Tiongson admitted that he had reservations on the installation of Dolphy with the prestigious award. Tiongson wrote: “I believed that the two icons he created for film and TV – the screaming gay and the happy-go-lucky poor man – have, in the majority of his movies, equated gayness with abnormality and mindless frivolity on the one hand, and romanticized or deodorized poverty on the other.”
Tiongson expressed reservations about Dolphy receiving the prestigious award, citing his concerns that the actor's portrayals of gay characters and impoverished individuals in many of his films perpetuated negative stereotypes.