By Momar G. Visaya, Contributor
INQUIRER.net

NEW YORK–A soldier of Filipino descent emerged victorious at the recently concluded 2007 Best Warrior Competition held Oct. 1-5 at Fort Lee, Virginia and was declared the Department of Army’s Soldier of the Year.

Spc. Heyz T. Seeker, who represented the US Army Special Operations Command, won the grueling competition after competing with 12 other soldiers in tests of physical fitness and military skills ranging from marksmanship to first aid.

“It’s still sinking in. I was really overwhelmed at first,” Spc. Seeker told the Asian Journal in a telephone interview Thursday, Oct 11.

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By Ruben V. Nepales
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–Lav Diaz’s nine-hour “Kagadanan sa Banwaan ning mga Engkanto (Death in the Land of Encantos)” won the Golden Lion Special Mention award in the Horizons (Orizzonti) Documentary section of the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

The top prize went to “Wuyong (Useless)” by China’s Jia Zhangke.

Diaz and Zhangke won against such name directors as Jonathan Demme and Julian Schnabel. Last year, renowned director Spike Lee won the award in this category for “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.”

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By Hrvoje Hranjski
Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines–A Filipino nationalist at the forefront of struggle for democracy during and after Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, and a South Korean minister who dedicated his life to curing blindness are among the winners of the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, organizers said Tuesday.

Jovito R. Salonga, 87, won the award for government service for tirelessly fighting for the rule of law, honest and competent government and showing compassion for the poor — democratic and social ideals that were not always easy to find in the Philippines under Marcos.

A law graduate and senator, he was crippled by a bomb blast at a political rally in 1971, a year before Marcos declared martial law. He fought Marcos’ iron-fisted rule by defending the president’s opponents and working for the release of political prisoners. He was briefly jailed in 1980 and spent four years in US exile.

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