Filipino fisherman Roberto Ballon among winners of Asia's Nobel Prize equivalent, The Ramon Magsaysay Awards
Fisherman and environmentalist Roberto “Ka Dodoy” Ballon is one of the laureates of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards (RMA), considered as Asia’s version of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Ramon Magsaysay Awards, which is now on its 63rd year, is an annual award-giving body that shines the spotlight on individuals who have done outstanding work in humanitarian efforts, environment protection, preventive health, truth-telling for the public good, and poverty alleviation.
The 53-year-old fisherman established the Kapunungan sa Gagmay'ng Mangingisda sa Concepcion (KGMC) organization in 1985 to focus on mangrove reforestation and marine aquatic rehabilitation in Zamboanga Sibugay. Their coastal preservation has since drastically improved the life-source of fishing families, from catching 1.5 kg per eight-hour fishing trip to as much as 7.0 kg in three to five hours.
“I am profoundly honored and pleased to be chosen as one of the Awardees of the most prestigious award in Asia,” Ballon said in his acceptance speech. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I will be counted among the array of great community leaders to be recognized by the Foundation.”
He then called forth his fellow fisherfolk to further raise the cause of their livelihoods.
“It is not our government leaders who brave the waves and the storms to earn a good catch from the seas. While others just stand at the stretches of the coast, we find ourselves delving into the deep because we are confronted with much deeper and greater responsibilities,” he said.
“This is where we earn a living. But beyond quenching this human need is the vocation to give life to our natural resources, to see life from ridges to reefs, and eventually bring life to our common home.”
“Let me say it again, no matter how simple we are, we are capable of rising above our weaknesses, capable of choosing what is good, and ever capable of making a new start,” he concluded.
Fellow 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awards laureates are humanitarian and peacebuilder Steven Muncy, Pakistani poverty alleviation visionary Muhammad Amjad Saqib, and Bangladeshi affordable vaccine champion, Firdausi Qadri.
The Indonesian truth crusaders, WatchDoc, is also the lone organization to receive the prestigious award.
Each laureate was presented with a gold medallion designed by sculpture Guillermo Tolentino and embedded with the likeness of the former president.
Vice President Leni Robredo gave the closing congratulatory remarks for the night and referenced Ballon, who she had worked with in 2019 when he visited Camarines Sur.
“Inclusiveness should not be a matter of charity. It is the very rationale of governance. And this revelation can only be put into practice if those who govern truly understand the meaning of solidarity—walking in the slippers of the people not for show but for real, feeling their despair, carrying their burdens as their own," Robredo said.
“Such change will not happen overnight, or in three to six months, or even the span of a single presidency. It might take lifetimes. But much like Ka Dodoy's mangrove forests, we need to start walking into the brackish waters, bending our backs, and planting, seedling by seedling, until the sea itself notices. This is what it takes to build a future.”
