Philippine journalist wins "Asian Nobel" award

Manila, Aug 1: A Philippine journalist who openly criticised late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, feeding a hunger for truth about the harsh regime in the 1980s, has been awarded Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize.

The Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation named Eugenia Duran Apostol as one of this year's seven winners for her work in fighting government assaults on press freedom and exposing state corruption.

''The foundation recognises her courageous example in placing the truth-telling press at the centre of the struggle for democratic rights and better government in the Philippines,'' it said in a statement seen today.

Apostol helped to launch three publications -- Mr&Ms magazine, the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper and the Pinoy Times tabloid -- to expose abuses during the time of Marcos in the 1980s and deposed President Joseph Estrada in 1999.

Marcos was ousted in 1986 and Estrada in 2001 by army-backed popular revolts.

Apostol spends most of her time now on the Foundation for Worldwide People Power, helping to improve the quality of public education in the Philippines.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, named for a popular Philippine president who was killed in a plane crash, was set up in 1957 by the trustees of the New York-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Since the first awards in 1958, about 250 people and groups have been recognised, including the US Peace Corps and other Americans who have worked in Asia.

This year's other winners, who also receive cash prizes of 50,000 dollars, are: - Ek Sonn Chan, head of the Phnom Penh water authority, who brought safe drinking water to 1 million people in Cambodia's capital, for government service.

- Park Won Soon, head of South Korea's The Beautiful Foundation and the Jope Institution, who fostered social justice, fair business practices and clean government, for public service.

- Sanduk Ruit, head of Nepal's Tiganga Eye Centre, who helped develop safe and economical procedures for cataract surgery in the poor country, for peace and international understanding.

- Arvind Kejriwal, head of an Indian citizen's movement called Parivartan, who fought graft by holding the government answerable to the people through his right-to-information grassroots campaign, for emergent leadership.

- Antonio Meloto, executive director of Gawad Kalinga, a Philippine non-governmental organisation that builds houses for urban slum dwellers, for community leadership.

His group, Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, received a separate award for helping to fight poverty and give poor families in the Philippines decent homes and neighbourhoods.

REUTERS

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