MANILA, Philippines — After held online last year due to the pandemic, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced yesterday that this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony will be held physically on December, with the 2021 laureates in attendance, including investigative journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines.
"Both of this year's Peace Prize winners, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, and a representative of last year's winner, the World Food Program, will be present," the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Olav Njolstad, told Agence France-Presse.
While Ressa was named the first solo Filipina Nobel Peace Prize winner, there are several Filipinos who were also given the honor as part of organizations that received the award.
Here are the Filipinos who were part of the organizations that were given the Nobel Peace Prize:
Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) members
As a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the PCBL is extended the honor granted to the organization in 1997.
The Nobel Peace Prize was co-shared by the organization and its founding coordinator, American political activist Jody Williams.
The Nobel committee cited the award recipients "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines."
In the same year, the ICBL gained the support of over 1,000 organizations from 60 countries. Representatives of 120 countries signed the Ottawa Convention that prohibit landmines.
Former Ateneo de Manila University President Father Jett Villarin
Villarin was part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Ten years later, the IPCC shared the Nobel Peace laureate with United States Vice President Al Gore in 2007.
At the time of the Nobel awarding, the Jesuit priest and climate activist was president of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan until his appointment as president of the Ateneo de Manila University in 2011. He sat on the post until 2020.
Fr. Villarin is known for his work on greenhouse gas emissions. When the issue of global warming grew popular in the early '90s, Villarin was among those who took interest in it.
He is the lead reviewer of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and has worked with the UN Consultative Group of Experts for Developing Countries. In the Philippines, he is part of the advisory board of the Climate Change Commission.
Members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
In 2014, the Philippine Senate passed a resolution that commended the 10 Filipinos who were part of the OPCW. The organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
The 10 Filipinos were:
- Franz Ontal,
- Criselda Javelosa van Dasler,
- Helen Andriessen,
- Gemma van Oudheusden-Vincoy,
- Jenniefer Balatbat,
- Allan Laroza,
- Roycelynne Reyes,
- Mary Ann Nieto-Schroor,
- Michael Conche and
- Emily Castriciones.
The Nobel committee cited the organization for its "extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons."
Filipinas who worked on the abolishment of nuclear weapons
Miriam College's Jasmin Nario Galace and Loreta Castro are part of the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) which won the award in 2017.
Galace and Castro are the campaign's regional heads in Asia. They are also officials of the Center for Peace Education (CPE) in Miriam College, an ICAN member.
The Nobel committee cited the efforts of the campaign through its "work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.”