MANILA – Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada has filed Senate Resolution No. 780, commending Filipina peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer for being named one of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees.
“She is an empowered Filipina and an inspiring figure in public service who embodies courage, tenacity, empathy, and compassion. Her storied career advocating harmony, unity, and the rejection of war, along with her lifelong commitment to the peace agenda, merit commendation from the Senate,” Estrada said in a news release on Thursday.
Coronel-Ferrer, who will be conferred with Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize in November, was recognized for her “deep, unwavering belief in the transformative power of nonviolent strategies in peacebuilding, her cool intelligence and courage in surmounting difficulties to convey the truth that peace can be achieved and sustained through inclusion rather than division, and her unwavering commitment to harnessing the power of women in creating a just and peaceful world.”
She is best known for being the first woman to lead the government peace panel that negotiated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2012, culminating in the signing of the historic peace deal known as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in 2014.
The landmark pact concluded 17 years of negotiations across four administrations and ended decades of hostilities in Mindanao.
In recognition of her achievement as the world’s first female chief negotiator to sign a final peace accord with a rebel group, Coronel-Ferrer received the Hillary Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 2015.
In 2018, she became a member of the United Nations Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers and has since been actively engaged in mediation and diplomacy work in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, and Southeast Asia.
“Her pioneering and exceptional accomplishments in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, both domestically and internationally, have immensely benefited the Filipino nation in attaining and preserving peace, which is an essential cornerstone of the country’s socio-economic development,” Estrada said.
“Her steadfast dedication to the cause of fostering peace and her skillful use of available instruments to promote peace have uplifted the lives of countless Filipinos and their communities, sparing them from fear, oppression, violence, and warfare,” he added.
Coronel-Ferrer now joined the elite roster of Ramon Magsaysay laureates, including notable figures like the Dalai Lama (1959) and Mother Teresa (1962), as well as fellow awardees from the Philippines such as former President Corazon Aquino (1998), former Senate President Jovito Salonga (2007), former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago (1988), and her sister, investigative journalist Sheila Coronel (2003). (Leonel Abasola/PNA)