Making a difference

CRIME STORY NO. 1: A taxi driver chanced upon the armed robbery at the Jollibee branch in Pasig City Sunday night. The driver could see the customers crouching and the robbers brandishing shotguns. So he called 117 on his cell phone. He got through but was told that there were no cops available. So he drove away. Oh well, at least the driver didn’t get a busy signal.

And only last week President Arroyo was telling people in La Union that in an emergency, they should call 117.

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CRIME STORY NO. 2: The Tsinoy community is worried about the visa-free entry of Chinese nationals at the Laoag International Airport. Several of these Chinese are now unaccounted for, and some are feared to be engaged in criminal activities including shabu trafficking. They stash the drugs in bundles of clothing from China – the stuff you can buy dirt-cheap everywhere, which is killing our local garment industry. Once, a bargain hunter found a sachet of shabu in the pocket of a pair of jeans she bought for P100. Another found a similar sachet in the secret pocket of a brassiere.

Filipino-Chinese have another worry: they suspect that the illegal aliens from the mainland identify potential Tsinoy kidnap victims to members of Triads or criminal gangs.

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CRIME STORY NO. 3: Residents of Wack-Wack and Valle Verde, be on alert; there is supposed to be a rash of burglaries or akyat-bahay operations in these areas.

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ow that I’ve got your attention with the bad news, here’s the good news:

In two weeks six outstanding individuals will receive the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Awards. Of the six, most Filipinos have heard of only one, which is probably why the awards have generated little excitement in this country.

The other day industrialist Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II, chairman of the award foundation’s board of trustees, asked a small group of journalists how the message of the awards could be disseminated better.

Going through the list of awardees, five of whom were unknown to me, I nearly suggested that next time the trustees should launch the search in each Asian country on a popular TV show such as Game KNB? and announce the prize money. Then there could be a yearlong buildup of anticipation about the awardees. Perhaps board trustee Jaime Ramon Paredes (APO singer Jim to you) could write a song about the awardees. People have such a short attention span for good news – especially good news about unknown, self-effacing individuals – that spreading the message of the awards can be a hard sell.

Someone noted that the awards suffered from their association with the United States. My second brilliant idea was that in this land of Amboys and "mental colony," the association with the Rockefellers and the US Central Intelligence Agency could in fact be an asset and could grab public attention.

But of course that’s not the way the award foundation runs its business. And of course I kept my mouth shut.

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Most of the awardees’ stories are in fact inspiring. Burmese doctor Cynthia Maung, the awardee for community leadership, has been working among refugees and other displaced persons in a clinic she set up in Thailand, near its border with Myanmar. Maung, who hopes to return one day to her homeland, won’t be able to come here to receive her award.

Korean Buddhist monk Pomnyun Snim, awardee for peace and international understanding, has been organizing relief efforts both in his country and abroad to assist the people of North Korea and speed up reconciliation of the two Koreas.

Dr. Ruth Pfau, the awardee for public service, was born in Germany but has devoted her life to the eradication of leprosy and its stigma in Pakistan, her adopted country. Bharat Koirala has worked to develop professional journalism and turn a free press into a catalyst for democracy in his country, Nepal. He is the awardee for journalism, literature and creative communication arts. And 37-year-old Indian Sandeep Pandey, the awardee for emergent leadership, is being honored for his numerous projects benefiting the poor in his country.

The awardee for public service – and this one most Filipinos know – is Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. The award has drawn flak from the opposition, which has pointed out that the foundation’s trustees are mostly people identified with EDSA Dos, where Davide played a key role.

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< It’s not the first time, however, that the awards have generated controversy. Launched in April 1957 by the trustees of the New York-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the foundation has given awards to 214 individuals (including the six this year) and 15 institutions, and it is inevitable that some of the choices would not get universal approval. Zobel de Ayala says that during his watch the trustees have so far not regretted any of their choices.

Among the Magsaysay awardees are the late Mother Teresa, former President Corazon Aquino, former Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, former Indonesian President Abdulrahman Wahid and social worker Rosa Rosal. About 150 people are nominated each year, and an average of 70 make it to the short list, according to foundation president Carmencita Abella.

Some awardees, such as the Korean monk, are so humble they think they do not deserve the award and refuse to go to Manila. The monk was finally persuaded to accept when told that the award is meant to serve as an inspiration to others.

"It might just promote a thought in (a person’s) mind that hey, maybe I can make a difference too," said Zobel de Ayala.

With so many problems facing each country, the trustees noted, it is easy to give in to despair and think: what can just one person do? Magsaysay awardees do not think that way, the trustees said.

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I wasn’t born yet when Ramon Magsaysay died in that plane crash. But from what I’ve read about him, I wonder how he would have dealt with the numerous problems besetting us. And I wonder if there is someone like him around who could get us out of this mess.

The recipients of the award created in his honor are people who do not wait for others to solve their problems for them. It’s an inspiring message that has special resonance in this country riddled with crime and corruption, a land where many of us believe the answer to our problems is to find a new life abroad.