Ombudsman Morales read a letter to her apos (singular ‘apo’) or grandchildren as she accepted the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Instead of giving a traditional speech, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales made her acceptance of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award unique than the usual.
The Office of the Ombudsman’s ‘big lady’ chose to read a letter which she personally wrote, addressed to her grandchildren, after receiving the award at a ceremony held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on August 31.
She said her grandchildren, Enyo and CC, gives her the strength and inspiration to go on and work well everyday.
Morales added that the reason why she works so hard and continues to do so because she wanted to create a safe and honest environment for them and to all other children in the country.
Morales was recognized by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation because of her exceptional performance as chief of the Office of the Ombudsman.
She is the only Filipino among the winners of the prestigious award which is coined as the “Heroes of Asia”, along with five other recipients having the “greatness of spirit”.
Other awardees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asia’s equivalent of Nobel prize, were Dompet Duafa of Indonesia who won because the Zakat-based philantrophy, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, Vientiane Rescue of Laos, and Bezwada Wilson and Thobur Madabusi Krishna who are both from India.
This year’s awardees received a medallion, certificate, cash prize amounting to $50,000 and are now fellow with 321 other Magsaysay awardees in the previous years.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay‘s example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.
RMAF chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. said that the Ombudsman was chosen as one of the heroes because she was able to draw back the people’s trust to the rule of law of the Philippines.
He added that the board of trustees of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award based on Morales’ moral courage and commitment in pushing for justice.
The lady chief of the anti-graft body was previously an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (SC) before taking the sensitive seat in combating corruption during the term of Former Pres. Benigno Aquino III.
The appointment of the now 75-year-old official in the Ombudsman was announced by Aquino during his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 25, 2011.
