Oscar M. LopezWith his decades of entrepreneurial leadership and service to the nation, it was “no surprise” that Oscar M. Lopez (OML) became this year’s recipient of the Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. (RVR) Award for Nation Building.

The award, a project of the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Manila and the Asian Institute of Management’s Center for Corporate Social Responsibility, aims to recognize “individuals who best exemplify outstanding corporate citizenship and have an underlying passion for nation-building.”

“The hurdles were high, but the announcement that the award had been conferred on Oscar Lopez came as no surprise,” AIM president Edilberto de Jesus said in a message.

OML, in formally accepting the RVR award on August 10, 2011, said that peer recognition is the most cherished form of recognition because it is “often the hardest to earn.” He also paid tribute to other Lopez family members and executives with whom he worked to rebuild Eugenio Lopez Sr.’s legacy from the ruins of martial law.

Those 25 years, he said, have constituted the bulk of his life’s work.

“If you honor me (today), then I believe that it is because I have remained steadfast and faithful to our Values, and that I have demanded that we live our corporate lives by them,” he said. “In honoring me, therefore, you also honor my father, my brothers and all the men and women of the Lopez businesses who have preceded us, and the all the men and women of the Lopez businesses today.”

The Lopez Group chairman emeritus is the second recipient of the RVR Award, named for PHINMA Group founder Ramon V. del Rosario Sr., known as the “father of Philippine modern industry.”