The 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award reveals recipients from Singapore, Bangladesh, Myanmar

The Ramon Magsaysay Award has named three recipients for 2026: Singaporean diplomat and academic Tommy Koh, Bangladeshi social entrepreneur Runa Khan, and Myanmar human rights activist Bo Kyi.

The recipients were announced Monday during a livestream of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards on YouTube.

Edgar Chua, the chairperson of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, said the award-giving body’s long list of recipients includes personalities “who have helped nations find common ground, strengthened international cooperation, and advanced the principles of international law.”

“At the heart of the stories of our 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees is one shared idea: the world we are building must have room for all of us,” Chua said.

Here are the three 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award recipients.

Tommy Koh, Singapore

Tommy Koh is a Singaporean diplomat, lawyer and professor emeritus at the National University of Singapore. He served as Singapore’s representative to the United Nations from 1968 to 1971 and from 1974 to 1984.

Through diplomacy and the rule of law, Koh “has shown that peace and international understanding are not merely written into agreements,” according to his award profile.

“They are the patient work of trust, the discipline, and art of dialogue and the enduring belief that our shared future is greater than our differences,” the profile said.

Runa Khan, Bangladesh

Runa Khan is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and humanitarian who founded Friendship, a non-governmental organization that helps remote and climate-vulnerable communities with healthcare, education and livelihoods.

Khan “refused to let bodies of water dictate who could dream of a better life” by bringing healthcare, education and sustainable livelihoods to communities long cut off from the rest of the country, according to her award profile.

“Her work proves that even the widest distance can be crossed with compassion and with friendship,” the profile said.

Bo Kyi, Myanmar

Bo Kyi is a Myanmar human rights activist who co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, where he helped document abuses against political prisoners.

Through his lifelong work for political prisoners, Bo Kyi “has shown that the first act of liberation is not the turning of a key, but the refusal to surrender hope,” according to his award profile.

“For where hope endures, the human spirit remains free, and where the human spirit remains free, no prison can ever claim the final word,” the profile said.

The recipients will be formally honored on November 15 at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.

Last year, Fr. Flaviano Antonio "Flavie" Villanueva, the Catholic priest who helped found an organization counseling victims of the drug war, was named among the recipients of the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Aside from Villanueva, other awardees include Shaahina Ali, Executive Director of Parley Maldives, and the Indian organization Foundation to Educate Girls Globally.

The Ramon Magsaysay Awards is considered Asia's premier prize and highest honor. Launched in 1957, it counts the likes of Mother Teresa, Corazon Aquino, Ryan Cayabyab, F. Sionil Jose, and Ka Dodoy Ballon, among its laureates.

—Hermes Joy Tunac/CDC, GMA News