Six eminent Filipinos, led by former House Speaker Sonny Belmonte who all served as Junior Chamber International World presidents, will receive The Outstanding Filipino Excellence Awards during the 2019 TOFIL Awards and Recognition Night on Dec. 2, 2019 at the Centennial Hall of the historic Manila Hotel.
The announcement was made by JCI Senate Philippines president Domingo”Jun” Roque Jr. and TOFIL 2019 National Chairman Melandrew T. Velasco. The former JCI World presidents—JCI WP Ramon del Rosario Jr., JCI WP Roberto T. Villanueva, JCI WP Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr., JCI WP Victor Jose I. Luciano, JCI WP Crispin C. Dy Jr., and JCI WP Marc Brian C. Lim—who will each receive a trophy designed and crafted by TOFIL 2012 Awardee for Visual Arts Jose Datuin.
“As part of the 30th year of TOFIL as a prestigious and established award giving institution and in celebration of the five decades of JCI Senate Philippines, we thought it best to bestow special awards to our esteemed six JCI senator colleagues who served as world presidents of the 104-year-old Junior Chamber International, a non-governmental leadership organization present in 124 countries,” said both Roque and Velasco.
The occasion coincides with the presentation of the 2019 TOFIL awardees led by San Miguel Corp. president and CEO Ramon S. Ang.
Joining Ang are: Glenn S. Banaguas (Environment Conservation and Science Diplomacy); Dr. Joselito R. Chavez (Medicine); Virgilio L. Malang (Science and Technology); Legazpi City Mayor Noel E. Rosal (Government/Public Service); and Nelly Siababa-Aggangan (Agriculture).
The six TOFIL 2019 awardees—who will each receive the coveted trophy designed and created by National Artist Napoleon Abueva—passed the criteria set by the Search Committee and the scrutiny of the Board of Judges chaired by Supreme Court Administrator Justice Jose Midas Marquez, together with TOFIL Foundation Chairman JCI Sen. Rogelio “Bicbic” Garcia, JCISP President Domingo “Jun” O. Roque, Jr., 2010 TOFIL Awardee Dr. Shirley Halili Cruz, and PCCI chairman emeritus Dr. Francis Chua.
TOFIL Awards was institutionalized in 1988 by the JCISP. The project was pursued in partnership with Insular Life until and throughout the years they became partners with Insular Life which continued until 2014. It is now being undertaken in collaboration with ANSA Foundation led by its president Philip Nocom, a partnership that started in 2016.
For over 30 years, the JCI Senate Presidents has given over 147 awardees their recognition as men and women who have contributed to nation-building through the excellent pursuit of their work in their respective fields.