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NEWS - Philippines Aquino Wins Mags



Philippines Aquino Wins Magsaysay Prize

            Reuters
            04-AUG-98

            MANILA, Aug 4 (Reuters)- Former Philippine president
            Corazon Aquino on Tuesday won the Ramon Magsaysay
            Award for international understanding for her role in
ousting
            a dictator and inspiring liberation movements around the
            world, the Award foundation said. 

            Aquino, who helped lead a popular revolt in 1986 that ended
            Ferdinand Marcos's 20-year rule, gave ``radiant moral force
            to the non-violent movement for democracy in the Philippines
            and in the world,'' it said. 

            Aquino, 65, joined four other Asians as this year's winners
of
            the Magsaysay Award, dubbed Asia's version of the Nobel
            Prize. 

            The others were Adibul Hasan Rizvi of Pakistan for
            government service, Sophon Suphapong of Thailand for
            public service, Phaly Nuon of Cambodia for community
            leadership and Ying Ruocheng of China for journalism and
            arts. 

            The winners are to receive $50,000 and a gold medallion
            each in ceremonies in Manila on August 31. 

            The award, which was established in 1958, was named after
            a popular former Philippine president who died in an air
            crash in 1957. Magsaysay was elected president in 1954. 

            Past winners included the Dalai Lama of Tibet in 1959 for
            community leadership, Mother Teresa in 1962 for
            international understanding and United Nations High
            Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata in 1997 also for
            international understanding. 

            The foundation cited Aquino for becoming ``the unifying
            symbol'' in her fractious country after her husband, former
            senator Benigno Aquino, was assassinated in 1983. 

            The foundation citation said her example inspired democratic
            outbursts in South Korea, Myanmar, China, Czechoslovakia,
            South Africa, Poland, Chile, Thailand ``and, lately,
            Indonesia.'' 

            Besides restoring Philippine democracy, Aquino withstood a
            string of army coup attempts after she became president,
            governed with dignity and peacefully handed power over to
            her elected successor, it said. 

            ``No Asian leader of our time can claim as much,'' it said. 

            ``Up till now, her image lingers brightly as a symbol of
            nonviolent democratic aspiration the world over.