From ‘hopeless case’ to hope: Fr. Villanueva, Magsaysay awardee, inspires Filipino youth

For many young Filipinos, life today feels like an uphill climb—where poverty, limited opportunities, and the burden of violence or fractured families leave countless disheartened and searching for direction.

- By MERLINA HERNANDO-MALIPOT

To this generation, Fr. Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva, recipient of the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, offers his most urgent message: “Be not afraid. Don’t lose hope.”

From rock bottom to priesthood

Villanueva, fondly called “Father Flavie,” shared during a press conference via Zoom on Sept. 3, that he knew all too well what it means to feel lost.

At 14, right after graduating from grade school, he began smoking and soon spiraled into substance use.

“Right after graduating from Grade 6,” Villanueva recalled. “I started getting involved in vices. That’s how it is—it begins with one puff, one likes it, and then it becomes part of the group,” he added.

By 1995, Villanueva said he hit “rock bottom.”

“I secluded myself and went cold turkey,” he recalled. “That’s when I realized there must be something higher or more valuable to life than what I was doing,” he added.

That realization led Villanueva to the priesthood, where his own journey of recovery became the foundation of his mission: to serve those society has abandoned.

Through the Kalinga Center and the Dambana ng Paghilom, he has built communities of care—feeding the hungry, rehabilitating the homeless, and walking with widows and orphans scarred by the drug war.