Leni dares people: Find the hero in you

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo challenged people yesterday to “find the great giant and hero in you” as she commended this year’s recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award – Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize – for going beyond the call of duty to find solutions to the most pressing problems in society.

“It is when the people themselves are empowered and during empowering when the magic really happens,” Robredo said.

The 2016 Ramon Magsaysay awardees – Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, Dompet Dhuafa of Indonesia, Bezwada Wilson and Thodur Madabusi Krishna of  India, Vientiane Rescue of Laos and the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers – were formally presented the awards at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The awarding ceremonies coincided with the 109th birth anniversary of former president Ramon Magsaysay.

“Nobody gave these six nominees the marching order to go beyond their terms of reference or their task list. They saw a burning need around them, and they went beyond the call of duty to find solutions,” Robredo said in her speech, adding that their efforts resulted in a groundswell of support. 

Robredo said many of the world’s greatest ideas were borne out of difficult circumstances, just like the ones that came to those nominated to receive the award.

But the Vice President stressed the awardees were not the only players in the games of humanity and inspiration.

“You are, too,” Robredo said. “Find the giant and the hero in you, and their sacrifices and hard work will finally find root in the societies of the world. You are the final leg of their work,” she added.

Robredo said ideas were more powerful than anything when used to cultivate humanity.

“Your ideas are more forceful than guns; more persuasive than money; more commanding even than dictators. So act on those ideas that come to you in the darkest hours of the morning,” she said.

The Vice President said she was honored at the same time emotional to be the event’s keynote speaker as she remembered her husband, the late Naga City mayor and interior secretary Jesse Robredo, who received the same award in 2000.

“My late husband stood on this stage 16 years ago to accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award…So, being here this very moment, makes me feel he is very much alive and close by,” she said.

She said the annual search should remind the people of something so beautiful – that “the world is getting better, not worse.”