Ramon Magsaysay Foundation honors awardees

Two Filipino science educators, three Chinese environmentalists, a Japanese advocate for nuclear disarmament, and a Bangladeshi advocate for the rights of disabled persons were honored Tuesday by Ramon Magsaysay Foundation for excellence in their respective fields of endeavor. The 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Awards ceremonies were held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The seven awardees were Christopher Bernido and Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines; Huo Daishan, Pan Yue, and Fu Qiping of China; A.H.M. Noman Khan of Bangladesh; and Tadatoshi Akiba of Japan. President Benigno Aquino III presented the awards to each laureate at the CCP main theater. The Ramon Magsaysay Awards was founded in 1957 in honor of the late President Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who died in a plane crash in March that year. Since then, 267 individuals and 17 organizations have received the prestigious award. Aquino in his speech thanked the awardees "for being symbols of the highest ideals of human kind, and for shining your light in a world that is in constant need of good examples." He personified Magsaysay as "perhaps the most beloved president in the history of our nation." Aquino's mother, the late President Corazon C. Aquino, also received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1998. Two of the three Chinese awardees, Pan Yue and Fu Qiping were not present to receive their awards. The foundation stressed that their absence had nothing to do with the recent hostage-taking incident in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead. One of the Chinese recipients, Huo Daishan, arrived in the Philippines on Aug. 25, two days after the hostage incident. Huo, a photojournalist, was honored for his work that raised awareness on the effects of pollution in China’s river Huai. Huo said he has no hesitations about visiting the Philippines even after the hostage incident. "[Filipinos] are really hospitable, very friendly, and very hardworking, he added. 'Dynamic learning' The Bernidos are physicists who run a progressive high school for underprivileged students in Jagna, Bohol. Through a system they call "dynamic learning," students at the school spend most of their time doing independent study rather than listening to lectures. Upon receiving the award, Carpio-Bernido said, "Far from being barriers to education of the highest standards, poverty and scarcity allow us to systematically zero in on the core of the learning process." Akiba is the three-term mayor of Hiroshima, Japan. He has led a worldwide campaign for a nuclear weapons-free world. In 1999, he formed a coalition of city mayors from 144 countries to pressure national governments into nuclear disarmament by 2020. "If the international community were to sign a nuclear weapons convention and initiate the process of finding and eliminating all nuclear weapons and weapons-grade fissile materials, we would be saying, in effect, 'We will cooperate to assure our collective survival.' This very process would be both the cause and effect of a dramatic change in international relations, signaling a major paradigm shift that would then open the door to cooperation in other spheres," Akiba said in his acceptance speech. Photojournalist Huo was honored for his efforts to raise awareness about the effects of pollution on China's third-largest river, the Huai. He vowed to use his prize money "for building more water purifying systems in the villages along the Huai River," saying this would ensure that the Magsaysay Award would directly impact the lives of poor farmers in the area. Khan created in 1996 the Center for Disability in Development, an organization that has since provided services and inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities in Bangladesh. "I salute... the persons with disabilities who made us realize that it is not their impairment, but rather the attitudinal and environmental barriers that impede their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis as others," he said. The final award was shared by Chinese government officials Pan Yue and Fu Qiping, who were not present at the awards ceremonies. Pan Yue is currently the vice-minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, while Fu Qiping is the leader of Tengtou Village in Zhejiang province, one of the smallest yet most environmentally progressive communities in China. In a letter to the Magsaysay Foundation, Qiping said, "Tengtou, though a small village, strove to create a miracle, which fully shows that Chinese peasants are capable of changing their destiny. We hope to share our experience with others so that more peasants in China and elsewhere can live a better life." —VS, GMANews.TV