Vietnamese helping victims of Agent Orange used by US troops in Vietnam War among Magsaysay winners

A Vietnamese doctor who has helped seek justice for victims of the powerful defoliant dioxin “Agent Orange” used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War is among this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards — regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize. The other winners announced on Saturday were a group of doctors who struggled to secure adequate healthcare for Thailand’s rural poor, an Indonesian environmental defender, a Japanese animator who tackles complex issues for children and a Bhutanese academician promoting his country’s cultural heritage to help current predicaments. First given in 1958, the annual awards are named after a Philippine president, who died in a 1957 plane crash.