MANILA (UCAN) -- A politician disabled in a bombing incident in 1971 has publicly shared how suffering deepened both his religious faith and his belief in the value of democracy and good government.

On Aug. 31, former senator Jovito Salonga, 87, received the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service.

The other winners of "Asia's Nobel Prize" this year are Chen Guangcheng and Chung To (China, Emergent Leadership); Tang Xiyang (China, Peace and International Understanding); Mahabir Pun (Nepal, Community Leadership), Palagummi Sainath (India; Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts); and Reverend Kim Sun-Tae (South Korea, Public Service).

In his acceptance speech, Salonga said that growing up with a Protestant minister for a father made it "inevitable that my Christian beliefs and values should motivate and influence my acts every day and every hour."

His remarks echoed his reflections the previous day, when he linked his religious background to his political career in a lecture titled The Audacity of Principled Politics. He spoke before 200 students, academics, politicians, and NGO and government workers at the Magsaysay Center.

Salonga told lecture guests he anchored his political life "on the Christian faith" due to the influence of his late father, a Presbyterian pastor who married a "poor market vendor" of deep "faith and spirituality." But in assessing his own achievements, the member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) said, "I have fallen short."

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1941-1945), Salonga joined the patriotic resistance. He recalled the challenges he faced after being imprisoned during Holy Week in 1942.

Japanese military police tortured him "in the presence of my aging father," and threw him in prison for more than a year. But this "rekindled my broken faith" to the point of inspiration, he said. Soon he was leading prayers with "convicted criminals and political prisoners."

After the Second World War, he topped the bar exams, studied abroad, practiced and taught law, and also served as dean of a law school.

Then, in 1961, he entered political office as a congressman for Rizal province. He was elected senator in 1965 and 1971, and served until President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and abolished the Congress. Meanwhile, shrapnel from the bombing of a rally his Liberal Party held in Manila in 1971 left him blind in his left eye, deaf in his right ear and needing a cane to walk.

During martial law (1972-1981) he defended political prisoners and opposition politicians.

At the lecture, he recalled the late Cardinal Jaime Sin's February 1986 radio appeal for prayer in the streets to prevent violence during a coup against Marcos. The call drew mainline Protestants, Muslims and "people representing all the faiths, (as well as) freethinkers, skeptics and cynics," he said. His UCCP, a union of 2,000 Evangelical, Methodist and independent churches, joined the four-day prayer movement that culminated in Marcos' departure.

After Marcos was deposed, Salonga served as first head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, created to recover alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their allies. He was elected senator again in 1987 and served as Senate president until 1992.

"Against all odds," the political and bombing survivor told lecture guests, "I got a second borrowed life."

Now retired from politics, his mission is "spreading the gospel of good governance." He asked young people to "keep trying" to preserve democracy. Principled politics, he explained, is simply the sense of right or wrong, operating in government.

"It is wrong to act based on lying, self-dealing, cheating, and bribery. It is right to speak the truth with boldness and work for a transparent, accountable system of government."

The Magsaysay award comprises a plaque, US$50,000 and a medallion bearing the image of Ramon Magsaysay, the Philippines' third president, who died in a plane crash in 1957.

Salonga said he would donate prize money to Kilosbayan (people's action), an NGO Christian leaders founded in 1993 to raise interest in public policy. Part of the money will also go to Bantay Katarungan (sentinel of justice), an NGO he co-founded in 2000 to educate law students on current issues, and to UCCP-run Silliman University in Negros Oriental province, central Philippines.

END