Priest dedicates Magsaysay award to drug war victims

A Catholic priest dedicated his Ramon Magsaysay Award to the victims of detained former president Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs.

- By EJ MACABABBAD and BELLA CARIASO

The award, regarded as Asia's highest honor, cited Fr. Flaviano Villanueva for his "transformative compassion" and for restoring dignity to the marginalized through concrete acts of mercy.

In his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony at the historic Metropolitan Theater in Manila on Friday, Villanueva added that the recognition was "never about me," but about "the many lives and hands that gave it meaning" - the homeless, the grieving mothers, and volunteers who serve despite exhaustion and fear.

"When injustice persists, silence wounds the soul. To stop the bleeding, we need to start the healing and to start the healing, we must continue asking the difficult questions," he said.