MANILA, Philippines—A satirical play -- about a woman president toying with the idea of establishing a monarchy to save her troubled nation -- could have brought the house down at Monday night’s award ceremonies of the 2008 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

But organizers decided weeks ahead to break tradition and chose not to stage this year’s grand prize winner in the Filipino One-Act Play category, purportedly because of its “political content.”

Floy Quintos, the winning playwright, on Tuesday confirmed the organizers’ decision not to mount his work, titled “Ang Kalungkutan ng Mga Reyna,” but said he had no complaints at all.

“They decided not to do it because of what they perceived to be the political content of the play,” Quintos said when reached by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the phone.

“I respect the decision and I’m still grateful that it won. That’s the prerogative of the producers,” said Quintos, who noted that it was also his fourth time to win a Palanca. He said he had earlier also served as a judge in the country’s most prestigious literary contest.

Reached on the phone and told of Quintos’ remarks on the reason his play was not performed, a coordinator for the award-giving body would rather not comment.

The Palanca Awards night is known to traditionally feature performances of the year’s winning One-Act Play or Full-Length Play.

In lieu of a play, poetry and essay readings were among the highlights of Monday’s program.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus was the guest speaker at the affair held at the Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati.

This was how Quintos described Kalungkutan: It’s about a female president “talking to her hairdresser” about establishing a monarchy, believing it is the only way to save the country.

“But it’s not just about politics; it’s about much, much more,” he said.

Quintos said he just asked a friend to pick up the award on Monday, but denied snubbing the affair in protest. He said he had to attend a rehearsal at the University of the Philippines that same evening.

Quintos said his play had actually been staged four times in July during the Virgin Labfest, an annual festival of new stage productions, held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

He said he had been told about the award-giving body’s decision weeks before the award’s night, and that he would not consider it a form of censorship.