President Arroyo will lead mourners in remembering the late national artist’s 86 years in a four-hour program at the Nicanor Abelardo Main Theater, according to CCP officials.
The President also declared tomorrow, May 2, as a national day of mourning to honor the memory of Joaquin. She signed Proclamation No. 623 calling upon the Filipino people to mourn and honor "a great Filipino who has left an enduring legacy to our people."
The program is to start at 8 a.m. and will also be attended by members of the diplomatic community and notable artists and friends of Joaquin.
After the Mass, the ashes of Joaquin are to be brought to the Libingan ng mga Bayani at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City for burial ceremonies at high noon.
According to a sister of Joaquin, the much awarded poet and playwright had wanted his ashes scattered over the Pasig River "because he loved Manila a lot."
The national artist for literature died in his sleep on Thursday morning in his home in San Juan. Official cause of death was cardiac arrest.
CCP officials said Joaquin’s fellow artists have been mourning because their works and lives were influenced by the writer, who also wrote under the pen name "Quijano de Manila."
"He was an inspirational and influential hero who remained humble and giving," CCP vice president and artistic director Fernando Josef said of Joaquin, who would have turned 87 on Tuesday.
He said Filipinos have lost a hero whose works will have a lasting impact because they emphasized family values and love of country.
"His works were very vivid picturization of Filipino society. They will remain influential to literary artists in poetry and writing," Josef said in an interview.
The CCP executive said Joaquin’s selflessness and innate generosity were what made young writers look up to him.
"His works will remain forever. They will continue to inspire readers," noted Josef.
Among his notable awards were prizes from the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for his short stories "La Vidal" in 1958, "Doña Jeronima" in 1965, and for his 1976 three-act play, "The Beatas."
Joaquin also won five Manila Critics Circle National Book Awards for his books "The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay in History as Three Generations" (1983); "The Quartet of the Tiger Moon: Scenes from the People Power Apocalypse" (1986); "Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming" (1988); "The World of Damian Domingo: 19th Century Manila" co-written with Luciano PR Santiago, and "Jaime Ongpin: The Enigma" (both 1990).
Joaquin’s works have influenced and inspired generations of Filipino writers in English. He has also translated the works of the national hero Jose Rizal into English.
Joaquin, whose parents were Leocadio Joaquin and Salome Marquez, attended the public schools and dropped out after his third year in Mapa High School in Intramuros, Manila.
He published his first poem in the Tribune, the pre-war Manila Times, at the age of 17, when he was a proofreader in the composing department.
In 1950 Joaquin was hired as literary editor by the Philippines Free Press, which published his weekly investigative reports and feature articles under his pen name.
According to accounts, labor problems brewed in the Free Press in 1970, and Joaquin sided with the workers and resigned over management’s attempts to break the union.
He then joined the Asia-Philippines Leader in 1971 as its editor in chief. Upon the declaration of martial law, Joaquin found himself out of a regular job as the Leader and other newspapers and magazines critical to the Marcos administration were closed down.
"The nation grieves at the loss of a great Filipino. Novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, historian, and biographer, Nick Joaquin made significant contributions to the cultural heritage of our country," she said.
"Indeed we have been made poorer by the passing of the Grand Old Man of Philippine Literature who touched our lives with the depth of his thoughts perked by his profound eloquence and wit. Personally, I mourn the loss of a family friend and personal biographer," she said.
Among Joaquin’s last books was "Madame in Excelsis: Historying Gloria Macapagal Arroyo."
He is perhaps best known for his play, "A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino," and his two novels, "The Woman who had Two Navels" and "Cave and Shadows." His short stories such as "Summer Solstice" and "May Day Eve" have been adapted to either stage or film, while "The Legend of the Dying Wanton" and "Candido’s Apocalypse" are memorable in themselves.
He was conferred the National Artist Award in 1976, which he accepted only on the condition that his friend from the Free Press, Jose Lacaba, be released from political detention.
"Devoting his life to the lofty craft of conjuring a world through words, Nick Joaquin used his pen as his weapon and wielded it well," Mrs. Arroyo said.
"As his fellow National Artist, the late Francisco Arcellana said, his writing ‘is always of the highest skill and quality,’" she cited.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo extended her condolences to the Joaquin family at the Santuario de San Antonio at Forbes Park in Makati City, where his ashes were placed in an urn.
"The President mourns the loss of Mr. Nick Joaquin. He is a national treasure and an asset for the Philippines. He is a loss not only to the nation but to the world of literature," Bunye said.
Bunye sad the President felt a deep sense of personal loss over his death because Joaquin had been a very good friend of the Macapagal-Arroyo family.
At the time of his death, Joaquin was editor in chief of the Philippine Graphic and publisher of Mirror weekly magazines.
He is survived by his sister Carmen Joaquin Enriquez, wife of former Zamboanga mayor Joaquin Enriquez. Joaquin’s other siblings include the late publisher Enrique "Ike" Joaquin, the jazz pianist Porfirio "Ping" Joaquin, and Augusto, Adolf and Generosa Joaquin.
A statement from Manila Mayor Lito Atienza mourned the passing of a great Manileño.
"We have lost a great Manileño, one who has done our city an invaluable service by immortalizing in his writings the beauty and grandeur of the Manila of the past and the positive changes that we were able to introduce in the past several years," Atienza said.
Joaquin, who was born in Paco, wrote the book "Manila, My Manila," a chronicle of the noble and ever loyal city once considered as the Paris of Asia.
The writer received awards from the city government in 1964 and 1979 for his work.
"He was one of our inspirations in our efforts to revive the glory of our beloved city," Atienza said.