Ex-PEZA chief, theater group among Magsaysay awardees

MANILA, Philippines - Former Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) director general Lilia de Lima and the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) are among this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, joining four others from Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

De Lima was cited for “her unstinting, sustained leadership in building a credible and efficient PEZA, proving that the honest, competent and dedicated work of public servants can, indeed, redound to real economic benefits to millions of Filipinos.”

She joined PEZA in 1995 and served the government agency for more than 20 years, transforming it into “a model of transparent, productive and customer-friendly efficiency” leading to “the rise of the Philippines as one of the region’s top investment destinations,” Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) said in a statement.

During her term, the number of PEZA ecozones increased by 2,000 percent, registered enterprises rose from 331 to 3,756, investments reached P3 trillion and ecozone exports totaled $629 billion.

PETA was recognized for its “bold, collective contributions in shaping the theater arts as a force for social change, its impassioned, unwavering work in empowering communities in the Philippines and the shining example it has set as one of the leading organizations of its kind in Asia.”

Two of PETA’s major projects were commended for illustrating its range and diversity in development engagements – the Greater Mekong Sub-region Partnership (2005 -2010) that supported performing artists from Asian countries and the Lingap Sining (Nurturing Through the Arts) that creatively harnessed the arts in interventions in emergency relief and psychosocial debriefings and disaster preparedness training in the Yolanda-hit Leyte province.

Yoshiaki Ishizawa from Japan was recognized for his “inspiring leadership in empowering Cambodian people” while Abdon Nababan from Indonesia was cited for “his brave, self-sacrificing advocacy to give voice and face to his country’s indigenous people communities.”

Gethsie Shanmugam was awarded for her “compassion and courage in working under extreme conditions to rebuild war-scarred lives” in Sri Lanka.

Tony Tay from Singapore was commended for “his quiet, abiding dedication to a simple act of kindness – sharing food with others – and his inspiring influence in enlarging this simple kindness into a collective, inclusive, vibrant volunteer movement that is nurturing the lives of many in Singapore.”

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was created in 1957 in honor of former Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay, who died in a plane crash, for his “leadership, integrity in public service and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.”

It pursues the mission of “honoring greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.” The awardees for this year will be formally conferred on Aug. 31, 2017 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.