MANILA, Philippines --Former censors chief Manuel Morato would rather own a Carlo J. Caparas artwork than a Cesar Legaspi painting.

?Carlo is a damn good painter and artist. I have quite a few of his works. His is an inborn talent, unlike [Cesar Legaspi] who studied it all,? said Morato, reacting to singer Celeste Legaspi who said that naming Caparas National Artist for Visual Arts was ?an insult to the memory? of her late father Cesar Legaspi, who was bestowed the same title in 1990.

?I don?t even have any of [Cesar] Legaspi?s works in my collection. I got rid of them. Same with the works of Bencab and Arturo Luz. I won?t hang their works in my collection and desecrate the works of Goya, Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso and other old masters that I own,? Morato said.

Legaspi also got the ire of 63-year-old nutritionist Paciencia ?Paz? Caparas-Aguilar, when the singer told reporters that Caparas did not deserve the award, as he did not even know how to draw or paint.

Aguilar is the sister of Caparas, komiks king and film director, recently named National Artist for Visual Arts and Film by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

?That is not only a lie, that is an insult to our family,? Aguilar said in Filipino. ?As a young boy, Carlo was already helping the family with his drawings.?

Caparas, a glass factory worker and later, a security guard before becoming a komiks novelist, is the seventh of nine children of the late Salvador and Florentina Caparas, both Pasig natives.

For their ?below-the-belt? tirades, Legaspi and other critics like actor Leo Martinez and singer Jim Paredes, are ?not welcome? in Barangay (Village) Ugong, Pasig.

?As far as we are concerned, they are persona non grata,? Aguilar said in Filipino.

Other Ugong folk have rallied behind Caparas, the community?s ?top achiever.?

Village chair Engracio Santiago recalled: ?During our primary school days (in the 1960s) at Ugong Elementary School (now Francisco Legaspi Memorial School), many students ran to Carlo for their drawings, as well as the teachers who needed help in drawing their instructional materials.?

Eufrocinia Cruz, 79, a retired Ugong Elementary School teacher, confirmed this. ?Carlo draws well. That?s common knowledge not only at Ugong Elementary School but in the entire community,? she said.

A Caparas family friend, Virginia Macapuro, said the komiks writer ?apparently got his artistic talent from his father, an optician who?s also good in drawing. I should know. Our families stayed in the same house during the Japanese occupation.?

Morato, now a director of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), also lambasted other critics of his friend Caparas, like Imee Marcos and National Artists F. Sionil Jose, Virgilio Almario and Bienvenido Lumbera.

Almario ?tried to promote the national language, which in truth and in fact, Carlo Caparas succeeded more in spreading in his komiks 10 times over ... Lumbera loves watching porno films at UP Film Center,? said Morato in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Almario and Lumbera have vowed not to wear their National Artist medallions until President Arroyo recalls the title she conferred on Caparas and Cecile Guidote Alvarez, executive director of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), which oversees the grant of the award together with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

Morato, a staunch ally of Arroyo, said the controversy over National Artists named by Malacañang showed that ?so much falsehood, insincerity and hypocrisy have infected our culture.?

?They think too much of themselves. They should stop outsmarting each other much less act like jurors to judge those coming after them. While they destroy others, they destroy themselves in the process. Detractors of duly selected awardees this year only managed to cheapen themselves and brought themselves to public scrutiny as well that they, too, are not deserving of the honors they received from the Palace,? he said.

Dante Jimenez, head of the nongovernment Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), also took up the cudgels for Caparas.

?It?s sad some people are belittling his contributions to the justice system in the country, particularly his so-called ?massacre films? in the 1980s, which helped a lot in making the public aware about the prevalence of heinous crimes,? Jimenez said.

He added, ?What Carlo?s critics are doing is so unfair and unjust to us victims of crimes. Where were they when we needed them most??

Caparas also got expressions of support from boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada, Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino chair Joe Lad Santos, and Polytechnic University of the Philippines president Dante Guevarra.

Contacted by phone, Leo Martinez, who heads the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), insisted that comedian Dolphy and director Celso Ad. Castillo deserved to be named National Artists, not Caparas.

?The issue here is the quality of a person?s body of works, not his highest grossing films,? Martinez said.

Last week, he and Paredes, along with some National Artists, went to Congress to seek its help in blocking the naming of Caparas and three others as National Artists in Proclamation Nos. 1823 and 1829. Arroyo signed the proclamations on July 6.

NCCA chair Vilma Labrador asserted in a TV interview that the President had the ?last say? in naming the awardees.

The names forwarded by NCCA and CCP to the Palace were ?only recommendatory, not mandatory,? said Labrador, who is also Department of Education undersecretary.