The Ramon Magsaysay Awards were established in 1957 to honour the late President of the Philippines who died in a plane crash in March 1957.
| Photo Credit: (RM Award Foundation)

Often called Asia’s Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award was instituted in 1957 in the memory of the late Ramon Magsaysay, the former President of Philippines who died in March that year in a plane crash Mr. Magsaysay was known for leading the charge against the communist Hukbahalap or Huk movement and was popular among his people.

The first awards were given out in 1958, in five categories.

Winning the first award for Community Leadership was Indian freedom fighter Acharya Vinoba Bhave, who led the Bhoodan movement. Dr. Mary Rutnam, who worked for the people of Sri Lanka and introduced women’s institutes known as the Lanka Mahila Samiti, received the inaugural Ramon Magsaysay award for Public Service. Filipino Organisation Operation Brotherhood which provided medical treatment to refugees in Vietnam, received the award for Peace and International Understanding.

The first Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication was split between Mochtar Lubis, editor-in-chief of Indonesia Raya, who spoke up against government corruption and authoritarianism, and Robert McCulloch Dick, the Scottish founder and publisher of The Philippines Free Press, which reported on social injustices and helped ensure freedom of press in the nation.

Chiang Mon-Lin, the Chairman of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstrution, who through his work, helped enhance agricultural production and bettered the quality of life of Chinese farmers, won the Award for Government Service.

In 2008, these five categories were discontinued. But a new category, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, has been introduced since 2009.

Since its inception, more than 300 people and 26 organisations hailing from 22 Asian nations have won the Award. The honorees this year, who shall be felicitated in a ceremony held in Manila are: beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Bhutanese scholar and social worker Phuntsho Karma, Vietnamese doctor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, who works for victims of Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War, Indonesian conservationist Farhan Farwiza, founder of Yayasan Hutan Alam dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA), dedicated to preserving the Leuser ecosystem, and the Rural Doctors Movement from Thailand.

We take a look at their journey and their lives.