Fr Villanueva, a priest who helped war-on-drugs orphans, receives the Ramon Magsaysay Award
The 2025 Ramon Magsaysay laureates have been announced. Dubbed the Nobel Prize of Asia, the award was established to honour the memory of the late Philippine president. Fr Villanueva has been recognised for his work with the poor. One of the staunchest critics of Duterte's brutal policies, which have caused thousands of deaths in the country, he exemplifies the real possibility of changing lives, an example of “faith that acts in love”, according to Cardinal David. Also honoured by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation are Shaahina Ali, a Maldivian activist, and Indian NGO Educate Girls.
Manila (AsiaNews) – One of the three laureates of the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Prize announced yesterday is Fr Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva, a Philippine Catholic priest who has helped thousands of disadvantaged and homeless people regain their dignity in the Manila metropolitan area.
Compared to the Nobel Prize and first conferred in 1958, Asia's highest award celebrates the greatness of spirit and transformative leadership embodied by the man it honours.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF), an independent organisation based in the Philippine capital, announced the award on the 118th anniversary of President Ramon Magsaysay's birth.
The other two winners are an Indian NGO, the Foundation to Educate Girls Globally (FEGG), also known as “Educate Girls”, and Shaahina Ali of the Maldives, a Filipino-Maldivian environmentalist known for her fight against plastic pollution.
Father Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva, a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), is known as a human rights defender and an outspoken critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his war on drugs.
“I accept this honor on behalf of the countless homeless people” and “the courageous widows and orphans victimized by the war on drugs,” he said, accepting the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award. “Their resilience to rise from the ashes of injustice, poverty and impunity is a stark revelation that from a fractured world, a beautiful spirit and person can arise,” he added.
The award will be presented on 7 November 2025, at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
The FEGG’s groundbreaking work in addressing gender inequities in education in India's most rural and remotest areas has created a ripple effect that is improving the lives of families, communities, and society as a whole.
Created in 2005, it has brought uneducated girls into the classroom and worked to keep them in until they are able to acquire the skills needed for higher education and paid employment, and thus challenge cultural stereotypes.
Shaahina Ali is an environmental activist and conservationist from the Maldives who works to protect her country's fragile marine ecosystems. She noticed over the years the lack of proper waste management, which has led to tonnes of garbage, particularly plastic, being disposed of haphazardly.
With the NGO Parley Maldives, she oversees a plan to intercept and redesign plastics (AIR) for a better environment. The organisation undertakes massive cleanups, educational programmes, and recycling initiatives that have not only captured much of the physical waste but have also succeeded in changing mindsets.
Father Villanueva, popularly known as Father Flavie, helps the most vulnerable by providing them with food, clothing, and a place to live, restoring their human dignity with his Christian beliefs.
He has also supported people whose loved ones were killed in drug-related or extrajudicial killings, family members who often cannot afford to pay for a proper burial. He is a priest who believes that devotion is not found in the halls of power and the homes of luxury, but on the streets, among the poorest and most neglected of humanity.
In 2015, he opened the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center in Manila to offer “dignified care and service” to the poor and the disadvantaged.
He has helped thousands of Filipinos living on the margins of society, of all ages and backgrounds, including those who may have used drugs or committed minor crimes.
The award laureate believes that they deserve a second chance to a dignified life, regardless of their past.
In fact, the redemption and rebirth that Villanueva proposes is something that he first experienced firsthand. A drug user from the age of 14 until 1995, he changed his life and volunteered as a lay missionary in Bicol. In 1998, he entered the seminary and became a priest in 2006, using his incredible transformation to prove that even the most lost people can find salvation and a new beginning.
Part of this includes searching for the bodies of those killed in Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs”, which has claimed the lives of thousands across the country.
To this end, the clergyman has helped raise funds to help families bury their dead, and pay for the exhumation, cremation, and transfer of bodies to a suitable location, like the Dambana ng Paghilom (Shrine of Healing), the country's first memorial columbarium dedicated to the victims of the war on drugs, a place where both the living and the dead can find peace and healing, say those who visit it.
The starting point for Fr Villanueva was himself.
Since then, he has not only helped widows and orphans feel better, but also helped them continue to lead productive lives. “I felt a strong connection with the widows,” Villanueva said. “They were in a difficult situation because they had lost the person who brought money to their family.”
As expected, Fr Villanueva's prophetic and activist ministry drew the ire of the authorities. In 2020, he and eight others, including another Catholic priest, were charged with sedition. The charge was dropped in 2023, but the death threats have never stopped.
After these events, Villanueva was even more determined to fight for the poor. He reiterates that justice transcends the legal realm.
“Justice can take many forms – among them, the recovery of one’s self-confidence, and forgiving oneself,” Villanueva explains.
Fr Villanueva didn't just preach; he also used his managerial skills to understand the needs of his followers. He discovered that the poor needed more than just food: they also needed dignity.
He began offering showers to the homeless as a literal and symbolic way to purify them and prepare them for a new beginning in life, following the example of the late Pope Francis.
He made them promise that, “As I have been cared for, so shall I care for others with joy." This further expanded the circle of Christian charity.
Fr Villanueva was selected for the 67th Ramon Magsaysay Award because he has dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of oppressed people. Every day, he demonstrates that all people can regain dignity.
Card Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, praised Father Flaviano for this recognition, describing him a "bold prophet of our time."
“His witness embodies the spirit of the Church’s social teachings and the Gospel call to uphold the sacredness of life,” Card David said. “The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation could not have chosen a more fitting servant-leader to inspire Asia and the world with faith that acts in love,” he added.
.png)
11/12/2023 18:37
31/08/2023 13:53
