Anti-bullying and rights defenders among Magsaysay awardees

Five people are being honored as this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, including a South Korean who helped fight bullying and suicide and a Thai housewife who became a human rights defender after losing her husband to violence in southern Thailand.

The others who received the prize at a Manila ceremony Monday were two journalists from India and Myanmar who advocated for independent and socially relevant journalism and a Filipino musician credited for helping influence the shaping of Philippine musical culture.

The awards are named after a Philippine president who died in a plane crash in 1957, the year the foundation giving out the awards was established to honor “greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.”