MANILA, 1 September 2006 — Two Filipinos were among six Asian achievers honored yesterday by the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in ceremonies at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Journalist and publisher Eugenia Duran Apostol won the award for journalism, literature and creative communication for “her courageous example in placing the truth-telling press at the center of the struggle for democratic rights and better government in the Philippines.”
Apostol has been cited for her editorial publishing achievements, particularly for her role in the anti-Marcos movement with her Mr & Special Edition, the forerunner of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, now the biggest Philippine newspaper.
Antonio Meloto, the second Filipino recipient, was recognized for “inspiring Filipinos to believe with pride that theirs can be a nation without slums.”
“This award is an affirmation that we can make a difference in our country if we rise above our own differences,” he said.
Meloto, with support from the Catholic Church-based Couples for Christ, transformed a poor village into a viable neighborhood with sturdy and attractive houses.
It became the first Gawad Kalinga village. There are now more than 800 Gawad Kalinga villages in the Philippines, some of which had been built with donations by Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East.
The Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, which Meloto heads, also received a Magsaysay Award for “harnessing the faith and generosity of Filipinos the world over to confront poverty in the Philippines and provide every family the dignity of a decent home and neighborhood.”
Foundation official Frank Padilla received the award during yesterday’s ceremonies. He Padilla said the foundation’s work is still going on. It aims to build 7,000 new communities by 2010.
Also receiving their Ramon Magsaysay awards, “Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, were Cambodian government official Ek Sonn Chan, Korean public servant Park Won Soon, Nepalese doctor Sanduk Ruit, Indian leader Arvind Kejriwal.
“The awardees are not usually people in the public eye. They are modest and they operate very quietly,” said Emily Abrera, the chair of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation’s (RMAF) board of trustees.
Explaining the process by which the awardees are chosen every year, Abrera said the research into the background of the nominees was carried out “under covert circumstances.” Until the foundation informs them that they had been chosen, the awardees are not even aware that they had been nominated, she explained.
Ek, who heads the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, was given the government service award for his exemplary rehabilitation of the Cambodian capital’s broken-down water system and for delivering safe drinking water to a million people.
The award for peace and international understanding went to Ruit, an eye doctor who introduced new techniques in cataract surgery to Nepal and other Asian countries, “enabling the needlessly blind in even the poorest countries to see again.”
The foundation cited Kejriwal for emergent leadership for activating India’s right-to-information movement at the grassroots, through the organization he founded, Parivartan, which means “change.”
Park was recognized for heading The Beautiful Foundation, aimed at rekindling the Korean habit of generosity and popularize philanthropy.
Park, who received the award for public service, challenged individuals and companies to donate one percent of their income or time to the needy.
Since his foundation was formed, some 26,000 people have heeded Park’s call, a citation by the RMAF said. (With a report from Inquirer News Service)
