MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE 2) The Supreme Court has issued a status quo order preventing Malacañang from conferring the rank and title of national artist on those named by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as this year?s recipients of the state honor, a court spokesman told a press conference Tuesday.

The order was issued following the tribunal?s en banc session on Tuesday morning, said lawyer Midas Marquez.

Among this year?s national artists as proclaimed by Malacañang were National Commission on Culture and Arts executive director Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, cartoonist-filmmaker Carlo J. Caparas, architect Francisco Mañosa, fashion designer Jose Moreno, filmmaker Manuel Conde, Lazaro Francisco for literature and visual artist Federico Alcuaz.

National artists, including Virgilio Almario and Benedicto Cabrera, asked for a temporary restraining order on the awarding as they questioned the process through which Guidote-Alvarez, Caparas, Moreno and Mañosa were included in the list.

Co-petitioners were lawyers, deans, and professors, and artists and members of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines.

In line with the order, the high court also said that the Executive Department could not release the cash awards that went with the conferment.

In its resolution, the high court told the Executive Department to maintain status quo and ordered respondents to comment within 10 days on the petition.

Respondents include Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Commission on Culture and the Arts, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, Carlos Caparas, Jose Moreno, Francisco Manosa.

In its petition filed last week, the National Artists claimed that the President abused her discretion when she disregarded the screening process in including her own choices.

They asked the high court to declare as grave abuse of discretion on the part of President Arroyo the inclusion of Alvarez, Manosa, Moreno, and Caparas in the list of National Artists, as well as the deletion of the name of Dr. Ricardo Santos.

Last July 29, aside from the four, Malacañang announced Lazaro Francisco (posthumous award for literature);Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (visual arts, paintings, sculpture and mixed media); and Manuel Conde, as its choices for National Artists.

Of the seven, only Francisco, Conde, and Alcuaz were original choices by the NCCA and the CCP Board, which took two years to screen the nominees.