“Mother, why don’t you sell me?” a little girl of 7 year old called Fang Fang recently asked her mother. “Because if you sold me, we would have enough money to buy your medicine,” not knowing that both her parents are dying of HIV because of selling blood during the 1990’s. Both parents died recently, leaving Fang Fang and her younger sister to become orphans.

This true story, which happened in Henan Province in China in 2001, is the most heart-breaking story I have ever heard. This was told by Chung To, an AIDS activist who is among this year’s Ramon Magsaysay awardee for emergent leadership, during his acceptance speech in the awarding ceremony held at the PICC Main Theatre last August 31. It almost moved me to tears and as I listened to more stories of the children orphaned by AIDS, I slowly came to a realization, that the world indeed need heroes, not the type who possessed exaggerated super powers and wears silly costumes, but normal people (even the differently-abled ones), who have an extraordinary will power and passion to help their fellows. Heroes, who will save the world from poverty, corruption and ineffective governance, ignorance, global warming and destruction of the environment, and will inspire us to do the same. And these were the heroes that are recognized by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. Now on its 50th year, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is the highest award given to Asians who have rendered selfless service to the peoples of Asia.

Chung To, a very successful young man is one of them. A graduate of Harvard University has a flourishing career as a senior bank executive. Bothered by the ignorance of the homosexual community about the looming danger of HIV-AIDS, he founded the Chi Heng Foundation, an organization aimed at helping gay Chinese men become aware of the threat of unprotected sex. He distributed condoms and safe-sex kits in gay bars and clubs and set up a help line for HIV-AIDs information, organized workshops, personal counselling, legal advice and links to doctors.

But as he discovered the hardship and sufferings brought by HIV-AIDS to the small town of Henan Province, where half of the villages died of HIV-AIDS, not from of sexual transmission, but from an illegal and ruthless trading of blood due to poverty, To decided to quit his flourishing career as a senior bank executive and went full helping people with AIDS. In 2002, he launched AIDS Orphans Project which helps children orphaned by AIDS, to live normal lives. To avoid social isolation, he insisted that AIDS-impacted children shall attend normal or vocational school and live with their relatives. He also provides these children counselling, through art and writing therapy, summer camps, and home visits, to help them regain their self confidence. From 127 students from Henan Province, To’s foundation now helps four thousand AIDS-impacted children make a better lives for themselves.

“I figured that the world could do with one less banker,” say To. “But these children, they cannot wait.”

Also among the awardees- for government service – and my father’s personal hero, former Senator Jovito Salonga, decided not to accept the $50,000.00 cash incentive given to the awardees. Instead, he will donate the said amount to three foundations which are very near to his heart, the first two – Kilos Bayan Foundation and the Bantay Katarungan Center of Justice – himself being the founder, are independent, non-profit and non partisan organizations which helps the marginalized sector our society. Salonga said that both are dwindling in funds because they rely heavily on donations. The third one, Silliman University in Dumaguete City is where his brother studied chemistry.

In his acceptance speech, Salonga recalled how his religious upbringing influenced his political actions. “It was inevitable that my Christian beliefs and values should motivate and influence my thinking and values in everyday and every hour,” said Salonga.

Salonga, born to a Presbyterian priest and a very spiritual mother, struggled to finish his Degree in Law at the University of the Philippines. He topped the bar exams in 1944 and took graduate studies in Harvard and Yale universities. He became Congressman of Rizal, won senatorial seats twice and was among the staunch defender of democracy during the Martial Law years. As Senate President, Salonga heads his colleague in ejecting the US Military bases from Subic.

Salonga, now eighty-seven, is recognized as one of the most honest public officials. During his private life, he founded Bantay Katarungan and Kilos Bayan which seeks to continue vision of a honest and competent government which have compassion for the poor and pride for the country. For him, the meaning of life is worth more than any financial advancement especially in service.

Another exemplary individual presented with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent leader is Chen Guangcheng, a blind young man who persevered throughout life to lead his community in opposing the abuse and corruption by some officials of the Chinese government in Shandong Province

Guangcheng was blinded from birth. But his lack of sight did not hinder his search for knowledge. He absorbed all the information he can get from listening to the radio, his constant companion, as well as the classic Chinese stories his father told him. At 38 he finished a university course in massage and acupuncture therapy. He patiently studied law through listening to law books read to him by others, and after winning a complaint he filed against the Chinese authorities who imposed a large agricultural tax on his parents, he urged his neighbours to also register their complaints. One time in 1998, he led farmers from Yinan Country to rally against a river-polluting paper country and seek international donors to provide deep well as an alternative water source rather than the polluted river. He also filed a case against public transportation that doesn’t recognize the rights of the disabled form free rides. The authorities became hot on Guangcheng but this did not discourage him to push for more social reforms. In 2004, he urged victims and lawyers to file a class suit case against a population control measure of the Yinan County officials that mandates mothers to engage into late-term abortion and thousand of women into involuntary sterilization. Despite losing the case, it stirred a nationwide awareness and global exposure which prompted the State Family Planning Commission.

Those actions were too much for the authorities to take – they initiated a retaliatory strike against him. Guangcheng and his family were tortured, as well as their neighbours who refused to make statements against them. He was sentenced to four years and three months of imprisonments for false allegations and is now incarcerated at the Linyi prison in Changdong Province.

According to the letter of Yuan Guangcheng, wife of Chen, read by Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation president Carmencita Abella he was given no special care in the prison despite his condition. He was furthermore deprived of basic needs. Other prisoners are also barred from talking with him and he is not even allowed to listen to the radio. Yuan said that knowing he was among the Ramon Magsaysay awardee, Chen would be very happy and encouraged. She added that Chen was very dedicated in reading and practicing law.

“Our people are complaining about the injustice in the society yet how many of them think about what they have done to correct this injustice?” Chen asked his wife according to the letter written by Yuan Guangcheng.

During her last visit to his husband, Yuan said that Chen comforted them, telling them not for feel sorry for him.

“Just think of me as just having left town for a while on a human rights mission,” Chen said to his wife. Even in his miserable condition, Chen continues to give courage to other people.

Kim Su-Tae, like Guangcheng, is also a blind public servant. Although not blinded by birth but because of an accident he met when he was fifteen years old, Su-Tae experienced how it was to become a beggar and scavenge for food when the Korean War left him an orphan. He lived in an orphanage and learned to read Korean brille and type. Following his bachelor’s degree in Soongsil University during the times of Korean military junta, his patience and iron will, enabled him to finish his master’s degree in 1969 and eventually a doctorate in 1993.

Understanding the adversities faced by the disabled especially the blind, Su-Tae struggled to build a Korean church for the blind in 1972. He eventually became director of Blind Evangelical Mission, and during this time he produced Braille bibles and hymnals and launch scholarship program. In his numerous travels around the globe for his missionary works, he discovered public amenities and rehabilitation for the blind which he planned to bring to his own country. His relationship with the Korean’s Christian business community allowed him to build the Siloam Eye Hospital. In this hospital, state-of-the-art-facilities and free surgeries are available for the less fortunate blind people for free. He also initialized a mobile clinic which delivers eye services to the rural poor, prison inmates and undeserved communities. In 1997, he opened Korea’s largest rehabilitation and learning center for the blind where they are trained to become computer literate. Today, almost four hundred thousand people around Asia, including the Philippines, have benefited from Su-Tae dedication to public service. Pastor Kim believes that blessed are those who never give up.

The three other awardess are Mahabir Pun for Community Leadership for his innovative application of wireless technology to the mountains and remote villages of Rizal, Tang Xiyang for Peace and International Understanding, who organized a Green Camp to save a 150 sq miles of forest known to be a habitat of the golden monkeys in China, and Palagummi Sainath, a brave journalist who exposed that poverty in India was not caused by drought as stated by the government but by illiteracy and caste discrimination as well as the corruption in the government.

Presenting the awards were Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation board of trustees including Chairman Washington Sycip, Vice-chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, Carmencita Abella, Emmanuel De Dios, Ma. Cynthia Rose Bautista, Shiela Coronel, Cecilia Lazaro, Christian Monsod and Bernardo Ma. Perez.

Real heroes are not those we watched on televisions who can fly, throw ball of flames to the enemies or becomes invisible. They are ordinary people who are around us, willing to give their lives for the good of humanity.