President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had declared the names of the 7 people who were declared as National Artists for 2009.  The 7 new and proud national artists are Manuel Urbano also known as Manuel Conde for Film and Broadcast, Federico Aguilar Alcuz for Visual artis, sculpture, painting and mixed media, Lazaro Francisco for Literature, Cecilla Guidote-Alvarez for Theater, Francisco Manosa for Architecture, Pitoy Moreno for Fashion Design and Carlo J. Caparas for Visual Arts and Film.

It was the Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who had made the announcement just right before the departure of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo bound for the United States for her official visit. 

The national artist award is the highest award to ever be given to a Filipino who had contributed so much for the development of different crafts such as music, theater, literature, visual arts, broadcast arts, architecture and others. But there is a controversy with this year’s list of National Artists when the names of Jose “Carlo” J. Caparas and Cecilia Guidote-Alvarez were added.

For the 7 new national artists, 3 names are nominated and deliberated by the NCCA and the CCP and those who were chosen were Manuel Conde, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz and Lazaro Francisco. The other four were chosen by the President herself.

Virgilio Almario, a national artist for literature said that he hates it when GMA meddles with the selection of national artists and said that she should not use her presidential privilege. Alvarez’s name being part of the 7 national artists had raised some eyebrows as she is also an executive director of NCAA as well as a presidential adviser on culture which made it a conflict of interest situation.  Carlo J. Caparas is attacked for the perception that he is unworthy of being called a national artist as he hasn’t illustrated the comics himself and his movies do not have any intellectual substance. Only these 2 names had been questioned.