President Benigno S. Aquino III vowed to live up to the ideals espoused by the late President Ramon Magsaysay, whom he described as “perhaps the most beloved president in the history of our nation.”

In his message at the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award presentation ceremonies on Tuesday night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the Chief Executive said President Magsaysay commanded the admiration, respect and affection of the Filipino people because of his simplicity, humility, commitment to integrity, and belief in the importance and dignity of human beings.

“It is a great honor to serve in the same office as the great man…It is my solemn duty to live up to his ideals that they remain vivid and relevant in the hearts of my countrymen…,” the President said.

He noted that President Magsaysay’s dream of a government with integrity, and one that reflects the will of the people, was a dream also shared by his father, the late Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. and his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, who herself was a recipient of the award touted as Asia’s Nobel Prize in 1998.

The President congratulated the seven awardees that included two Filipino science educators, three Chinese environmentalists, a Japanese advocate for nuclear disarmament, and a Bangladeshi advocate for the rights of disabled persons.

The recipients of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award were Christopher Bernido and Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines; Huo Daishan, Pan Yue, and Fu Qiping of China; A.H.M. Noman Khan of Bangladesh; and Tadatoshi Akiba of Japan.

The Ramon Magsaysay Awards was founded in 1957 in honor of the late President Ramon Magsaysay Jr., who died in a plane crash in March that year. Since then, 267 individuals and 17 organizations have received the prestigious award.

The Chief Executive thanked the awardees "for being symbols of the highest ideals of human kind, and for shining your light in a world that is in constant need of good examples."

The Bernidos, who are physicists, run a progressive high school for underprivileged students in Jagna, Bohol. Through a system they call "dynamic learning," students at the school spend most of their time doing independent study rather than listening to lectures.

"Far from being barriers to education of the highest standards, poverty and scarcity allow us to systematically zero in on the core of the learning process," Carpio-Bernido said.

Akiba, a three-term mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, led a worldwide campaign for a nuclear weapons-free world. In 1999, he formed a coalition of city mayors from 144 countries to pressure national governments into nuclear disarmament by 2020.

Photojournalist Huo was honored for his efforts to raise awareness about the effects of pollution on China's third-largest river, the Huai. He vowed to use his prize money "for building more water purifying systems in the villages along the Huai River," saying this would ensure that the Magsaysay Award would directly impact on the lives of poor farmers in the area.

Khan created in 1996 the Center for Disability in Development, an organization that has since provided services and inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities in Bangladesh.

Chinese government officials Pan Yue and Fu Qiping were cited for their environmental protection causes.

Pan Yue is currently the vice-minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, while Fu Qiping is the leader of Tengtou Village in Zhejiang province, one of the smallest yet most environmentally progressive communities in China. (OPS/PIA9-BST)