Three New Recipients of Ramon Magsaysay Award Announced

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) announced the three new recipients of Asia’s highest honor and premier prize for 2026.

On August 31, the 119th birth anniversary of Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, RMAF said that it will bestow the “Nobel Prize of Asia” to diplomat Tommy Koh of Singapore, social entrepreneur Runa Khan of Bangladesh, and human rights activist Bo Kyi of Myanmar.

Tommy Koh is known for his work in international law, particularly in negotiating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

He also helped build the Institute of Policy Studies, the Center for International Law, and Tembusu College at the National University of Singapore.

“His life reminds us that knowledge and progress are most meaningful when they are shared, and that building a better society is a responsibility we all hold in common,” said Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista, an RMAF trustee.

Runa Khan is known for building a floating hospital in Bangladesh that takes advantage of the country’s major rivers to provide healthcare services directly to local communities.

From this initiative, she founded the non-governmental organization Friendship, which is committed to forging partnerships for the social benefit of all.

“For Runa Khan, perhaps that is what it means to reach someone: not simply to bring a service closer, but to make sure that distance never takes away their dignity,” said Br. Edmundo Fernandez, an RMAF trustee.

Bo Kyi, a former student activist and political prisoner, has helped establish the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners to ensure that those behind bars and their families are not forgotten and are getting proper support.

“Kyi has shown that even when someone else controls the door, they cannot decide what we remember and whether we continue to hope for the person still waiting to walk through it,” said Kotchakorn Voraakhom, an RMAF trustee.

With the addition of these individuals to the roster of the Ramon Magsaysay Award laureates, Bangladesh now has 14 awardees, Myanmar has eight, and Singapore has four.

The new awardees will formally receive their official medallion and certificate during a ceremony in Manila on November 15.

Since 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award has been bestowed on outstanding people and organizations around the world to honor their “greatness of spirit shown in service to the peoples of Asia regardless of race, gender, or religion.”

The laureates are chosen each year by the RMAF Board of Trustees to highlight how humanity’s selfless service can give birth to successful solutions to today’s most intractable problems of human development.