritage”.
Planting Rice
 Hernando R. Ocampo, a self-taught
painter, 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
Hernando R. Ocampo
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.
Genesis 1969
 Benedicto R. Cabrera, *who signs his
paintings “Bencab,” upheld the primacy of
drawing over the decorative color. Bencab
started his career in the mid-sixties as a
lyrical expressionist. His solitary figures of
scavengers emerging from a dark landscape
were piercing stabs at the social conscience
of a people long inured to poverty and
Benedicto R. Cabrera dereliction. Bencab, who was born in
Malabon, has christened the emblematic
scavenger figure “Sabel.” For Bencab, Sabel
is a melancholic symbol of dislocation,
despair and isolation–the personification of
human dignity threatened by life’s
vicissitudes, and the vast inequities of
Philippine society.
Sabel
 Guillermo Estrella Tolentino is a product of
the Revival period in Philippine art. Returning
from Europe (where he was enrolled at the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Rome) in 1925,
he was appointed as professor at the UP
School of Fine Arts where the idea also of
executing a monument for national heroes
struck him. The result was the UP
Oblation that became the symbol of freedom
Guillermo E. at the campus. Acknowledged as his
Tolentino
masterpiece and completed in 1933, The
Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan stands as
an enduring symbol of the Filipinos’ cry for
freedom.
 The Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan
 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
Cesar Legaspi disturbing power and intensity.
Mother and Child
 CONTEMPORARY ARTS:
E.LITERATURE
 Edith L. Tiempo, poet, fictionist,
teacher and literary critic is one of the
finest Filipino writers in English whose
works are characterized by a
remarkable fusion of style and
substance, of craftsmanship and
insight. Born on April 22, 1919 in
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, her poems
are intricate verbal transfigurations of
significant experiences as revealed, in
two of her much anthologized pieces,
“The Little Marmoset” and “Bonsai”.
Edith L. Tiempo As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally
profound. Her language has been
marked as “descriptive but
unburdened by scrupulous detailing.”
She is an influential tradition in
Philippine literature in English.
 Together with her late husband,
Edilberto K. Tiempo, she founded and
directed the Silliman National Writers
Workshop in Dumaguete City, which
has produced some of the country’s
best writers.

Tiempo’s published works include the

novel A Blade of Fern (1978), The
Native Coast (1979), and The Alien
Edith L. Tiempo Corn(1992); the poetry collections, The
Tracks of Babylon and Other
Poems (1966), and The Charmer’s Box
and Other Poems(1993); and the short
story collection Abide, Joshua, and
Other Stories (1964).
 Bienvenido Lumbera, is a poet,
librettist, and scholar.

As a poet, he introduced to
Tagalog literature what is now known
as Bagay poetry, a landmark aesthetic
tendency that has helped to change
the vernacular poetic tradition. He is
the author of the following
works: Likhang Dila, Likhang
Bienvenido Diwa (poems in Filipino and English),
Lumbera 1993; Balaybay, Mga Tulang Lunot at
Manibalang, 2002; Sa Sariling
Bayan, Apat na Dulang May Musika,
2004; “Agunyas sa Hacienda
Luisita,” Pakikiramay, 2004.
 As a librettist for the Tales
of the Manuvu and Rama Hari, he
pioneered the creative fusion of
fine arts and popular imagination.
As a scholar, his major books
include the following: Tagalog
Poetry, 1570-1898: Tradition and
Influences in its Development;
Philippine Literature: A History
Bienvenido and Anthology, Revaluation:
Lumbera
Essays on Philippine Literature,
Writing the Nation/Pag-akda ng
Bansa.
 Virgilio S. Almario, also
known as Rio Alma, is a poet,
literary historian and critic, who
has revived and reinvented
traditional Filipino poetic forms,
even as he championed
modernist poetics. In 34 years, he
has published 12 books of poetry,
which include the
seminal Makinasyon and Peregri
Virgilio S. Almario nasyon, and the landmark
trilogy Doktrinang
Anakpawis, Mga Retrato at
Rekwerdo and Muli, Sa
Kandungan ng Lupa.
 In these works, his
poetic voice soared
from the lyrical to the
satirical to the epic,
from the dramatic to
the incantatory, in his
Virgilio S. Almario often severe
examination of the self,
and the society.
 He has also redefined how
the Filipino poetry is viewed and
paved the way for the discussion
of the same in his 10 books of
criticisms and anthologies,
among which are Ang Makata sa
Panahon ng
Makina, Balagtasismo versus
Modernismo,Walong Dekada ng
Virgilio S. Almario Makabagong Tula
Pilipino, Mutyang
Dilim and Barlaan at Josaphat.
 Many Filipino writers have come
under his wing in the literary
workshops he founded –the Galian sa
Arte at Tula (GAT) and the Linangan sa
Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA). He
has also long been involved with
children’s literature through the Aklat
Adarna series, published by his
Children’s Communication Center. He
has been a constant presence as well in
national writing workshops and
Virgilio S. Almario
galvanizes member writers as chairman
emeritus of the Unyon ng mga
Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).
 He headed the National
Commission for Culture and the
Arts as Executive Director, (from
1998 to 2001) ably steering the
Commission towards its goals.
But more than anything else,
what Almario accomplished was
that he put a face to the Filipino
writer in the country, one strong
Virgilio S. Almario face determinedly wielding a pen
into untruths, hypocrisy, injustice,
among others.
 CONTEMPORARY ARTS:

F I L M
AND BROADCAST ARTS
 Catalino “Lino” Ortiz Brocka is known
to many as one of, if not the greatest
Filipino director of all time. He
espoused “freedom of expression”
throughout all his films, injecting each
and every one with a social activist
spirit. Some of his well-known works
include Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang
(1974), Maynila sa mga Kuko ng
Catalino Ortiz Liwanag (1975), and Insiang (1976), the
Brocka latter being the first Filipino film to be
shown at Cannes.
 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 was recognized as the Director
of the Decade of the 1970s by the
Catholic Mass Media Awards; four-
time Best Director by the Urian
Ishmael Bernal Awards (1989, 1985, 1983, and
1977); and given the ASEAN
Cultural Award in Communication
Arts in 1993.
 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
Ishmael Bernal across: to fight the censors, free
the artists, give justice to the
oppressed, and enlighten as well as
entertain the audience.
 Manuel Conde In the decades before
and after World War II when Philippine
society was being inundated by
American popular culture, Conde
invested local cinema with a distinct
cultural history of its own through
movies that translated onto the silver
screen the age-old stories that
Filipinos had told and retold from
Manuel Conde generation to generation for at least
the past one hundred years.
 Manuel Conde contributed in no small
measure to the indigenization of the
cinema, specifically: by assigning it a
history and culture of its own; by
revitalizing folk culture with urgent
issues, fresh themes and new
techniques; by depicting and critiquing
Filipino customs, values and traditions
according to the needs of the present;
by employing and at the same time
Manuel Conde innovating on the traditional cinematic
genres of his time; and by opening the
local cinema to the world.
 Eddie Romero, is a screenwriter, film director and
producer, is the quintessential Filipino filmmaker
whose life is devoted to the art and commerce of
cinema spanning three generations of filmmakers.
His film “Ganito Kami Noon…Paano Kayo
Ngayon?,” set at the turn of the century during the
revolution against the Spaniards and, later, the
American colonizers, follows a naïve peasant
through his leap of faith to become a member of an
imagined community. “Aguila” situates a family’s
story against the backdrop of the country’s history.
“Kamakalawa” explores the folkloric of prehistoric
Eddie Romero Philippines. “Banta ng Kahapon,” his ‘small’
political film, is set against the turmoil of the late
1960s, tracing the connection of the underworld to
the corrupt halls of politics.
 His 13-part series of “Noli Me
Tangere” brings the national hero’s
polemic novel to a new generation
of viewers. Romero, the ambitious
yet practical artist, was not satisfied
with dreaming up grand ideas. He
found ways to produce these
dreams into films. His concepts,
ironically, as stated in the National
Eddie Romero Artist citation “are delivered in an
utterly simple style – minimalist, but
never empty, always calculated,
precise and functional, but never
predictable.”
 “King of Philippine movies”

Ronald Allan K. Poe,

popularly known as
Fernando Poe, Jr., was a
cultural icon of tremendous
audience impact and
cinema artist and
Ronald Allan K. Poe craftsman–as actor,
director, writer and
producer.
 Gerardo “Gerry” De Leon, film
director, belongs to the Ilagan clan
and as such grew up in an
atmosphere rich in theater. 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. In the 50s and 60s, he
Gerardo De Leon produced many films that are now
considered classics including
“Daigdig ng Mga Api,” “Noli Me
Tangere,” “El Filibusterismo,” and
“Sisa.”
 CONTEMPORARY ARTS:
G. ARCHITECTURE,
DESIGN, AND ALLIED
ARTS
 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
Pablo Antonio 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
Pablo Antonio
resorting to an applied set of
aesthetics and should eternally
recreate truth”.
Far Eastern University, Manila
 Leandro V. Locsin reshaped the
urban landscape with a distinctive
architecture reflective of Philippine Art
and Culture. He believes that the true
Philippine Architecture is “the product of
two great streams of culture, the oriental
and the occidental… to produce a new
object of profound harmony.” It is this
synthesis that underlies all his works, with
his achievements in concrete reflecting his
Leandro V. Locsin mastery of space and scale.
 Every Locsin Building is an original,
and identifiable as a Locsin with
themes of floating volume, the
duality of light and heavy, buoyant
and massive running in his major
works. From 1955 to 1994, Locsin
has produced 75 residences and 88
buildings, including 11 churches and
chapels, 23 public buildings, 48
Leandro V. Locsin commercial buildings, six major
hotels, and an airport terminal
building.
Cultural Center of the Philippines
 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-
José María V. income housing projects; and more than
Zaragoza 270 residences – all demonstrating his
typological versatility and his mastery of
modernist architectural vocabulary.
 Zaragoza is a pillar of
modern architecture in
Philippines buttressed by a half-
century career that produced
ecclesiastical edifices and
structures of modernity in the
service of God and humanity.
José María V.
Zaragoza
Sto. Domingo Church, Quezon City