The Honorable Chief Justice, Chairman and Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, distinguished guests, fellow Awardees and dear friends.

In 1957, I was thirty-two years old and working as the women's section editor of the leading daily newspaper of the Philippines. On March 17th of that year, the Philippines was shocked by the news that our President, Ramon Magsaysay, had died in a plane crash near Cebu City.

The mystery behind that crash has never been solved, although everyone suspected that President Magsaysay was killed because someone thought he was too good and too effective in making the Filipino realize that the common man had a shining value. All we knew was that someone had put a bomb in a crate of Cebu mangoes that was loaded into that plane. Soon after the plane flew over Mount Manunggal in Cebu, it exploded, killing everyone in it except for one newspaperman.

Whoever planted that bomb did not foresee the reaction of the Rockefeller family of philanthropists to the loss of a beloved and effective President of the Philippines. The Rockefellers were convinced that the legacy of Ramon Magsaysay should not be forgotten and that his exemplary life should be celebrated forever. They proposed, through a generous grant, the perpetuation of his precious ideals. And so, since 1958, the Magsaysay Award has made Ramon Magsaysay live again not only in his own country but all over Asia.

To date, Magsaysay's ideals live in 240 men and women and in sixteen institutions that echo his qualities in government service; public service; community leadership; journalism, literature, and creative communication arts; peace and international understanding; and emergent leadership. That I should be chosen as one of these men and women was far from my wildest dreams. I shall never agree with anyone saying that I am worthy of this Award. But there is one aspect of it that I welcome with open arms: the money that goes with it. Not because I need the money for myself--I am lucky that my late husband left me enough for my own needs--but because the Award money--2.53 million pesos by the latest conversion rate--will go a long way in helping the Education Revolution which the Foundation for Worldwide People Power launched three years ago.

This Foundation, which commemorates the People Power we call EDSA I and EDSA II, is our hope in moving Filipinos away from poverty. We go to the schools and help our Department of Education become better qualified and more effective at character formation... so that our children will grow from little 'Monchings' [diminutive for "Ramon"] into wonderful and heroic citizens like Ramon Magsaysay.

I thank you.