Magsaysay Foundation pays tribute to Robredo

MANILA, Philippines – The foundation of the “idol of the masses” will pay tribute to the man of “tsinelas (slippers) leadership.”

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) will honor the memory of the late Secretary Jesse Robredo, one of its laureates, during the presentation ceremonies for this year’s awardees to be held on Friday, August 31, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

“We have prepared several tributes for him including a simple exhibit at the PICC during the presentation (of awardees and) a short video tribute,” RMAF communication director Manuel Hizon said.

“The important thing is we remember him with great respect and fondness and we just wish that we will have more people like him,” Hizon added.

In 2000, the foundation chose Robredo to receive Asia’s premier award, recognizing the role of the former Naga City mayor in “giving credence to the promise of democracy by demonstrating that effective city management is compatible with yielding power to the people.”

Robredo like Magsaysay

Robredo’s life and fate have been compared with the late President Magsaysay’s.

Both men passed away under the same unfortunate circumstances. Magsaysay died in a plane crash on Mt Manunggal in Cebu on March 16, 1957. Robredo’s plane plunged off Masbate shores en route to Naga City on August 18.

But the more striking similarity about the two men was the overwhelming and heartwarming public adulation they received after they died. Both have been regarded as men of the masses.

They were widely perceived as well-loved for their humility, simplicity, and pro-poor brand of governance.

“President Magsaysay started ‘man of the masses’, ‘Magsaysay is my guy’, then the Presidential Action for Community Development. And Secretary Robredo was the man of the people in Naga,” said Dr Romulo Davide, a 2012 Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

Robredo is now hailed as the epitome of “tsinelas leadership.” It is now popularly known that the former mayor of Naga City would wear slippers or sandals when he reported for work or directly addressed various concerns of his constituents.

But as mayor, he also institutionalized people’s involvement in governance, having created a People’s Council that enabled civil society groups and people’s organizations to participate in local policymaking.

“Sec Robredo, although physically wala na siya, but the ideals, the spirit, young missionary spirit, is with us. Marami pang katulad sa kanya na darating. They are blazing the trail on how to serve the people well like President Magsaysay,” Romulo said.

(Although he is not physically with us, Sec Robredo’s ideals, the spirit, his missionary spirit, is with us. There are others like him who will come…) 

Work with the masses

Romulo said he will always recognize that Robredo did a very exceptional job and that he is an honorable secretary worthy of emulation.

“Where the problem is, or saan (may pangangailangan), nandoon siya. Yun ang duty mo as a leader. (Where the problem is, or where the need is, there he is. That’s your duty as a leader). You are a leader, you have to go to the people who are waiting for you. Otherwise, you are not a leader, you are a follower,” the scientist-farmer said.

Himself doing work for the poor, Davide urged leaders to follow Robredo’s example: “Work with the people. Work with the masses. And there are so many people around. Maybe they’re gone but (they) leave behind (their) footprints in the sands of time.”

Davide is being cited for his scientific work in the field of agriculture that benefited poor farmers and indigenous peoples.

Davide and 5 others from various countries join 290 other laureates who have received Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize.

The awardees arrived in Manila to give public lectures from August 28 to 30, meet with personalities from nongovernment and people’s organizations, academic institutions, and industry sectors.

They will be formally conferred Asia’s premier prize in a ceremony at the Philippine International Convention Center, to which the public is cordially invited.

The winners will each receive a certificate, a cash prize, and a medallion which bears an image of the late President Magsaysay, in whose honor the award was created in 1957. – Rappler.com