The Manila hostage tragedy has nothing to do with the travel plans of two Chinese recipients of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, officials of the foundation in charge of the awards said Sunday, contrary to a newspaper report on Sunday.
On Sunday, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) president Carmencita Abella clarified that awardee Fu Qiping was ill and would instead send a representative. Another awardee, Pan Yue, has not confirmed his attendance.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer speculated in a front page report on Sunday that the two Chinese awardees' absences was related to the brewing tension between the Philippines and China due to the deaths last August 23 of eight Hong Kong hostages in a botched rescue attempt by Manila police.
Abella told GMANews.TV that is unfortunate that the award ceremonies comes at a time of controversy and mourning over the deaths, and the fact that "we have three Chinese awardees."
"In the case of Mr. Pan, we are having communication difficulties on the final confirmation of his travel plans," Abella said.
"The cancelled trips have nothing to do with the hostage tragedy," RMAF spokesperson Sierra Tanjutco said.
'The labyrinthine bureaucracy' For his part, Pocholo Macaranas, a member of the RMAF Board of Trustees, said that the foundation was having a hard time reaching the camps of Fu and Pan because of "the labyrinthine bureaucracy" in China.
The Raman Magsaysay Award honors Asians who made exemplary contributions to human development.
Pan and Fu are among the seven recipients of the prestigious award this year. Another Chinese awardee, photojournalist Huo Daishan, is already in Manila. The other awardees are Tadoshi Akiba (Japan), A.H.M. Noman Khan (Bangladesh), and couple Christopher Bernido and Ma. Victoria Carpio-Bernido (Philippines) who are science educators in Bohol.
The award ceremonies will be held on Tuesday at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila.
Pan and Fu were recognized for "their exemplary vision and zeal, as public servants at two levels of the state bureaucracy in avoiding the inseparability of development and the environment in uplifting the lives of the Chinese people."
Huo showed "his selfless and unrelenting efforts, despite formidable odds, to save China's great river Huai and the numerous communities who draw life from it, " according to the RMAF.
AIM understands but is 'disappointed'
Aside from receiving his award, Fu was supposed to give a lecture on "The Environment and a Village's Journey to Prosperity" at the Asian Institute of Management.
"(The lecture) was about Mr. Fu's work on environment and conservation of his country as a village elder," said AIM Center for Development and Management associate dean Juan Miguel Luz, who was organizing the lecture.
In a text message to GMANews.TV, Luz also said "the sudden illness of Mr. Fu and the cancellation of his visit is disappointing, of course. AIM is hopeful we can host him in the future." VS
