Magsaysay winners named

Magsaysay winners named

MANILA (AFP): A former Philippine town mayor, a Chinese environmentalist, two Indian activists and a former Indonesian journalist will share this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia's version of the Nobel prizes, the award body said on Monday.

The award for government service went to Jesse Robredo, a former mayor of Naga city in the Philippines for his effective city management while "yielding power to the people."

Liang Congjie, who founded China's first environmental group Friends of Nature, won the prize for public service for pioneering his country's environmental movement.

Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, a former journalist and now a member of the Doctor Soetomo Press Institute, was awarded the prize for journalism, literature and creative communication arts for spearheading press freedom movement in Indonesia.

India's Aruna Roy and Jockin Arputham won the award for community leadership and international understanding, respectively. Roy heads a peasant workers' group while Arputham founded a slum dwellers' association.

This year's awardees will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late Filipino president whom the award is named after as well as a cash prize of US$50,000.