4 December 2003 – Acclaimed Filipino historian, Professor Reynaldo Ileto, was awarded the Academic Prize at the 14th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes 2003 on 18 September 2003 at the Fukuoka International Congress Center.

Secretary Blas F. Ople, in his congratulatory letter to Prof. Ileto, said that “as the Philippines wrests with the daily struggle of its present challenges, it becomes even more imperative to study our past, for it is only in understanding the past that we can guide the present, in the hope of a better future.”

Prof. Ileto is considered one of the most influential historians of Southeast Asia and is one of only five historians of Southeast Asia featured in the Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing. His first major work, Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910, was written in 1979 and won the prestigious Benda Prize in 1985. It is now on its sixth printing.

Prof. Ileto is currently Coordinator of the Southeast Asian Studies Programme of the National University of Singapore. He is the son of the late Ambassador Rafael Ileto.

The Fukuoka Asia Culture Prizes were established to honor the outstanding work of individuals or groups to preserve and create unique and diverse cultures of Asia. The Prizes aim to foster and increase the awareness of the value of Asian Culture as well as institute a framework for exchange and cooperative learning between the peoples of Asia. Past Filipino winners of the Culture Prizes include film director Marilou Diaz-Abaya and National Artist for Architecture Leandro V. Locsin. END.