Wait a minute, show biz folks and Dolphy fans! Don’t be so gung ho (in a hurry) in etching the “National Artist” trophy for Dolphy. We all like him. He deserves a fair share of recognition not only as a national icon but also as a doting father to his 18 children. He is also touted as the man with a “golden heart” by those who had worked with him in movies and TV shows. A leading lady, a camera man, a show assistant or an extra has always something good to say about him. The man respected everybody—with no distinction. He treats everybody in the industry as his equal, and himself as no better than anybody in the real world. But being too good, nice and generous, aside from tickling the funny bones of many for decades through his movies and TV shows, may not be enough qualifications after all.
To be a national artist demands more than what the candidate has achieved. Excellence in the craft is of course an essential element. But let’s pause for a moment and reflect. Is it not that a national artist must be a role model, someone to be revered and emulated? Or some kind of a “beau ideal,” or a paragon? Let’s change some gender component in the meantime and pretend that Dolphy is a woman who had attained the same height of success and fame as the real Dolphy, the man. This woman-Dolphy has 18 children fathered by different men, out of wedlock. Will this scenario alter the whole equation and elicit a different reaction?
If morality is the ultimate yardstick in the selection of a national artist, and sowing one’s wild oats results in birthing 18 kids with different mothers/fathers outside marriage is verboten, then the Awards body must be right after all. This makes sense because a philandering Casanova cannot certainly be a role model.
We do not say that Dolphy is an immoral person, but we could not say either that he is moral—in this respect.
The smell of death oftentimes yearns for respect, a sanctimonious respect that is, but let not the virtue of righteousness be cast upon the shadows, just to give way to the mundane longings of idolatry and friendship. There are rules that command for compliance and respect, and these rules cry that things be set in their proper, appropriate places.
What do you think, folks?
—MANUEL BIASON,
mannybiason@verizon.net