The awarding ceremony of the annual Ramon Magsaysay Award is set for August 31 this year, the 110th birth anniversary of the great Ramon Magsaysay, third president of the third Republic of the Philippines. It started in 1957 and it is named in honor of President Magsaysay, who was known for his unimpeachable integrity in public office. One of the most popular leaders in modern Philippine history, Magsaysay served as president from December 1953 to March 1957.
Magsaysay was a guerilla leader during the war. He served two terms as congressman representing Zambales Province under President Elpidio Quirino’s Liberal Party (LP). As Quirino’s new defense secretary in September 1950, Magsaysay destroyed the communist insurgency based in central Luzon which, at that time, had become strong enough to threaten the country’s fledgling democracy. This made Magsaysay very popular among the electorate. Envious of his defense secretary’s popular appeal, Quirino sacked Magsaysay in February 1953, months before the presidential election set for November that year.
By the end of 1952, however, the opposition Nacionalista Party (NP) was set to field Jose P. Laurel against the reelectionist Quirino. The Laurel versus Quirino presidential contest anticipated in November 1953 was seen as a rematch since Laurel lost his 1949 presidential bid to Quirino in an election which political observers criticized as dirty and questionable.
When news of Magsaysay’s departure from Quirino’s good graces and, ultimately, from the LP nest, reached Laurel, the latter invited Magsaysay to join the NP. Realizing that only a very popular candidate like Magsaysay can overcome Quirino’s well-oiled and well-financed campaign machinery, Laurel yielded his quest to return to Malacañang and gave way to Magsaysay as the NP’s presidential candidate in November 1953.
As expected, Magsaysay won the election.
Upon assuming office, President Magsaysay opened Malacañang to the general public, and by his example, urged everyone in public service to lead honest and modest lives.
Although he was perceived as a staunch supporter of American interests in the Philippines, Magsaysay disliked the parity rights ordinance in the 1935 Constitution which gave Americans in the Philippines the same rights and privileges in commerce and industry in the country, without the corresponding reciprocity for Filipino businessmen in the United States. Accordingly, Magsaysay sent Laurel to Washington, D.C. to put an end to this lopsided arrangement. Laurel succeeded and brought home the Laurel-Langley Agreement which set 1974 as the expiration date for what would have otherwise been permanent parity rights for Americans in the Philippines.
On March 17, 1957, Magsaysay was killed in an airplane crash in Cebu. Thus, the Filipinos lost one of their greatest presidents. His funeral cortege attracted one of the biggest crowds in Philippine history.
According to the website of the foundation behind it, the Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in 1957 by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation to perpetuate Magsaysay’s sterling example of integrity in public service. The first awards were given in 1958. Conceived as a continental award, the Magsaysay Award is conferred only on Asians.
Winners of the award are given a specially designed medal bearing the image of the late president, and a substantial cash prize.
Considering the exacting requirements for one to even be considered for this laurel, and taking into account the names of past awardees, many of whom are Filipinos, the Magsaysay Award is undoubtedly very prestigious.
Sadly, the Magsaysay Award is always compared by news reporters and commentators to the famous Nobel Prize of Sweden, which is named in honor of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. In fact, the Magsaysay Award is always referred to as “the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.”
That derisive comparison is not only uncalled for; it is also an insult to the memory of the great Philippine president.
Calling the Magsaysay Award the Asian equivalent of the Nobel seems to suggest that the Magsaysay is less renown than the Nobel and is, therefore, less prestigious. That tag also implies that anything Asian is inferior to its counterpart from the West. Good grief! The derogatory tag is manifestly uncalled for.
When Filipinos refer to the Magsaysay Award as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel, they inadvertently insult the memory of President Magsaysay by downgrading him to a status that is a notch lower than an international reputation. Good grief! Magsaysay may have been unknown to the rest of the world during his incumbency as president, but he and the ideals he represents are now known to the community of civilized nations, thanks to the foundation that established the award.
It’s time Filipinos did justice to President Magsaysay and the Magsaysay Award by putting an end to the nauseating practice of describing the award by that derogatory label.
The awarding ceremony is just around the corner and the news media are definitely going to cover the event. Despite the event’s proximity, there is still time to stop the decades-long insult to a great leader. As the saying goes—better late than never.
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This also seems like an opportune time to point out other unnoticed but nonetheless uncalled for remarks about Filipinos and the Philippines.
Take for instance narratives about Manila when the city was liberated in March 1945 from Japanese military occupation forces by American troops under General Douglas MacArthur. Almost all of the narratives share a common description of Manila as the most devastated city in World War II, “next only to Warsaw,” the capital city of Poland in Europe.
Why does Warsaw have to be included in the statement? Was Manila not devastated enough that its conditions have to be compared to a European city liberated from Nazi occupation?
Comparing Manila to Warsaw even suggests that Manila can’t excel in anything, even in the passive act of getting devastated in a war. Why can’t Manila in March 1945 be simply described as the most devastated city in the aftermath of the Pacific Theater of World War II?