Padaca among 2008 RM awardees

MANILA, Philippines – A governor who proved that ordinary people can topple political dynasties and make a difference, and a Filipino microfinance organization that extends loans to poor families are among the eight winners of the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awards, organizers announced yesterday.

Two-term Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca won the Magsaysay Award for government service for “empowering Isabela voters to reclaim their democratic right to elect leaders of their own choosing, and to contribute as full partners in their own development.”

“I feel unworthy and I never dared dream to win this award but I am thankful to the Ramon Magsaysay Awards for bringing the focus back in the direction of electoral reforms,” Padaca told The STAR in a phone interview.

“For my people in Isabela, this award confirms that if we have the courage to do the right thing, it will bear fruit,” Padaca said.

The 44-year-old governor, who contracted polio in her childhood and walks with crutches, faced great odds when she ran against the powerful Dy family in 2004, including the lack of financial resources.

The Dys ruled Isabela for 30 years.

Padaca won that election and won again in 2007.

Under her administration, certain subsidies were given to farmers but more than her agricultural projects, Padaca said her topmost priorities were her electoral reform programs.

Recently, she, along with Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio, Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, and Mayor Sonia Lorenzo of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija banded together and launched “Kaya Natin!” a movement  for good governance and ethical leadership in a mission to change the country’s deteriorating political situation.

Padaca challenged every Filipino to contribute in whatever way they can to change the country’s political system.

“If we work for what is good, then we achieve what is good; but if we don’t act at all, if we just allow what is wrong to prevail, then it will prevail,” she said.

Meanwhile, another pride of the country, the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI) of San Pablo, Laguna won the RM Award for Public service.

The group is being honored “for successful adaptation of microfinance in the Philippines, providing self-sustaining and comprehensive services for half a million poor women and their families.”

Also cited were Therdchai Jivacate for Public Service for “his dedicated efforts in Thailand to provide inexpensive, practical, and comfortable artificial limbs even to the poorest amputees”; Indians Prakash Amte and Mandakini Amte for Community Leadership for “enhancing the capacity of the Madia Gonds to adapt positively in today’s India, through healing and teaching and other compassionate interventions”; and Ahmad Syafii Maarif from Indonesia for Peace and International Understanding.

Maarif is being honored for “guiding Muslims to embrace tolerance and pluralism as the basis for justice and harmony in Indonesia and in the world at large.”

Other awardees are Akio Ishii from Japan for Journalism, Literature and Creative Arts for “his principled career as a publisher, placing discrimination, human rights, and other difficult subjects squarely in Japan’s public discourse” and Ananda Galappatti from Sri Lanka for Emergent Leadership.

Galappatti is being honored for “his spirited personal commitment to bring appropriate and effective psychosocial services to victims of war trauma and natural disasters in Sri Lanka.”

The eight 2008 Magsaysay awardees join 263 other laureates who have received Asia’s highest honor.

They will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award during the presentation ceremonies to be held on Aug. 31 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award honors the memory and leadership of the third Philippine President and is given yearly to individuals and organizations in Asia who manifest the same selfless service that Magsaysay had.

They will receive a medallion, a certificate and a cash prize of $50,000.