On May 17, 2011, Coco Martin personally received his Aktor Ng Dekada award from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino at the Gawad Urian 2011 awarding ceremony.

He was one of the three recipients of the award, including premiere TV and film actresses Cherry Pie Picache and Gina Pareño.

Coco was overjoyed to be named as one of the decade's best actors by the prestigious award-giving body. (CLICK HERE to read story.)

But some critics were quick to express their disappointment to the Gawad Urian saying that Coco does not deserve his award. According to them, compared to Cherry Pie and Gina, he is still much too young to be given such recognition.

PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) recently caught up with Coco and he shared his sentiments about the issue.

He admitted that he, too, felt that he's still too young to receive such recognition.

"Sa 'kin, wala naman. Kasi, actually nga nung sinabi na nabigyan ako ng ganung parangal, and then siyempre dekada yun, [sabi ko] parang ang bata ko pa.

"Parang napakataas yata ng award na 'to. Tapos Urian pa 'yan."

He also explained the reason why Gawad Urian chose him to be one of their awardees. He cited that age and longevity in the business are not exactly part of the criteria.

"Nung binigyan na kami ng award, in-explain na parang ang criteria nito, hindi dahil mahaba ka na sa show business. Hindi yun ang basehan.

"Kumbaga, sa sampung taon, ilang pelikula ba ang tumatak sa mga manonood?

"I think local or international, parang ganun yun ang [basis] nila. Which is yun yung nag-explain."

Coco began to recount his film career showing the scope of work he has done.

"2005 ako nagsimula. And then, 2011 pa lang ngayon.

"Sa 2005 na yun, yung first year ko sa indie, that time na hindi pa ako nagti-TV at hindi pa ko nagme-mainstream, sa isang buwan, halos apat na pelikula ang ginagawa ko."