MANILA - The country's Divine Diva Zsa Zsa Padilla shared that her only birthday wish for her longtime partner, "King of Comedy" Dolphy, is to be recognized as one of the country's National Artists.

"Ang wish ko sana ay maging National Artist na si Dolphy. I'm really looking for that. I think he deserves it. I mean, this is an artist who has undergone stage,  television pati  recording napasok niya lahat talaga," Padilla told ABS-CBN News.

Padilla said that she plans to throw another party for his 81st birthday this July, with all the important people in his life to shower him with love. "Alam mo sa kanya (Dolphy), wala na 'yong materyal na bagay. Gusto niya 'yong magsama-sama," Padilla said.

It was early this year that people in and out of showbiz floated the idea of making Dolphy (or Rodolfo V. Quizon in real life) a National Artist.

In 2007, Senator Manny Villar endorsed Dolphy as National Artist in a letter addressed to the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

New CD

Meanwhile, after seven years of taking a break from recording,  Padilla will once again give her Filipino fans and supporters a musical treat with her latest album titled "Unchanging Love" under EMI records.

Padilla shared that her CD will feature 12 tracks and is both a mix of covers and three originally composed songs. "I wrote it when I was touring for Divas 4 Divas (a concert with Pops Fernandez, Kuh Ledesma and Regine Velasquez)," she said.

Padilla said that it took a long time before she could complete her album since she was waiting for rights to include several copyrighted songs in her album. She also said the time she spent in hiatus was spent trying to come up with songs that would be inspirational.

"Bakit seven years? Bakit ang  tagal kong hindi nakapag-record? Well, I really wanted to have an album that would really inspire me as an artist. Actually this is sort of compromise album, it's not the album that I pitched for EMI. I had to give way since they know the market. And right now, there's more time for revivals so we compromised with what the revivals would be. Most are OPMS," Padilla explained.

Her album reportedly includes hits like "Memories", "Changes", and "Ikaw Lang." It also includes Padilla's rendition of "Unchanging Love", the song written by Martin Nievera as his wedding gift for celebrity couple Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo.