2020 Ramon Magsaysay Awards Presentation gets cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

The 2020 Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation has been cancelled due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Its board of trustees released a statement on Monday announcing the cancellation of the event.

"It took an invisible scourge to force another interruption. With the COVID-19 pandemic practically immobilizing the world, the Foundation had no choice but to cancel this year's Awards Presentation," the statement read.

According to the Foundation, the tradition of selecting and presenting the Laureates has unfolded every year for the past 60 years and has been "disrupted only during the 1970 financial crisis and the calamitous 1990 earthquake," making this year's cancellation only the third time in the Ramon Magsaysay Awards history.  

"It was a tough decision to make. We shall all miss the solemnity of the Awards Night. Hungry for the stories that inspire and sustain hope. Feeling humbled in the presence of light," the statement read.

It said the tradition has to give way to "inconvenient reality, but we will get together again and it will be a joyful reunion."

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation said all its awardees from all corners of Asia "have risen to the occasion, lending critical support to frontliners and marginalized victims of the pandemic."

"It is this continuing story of compassion and service that defines the Laureates," they ended their note. — LA, GMA News