MUTED in the cacophony of controversies across the country in recent weeks was the well-deserved Ramon Magsaysay Award bestowed upon Lilia de Lima. The Bicolana lawyer, who led the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) until her retirement in mid-2016, had drawn much-needed foreign investment into the country for more than two decades.

Late last month, de Lima was awarded Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, along with five others, for “her unstinting, sustained leadership in building a credible and efficient PEZA, proving that the honest, competent and dedicated work of public servants can, indeed, redound to real economic benefits to millions of Filipinos.”

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