ShareThisWill top Filipino comedian and actor Dolphy be a recipient of a presidential award of merit soon for his contribution to Philippine show business?
Showbiz leaders, recognizing his contributions to the movie and entertainment industry, are asking President Benigno S. Aquino III to confer a presidential award of merit on Dolphy.
Dolphy, whose real name is Rodolfo Vera Quizon, has been the Comedy King in Philippine movies and television for several years and deserve the presidential award, they said.
Last June, Dolphy was conferred the Outstanding Manilan award together with President Aquino.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) was earlier asked to confer a National Artist Award on Dolphy, but he has to undergo the long and tedious nomination process. After the nomination, there will be voting by members of the board of both the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the NCCA, with some living National Artists participating in the voting process.
NCCA executive director Ma. Lourdes Jacob had suggested that Dolphy be nominated instead for the presidential award of merit, which only President Aquino can confer on the Comedy King.
The National Artist Award may follow after the nomination process, it was learned.
In the last NCCA-CCP National Artist Awards vote, the late Action King Fernando Poe Jr. was voted National Artist for Movies.
Poe, known as FPJ and was a presidential candidate, nearly lost that award because he won only by one vote.
Poe’s wife, Susan Roces, and family later refused to receive the award from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
During the tribute to the National Artists, FPJ’s grandson by Grace Poe Llamanzares, showed up at the CCP and was profusely acknowledged in the program.
It was gathered that the award for Dolphy is being pushed because he is already 84 years old and is sickly.
The comedian’s condition may improve if he gets the citation, it was learned.
President Aquino’s proposed award to Dolphy would be a fitting tribute to his lifelong dedication to art, movie and entertainment industries.