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Antonio Oposa Jr. flashed a grin and gave a double-thumbs up sign as he strode across the lighted stage, barely able to conceal his excitement.
?I am only a storyteller,? he began, as he described a land of happy people called Perlas del Mar.
In his story, ?men from foreign lands came with symbols and fire,? taught the people to squeeze what treasure they could find in the seas, on the islands and under the earth, all ?in the name of economic progress and development.?
By the end of his tale, the Cebuano lawyer was calling for a ?revolution? to save the environment with 10 million signatures of Filipinos committed to changing a course of disaster.
Oposa was one of six Asians, and the only Filipino, who received the 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Awards last night at the main theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila.
Oposa, who made legal history in winning a Supreme Court case against illegal loggers over the novel concept of ?intergenerational responsibility? and beat the odds in a 10-year court battle that had the High Court ordering government agencies to clean up Manila Bay, was recognized by the Magsaysay Foundation for using the law in environmental activism.
He was cited for ?his pathbreaking and passionate crusade to engage Filipinos in acts of enlightened citizenship that maximize the power of law to protect and nurture the environment for themselves, their children, and generations still to come.?
The diver and son of Bantayan island has led law enforcement raids against dynamite fishers and built a School of the Seas in his hometown.
Oposa, in his acceptance speech, said the award belongs ?especially to a fallen friend, Jojo dela Victoria,? and the Supreme Court.
He was referring to the Bantay Dagat commission chairman in Cebu City who was shot dead by a hired killer as reprisal for their operations against illegal fishes and dynamite blasters.
Oposa said he shared the award with co-workers in the environmental movement and the judiciary.
(The Supreme Court ruling is now taught in law schools around the world as the ?Oposa Doctrine?.)
At this point, he asked those in the audience who work in both groups to stand up to receive a round of applause.
The Ramon Magsaysay Awards is considered Asia?s version of the Nobel Prize with a 51-year history of selecting achievers.
The awards were handed out by Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman of the board of trustees.
The awardees are considered ?Asia?s heroes? and were chosen this year for their contribution of ?science in the service of humanity.?
?Now more than ever, we need our heroes,? said Zobel? ?to renew our faith in tomorrow.?
Oposa, known for his ability to fire up volunteers to undertake novel strategies, used last night?s ceremony to launch a ?movement for change? that starts with individual commitments in 10 million signatures .
?We will begin a revolution ? a turnaround ? in the government?s priority for the environment,? he said.
With an eye for the 2010 elections where he and several non-government organizations aim to press candidates on an agenda for a healthful ecology, Oposa said the there could be ?no peace on earth unless we have peace with the earth.?
?Together, we send this simple message to our leaders: environmental security is the highest form of national and international security,? he declared.
As his voice rose to fever-pitch Oposa pounded the rostrum hard, a smack that resounded in the full-packed theater and made some in the audience jump: ?He or she who does not understand that has neither the right nor any reason to aspire for any position of political power. ?
Outside the hall, pamphlets for the Ten Million Movement with sign-up lists were distributed.
Oposa?s comrades are also in the middle of another campaign filing Notices to Sue against local government officials around the country, to demand an accounting of their efforts to comply with often-neglected environmental law.
But the ?10MM? campaign has its own target audience with an appeal to young Filipinos 30 years old and below, a group Oposa said have the most potential for making a difference.
In the CCP lobby displays of each Magsaysay awardee were put up. A greeting wall carried the handwritten note: ?Tito Tony, You are my hero. I want to partake in the revolution. I always have.?
It was signed by a first year college student of St. Benilde.
