Ten Outstanding Filipinos receive awards

Leaders from government, business, and education converged at the Insular Life auditorium on Dec. 13, 2000 to salute the winners of The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award. The awardees were Corazon S. De la Paz for public accountancy; Antolin M. Oreta Sr. for engineering; Justice Flerida Ruth P. Romero for law and justice; Lawrence C. Qua for technopreneurship; and Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco for business and entrepreneurship.

The annual search for outstanding Filipinos has been conducted for the past 13 years by the Philippine Jaycees Senate in partnership with Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd. The TOFIL Award recognizes men and women, 41 years and older, who have attained extraordinary achievements in their field or profession, and whose achievements have contributed significantly to national development.

In their acceptance speeches, this year’s awardees were one in saying that the TOFIL Award challenged them to continue the work they have been doing for the good of the country.

De la Paz, an accountancy hall-of-famer was the first woman to be admitted as partner of the Price Waterhouse Worldwide Organization and the first Filipino to be elected to the Price Waterhouse world board. Advocate of transparency in accountancy and protection of public interest, she acknowledged that working with a prestigious organization in the field of accountancy gave her opportunities to excel in her profession.

Romero, known as the mother of the Family Code, was the first Filipino to occupy the position of judge of the administrative tribunal of the International Labor Organization (ILO). She also served as secretary general of the 1986 Philippine Constitutional Commission. She received the news of winning the TOFIL Award when she was in Geneva, headquarters of ILO.

Both De la Paz and Romero echoed the same sentiment that "to whom much is given, much is expected" and vowed to carry on their missions.

Oreta whose pioneering work in the construction industry dates back to the 1930s was instrumental in the rehabilitation of the country after World War II. Some of the structures built by his firm A.M. Oreta & Co include: The Manila Peninsula, Insular Life Building, Department of Finance (now National Museum), Philippine General Hospital, the country’s internaitonal airports, and Ateneo High School and Law School.

Qua, the first awardee for a new TOFIL category called technopreneurship, put the country on the world map in the field of electronics and semiconductors, when he bested other global information technology (IT) firms in the $1-billion Philips Optical Storage project generating much needed foreign exchange for the country.

Yuchengco, aside from being an industrialist and diplomat, is also a freedom and human rights activist and philanthropist. The AY Foundation, which is funded by his companies, undertakes several socio-civic projects. He is currently chairman of the board of the Yuchengco Group of Companies. In 1986, he served as ambassador to China, and then to Japan from 1995 to 1998. A hall of famer in the International Insurance Society, he is considered a pillar of the insurance industry.

In his speech, guest speaker Dr. Bernardo Villegas, dean, School of Economics of the University of Asia and the Pacific, stressed the country’s need for role models like the TOFIL awardees, specially in times when the country is negatively affected by political crisis.

Guests who attended the event included: Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara, DECS Secretary Bro. Andrew Gonzales, and former Prime Minister Cesar Virata. The TOFIL 2000 board of judges was composed of: Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr., as chairman; and members: Dr. Estefania Aldaba-Lim, Bishop Federico Escaler, Insular Life trustee Alfredo B. Parungao and TOFIL ’99 chairman JCI Sen. Sergio O. Valencia.