OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT
(First of three parts)
A technocrat as a Filipino National Artist?
In theater arts, and in the person of Bienvenido M. Noriega, Jr, why not?
The Order of National Artist— Order ng Pambansang Alagad ng Sining — is awarded to individuals who have made significant share in the development of Philippine arts. This covers music, dance, theater, visual arts, literature, film, broadcast arts, architecture and allied arts. In its field, it is the highest recognition by the republic. It is conferred by the President upon the recommendation of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Past awardees are household names: Larry Alcala for visual arts in 2018; Ryan Cayabyab for music in 2018; Lucio San Pedro for music in 1991; and Fernando Amorsolo for visual arts in 1972. At the time of their recognition, Alcala would have been 92; Cayabyab was 64; San Pedro was 78; and Amorsolo would have been 80.
Their respective life journeys have been long and more than fulfilling. Time was on their side when they shaped their sublime contribution to Philippine arts. With their social commitment and involvement, they epitomized what Cesar Chavez meant when he said: “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community.” Our National Artists had dreams for society. Their craft captured these dreams, for society’s sake and for their own.
Bienvenido “Boy” M. Noriega Jr. was a dominant playwright who wrote in everyday Filipino. His repertoire was remarkably wide and ranged, “from the personal to the social, from the comic to the tragic.” Noriega did not just write drama; he was drama personified. He yielded to his passion by writing award-winning full-length plays, one-act plays, musicales, screenplays, and even song lyrics. He also produced and directed some of his plays. On top of that, Noriega worked for the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines and for Tanghalang Pilipino. He co-founded Dramatis Personae. Surely, he wrote and performed drama.
In his 1995 review of Boy’s Deuterium, UP Dean Rogelio Sikat commended him, saying, that because of Noriega’s work, Filipino playwriting has “finally hurdled being tentative to become the full-blown and lively genre that it is now.”
Dean Sikat hailed Noriega for breaking “new ground between stereotyped tradition-bound Tagalog plays.” Sikat, incidentally my own professor in Filipino literature in UP 45 years ago, considered Noriega “as the best Filipino playwright today” without any reservation.
Sikat made this observation a year after Noriega succumbed to cancer at only 42 years old on September 14, 1994. Noriega would have been 68 years old today.
Between 1994 and 2020 is 26 long years that could have provided Noriega with a rich social canvas to be interpreted into great and pulsating dramas and screenplays. He was a gentle soul even as a young man with no time to lose. Confucius once said that one cannot build a reputation on what he plans to do. Noriega complied; his accomplishments were extremely impressive enough to establish a solid reputation within his short 42 years.
In one of his letters to his fellow great writer who is also worthy of a National Artist Award this time in Literature, Jose Y. “Butch” Dalisay, he was almost prophetic about dying young. But when he approached the age of 27, he thought he would live long and indicated that “one of my honest ambitions in life is to write 12 to 20 truly good plays—those with universal and timeless qualities.”
The Order of the National Artist in Theater would be a good affirmation of those accomplishments and a tribute to Noriega’s lofty literary ambition.
Many do not know that Noriega was first a playwright before going fully into economics and public service. He enrolled in modern drama courses while doing isocosts and isoquants. He produced his first play in 1970 “Down the Basement” a year before earning his AB Economics from the UP School of Economics as class valedictorian and cum laude. He finished his MA in economics in 1973 and attended both Harvard University for his MPA and Columbia University for an executive program in business administration. He pursued his love for the arts by combining his major public and business administration courses with audits in modern drama, comedy and film theory.
Definitely, Noriega was not a mere “oido.” He was both a natural and steeped in arts theory.
He was an excellent technocrat. He was one of Dr. Gerry Sicat’s bright boys in NEDA where he served as director of policy and coordination staff at 21. He was executive vice president of the then government-owned Philippine National Bank in 1981-93 and president of PNB Investments Limited and director of PNB Securities. He moved to Westmont Bank in 1994 as executive vice-president.
He was generous with his expertise and passion when he taught economics and drama at both UP Diliman and Manila, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Assumption College, and the University of the East. He lectured at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and UP Drama Workshops.
Noriega’s dual passion to write and to serve and excelling in both led Ateneo to recognize him with the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award in 1995: “The significance of Noriega’s achievement in Theater and Film will be impoverished unless it is put in place with his career in banking and government service. Here one does not find the simple case of competition between work and avocation or between two careers or even loves. Noriega was expert in his two occupations—as writer and technocrat and he managed to put them together in his person.”
Noriega brought fresh air to Philippine drama and arts. As an economist and a technocrat, he was closely familiar with the social milieu. He could have been prescriptive at the conclusion of every play. But the real playwright in him reined him in. In an interview with Sujata Mukhi and Sara Sotto, Noriega admitted avoidance of political or very socially oriented plays “because I have not understood the system that well this time, or even the people at this time, to be able to trace the reasons for the difficulties of these characters.” He was only 42 years old when he wrote 30.
Another posthumous award, the Centennial Honors for the Arts in Theater in 1999 conferred by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine Centennial Commission, was mindful of the unique dimension of Noriega’s plays:
“Ang mga dula ni Bienvenido Noriega, Jr., mandudula ay kilala para sa kakaibang di hayagang komentaryo sa masalimuot at nagtutunggaling pagpapahalaga’t identidad na Filipino. Bagama’t ang kaniyang mga dula ay sumasaklaw sa tila malawakang isyu, nakikipag-usap ang mga ito sa mga kontemporanyong panlipunang problema. Ang lagging nakataya sa kaniyang mga dula ay ang isyu ng indibidwal at komunidad bilang analogo ng pambansang identidad.”
As a technocrat, Noriega must have been utterly aware of the role of social resources in enhancing the viability of the whole social system. As early as the 1980’s, his Bayan-Bayanan set in Geneva revealed deep understanding of the phenomenon of overseas employment as a safety valve to mounting poverty. But as an artist, he limited his commentary to an individual’s perspective. Based on his consciousness, he established the sad reality of the whole system. Unfortunately, what started as a stop-gap measure to address serious joblessness in the mid-1970s has evolved into a public policy fixture of today.
Noriega was more than familiar with the dynamics of his play. He wrote without guesswork. He was right there in Geneva as a technocrat of the Philippine government.
Next week: Noriega’s genius in his work