Meet ‘The Outstanding Young Men’ of 2022
MANILA, Philippines — Four doctors, one of them writing for the Inquirer, two exponents of native culture and the literary arts, a cartoonist, an environmental educator, a civic leader, and a city councilor make up The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardees for 2022.
Announcing the awardees on Dec. 8, TOYM Foundation chair Bienvenido Tantoco III noted how this year’s honorees came from a wide range of fields and professions, but that they all shared something in common: “The choice they have made on a daily basis is to serve and enrich others rather than to be served and to enrich themselves.”
“Your sense of purpose and your calling somehow make you expend your life so far in the hardest paths, the most difficult battles, the most futile process, advocacies that attract the least resources, and sometimes generate the most mockery and the most controversy,” Tantoco said of the awardees.
The awarding ceremony will be held in January next year.
The TOYM awards, which used to be called “The Outstanding Young Filipinos,’’ gives annual recognition to Filipinos age between 18 and 40 years old who have significantly contributed to their respective field or community.
The awards, which were established in October 1959, are handed out by Junior Chamber International (JCI) Philippines with the support of the TOYM Foundation and other partners and stakeholders.
Making up the 2022 TOYM roster are the following, with their backgrounds and credentials based on materials provided by the award-giving body:
Paul Gideon Lasco (Education and the Academe)
A physician and medical anthropologist, Lasco has contributed to his field by teaching at the Diliman and Manila campuses of the University of the Philippines (UP). His research projects have focused on contemporary health issues, including drug use and drug policy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and medical populism.
Currently writing the column “Second Opinion” in the Inquirer, he has also produced more than 40 journal articles and two books in the past four years.
Lasco also served as a consultant to Asian Development Bank, the International Drug Policy Consortium and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Manix Abrera (Literature, Culture and the Arts)
He is most famous as the creator of Kikomachine Komix, which covers a wide range of Pinoy experiences, such as commuting and the everyday life of college students. Abrera has been telling stories through comics, including silent comics, for 25 years. He began writing and drawing his “Kikomachine” strip for the Inquirer in 2001.
He is a three-time National Book Awardee. In 2019, he won the award for Best Book of Graphic Literature for his collection of Kikomachine strips, which originally appeared in the Inquirer.
Beverly Ho (Health and Medicine)
As an undersecretary of the Department of Health, Ho has been the focal person for the promotion of healthy practices and safety standards as the country coped with the pandemic. She has been particularly active in the agency’s Bida and ResBakuna information campaigns.
A physician by profession who also advocates reforms in the health system, Ho cofounded the Alliance for Improving Health Outcomes, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise the profile of public health and develop a critical mass of public health professionals in the Philippines.
This year, Ho was also named one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service by the TOWNS Foundation.
Ramon Lorenzo Luis Guinto (Health and Medicine)
A physician, Guinto is recognized as one of the world’s pioneers in the new field of planetary health—a scientific and solutions-oriented approach to addressing health issues arising from global environmental changes traced to human activity.
He has also been cited as one of the 50 Most Influential Voices in Health Care Globally, a list drawn up by the online health information platform Medika Life.
Guinto is the first from Southeast Asia to finish the innovative doctor of public health program at Harvard University, with his doctoral thesis focusing on the local health systems’ responses to climate change and drawing lessons from coastal municipalities in the Philippines.
Ronnie Baticulon (Health and Medicine)
A pediatric neurosurgeon, Baticulon specializes in procedures done on children with congenital and acquired disorders of the brain and the spinal cord. He works with the Hydrocephalus Foundation and Spina Bifida Foundation of the Philippines, which provide neurosurgical care for charity patients.
Baticulon is also an associate professor at UP Manila and has completed research projects in global neurosurgery with the vision to identify barriers to global neurosurgical care. He was named one of the Outstanding Young Scientists in 2022 by the National Academy of Science and Technology.
Rico Ancog (Education and the Academe)
An environmental educator, Ancog was appointed dean of the School of Environmental Science and Management of UP Los Baños (UPLB) in 2021, serving a term of three years. Specializing in environmental science and environmental economics, he has done research projects on the systematic understanding of socioecological systems for efficient resource conservation and resilience.
He was named Outstanding Young Scientist in 2019 by the National Academy of Science and Technology. He serves as managing editor of the Journal of Environmental Science and Management, which is produced at UPLB.
Victor Mari Baguilat Jr. (Literature, Culture and the Arts)
The multidisciplinary designer and stylist proud of his Ifugao lineage, Baguilat is the founder of the social enterprise Kandama, which seeks to empower indigenous communities, especially the women, while preserving culture and protecting the environment.
Kandama was recognized by the National University of Singapore and the Development Bank of Singapore as one of the Top 100 Social Enterprises in Asia in 2018. The word “kandama” means power in Tuwali, a form of Ifugaoan language.
Kristian Cordero (Literature, Culture and the Arts)
Cordero is a writer, teacher, filmmaker and bookseller. His books of poetry in three Philippine languages have won the Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Award, the Philippine National Book Awards and the Gintong Aklat Awards.
He represented the country in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2017. Outside his achievements as a writer, he has produced films, such as his 2013 debut project “Angustia’’ and the 2016 production “Hinulid.”
Shawntel Nicole Nieto (Humanitarian, Civil Society or Voluntary Leadership)
She is one of the founders of One Cainta Program, which has partnered with different organizations to provide food hampers in Cainta and nearby towns and provinces. She also cofounded the volunteer-led organization SustainablePH and SustainaRumble, a public service podcast that explores issues on sustainable development in the Philippines.Nieto received the 2021 Diana Award from the Diana Award Charity UK, which is given to outstanding young people for their social action or humanitarian work.
Joanne Ascencion Valdez (Humanitarian, Civil Society or Voluntary Leadership)
Valdez is a councilor in the tobacco-producing city of Candon in Ilocos Sur. She received the 2022 Young Leader Award from the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.
After earning a degree in communications from St. Paul University in Quezon City in 2008, Valdez landed her first job in a company that produced advocacy videos and documentaries. The experience exposed her to the critical role of local government officials in the lives of Filipinos.
