The 2010 Ten Outstanding Young Men pose for a picture with President Aquino. Author and awardee, Harvey Keh, stands leftmost.

MANILA, Philippines — Heroes create heroes.

This was the theme of this year’s Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awards given annually by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Philippines to young Filipino leaders who have accomplished considerable, tangible results to be of service to others and in pursuit of excellence.

Past awardees of this prestigious award include the late Senator Ninoy Aquino, business tycoons Manuel Pangilinan and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, international news broadcaster Rico Hizon and the world-renowned performer Lea Salonga.

Since the award was first given out in 1959, more than 400 inspiring Filipino leaders from different sectors have been honored.

For this year’s batch of awardees, of which I was very fortunate enough to be part of, 10 young Filipino men and women were given the TOYM by no less than President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in simple ceremonies held last Dec. 13, at the Malacañang Palace.

As one of the awardees, I was overwhelmed to be in the company of great Filipinos who have selflessly given a big part of themselves in the service of our nation.

One of the awardees was my good friend, Bam Aquino who even during our college years at Ateneo de Manila University was already dedicated to a life of genuine public service.

Aquino one of the founders of the successful social enterprise, Hapinoy, which has helped thousands of sari-sari store owners earn more by devising a system that would allow them to purchase the products that they sell directly from the supplier.

More importantly, Aquino and his colleagues at Hapinoy have helped uplift the quality of life of so many Filipino families since the extra money that they now earn is used to provide education and healthcare to their families.

CNN Hero Efren Peñaflorida was also part of this year’s batch of awardees and I find his story as the most inspiring of us all.

As early as 16 years old, Kuya Ef, as he is known to most people, had already started the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC), using the Kariton Klasrum to teach illiterate children in Cavite to read and write.

Since it started, DTC has already helped thousands of young people attain a better life. In fact, Kuya Ef even mentioned to me that he is always inspired whenever he sees that many of their former students go back to help in the program by serving as volunteer tutors.

What is even more inspiring about Kuya Ef is that he didn’t use a single centavo for his personal needs from the US$ 100,000 prize he got from CNN last year. Instead he used majority of the funds for the construction of their learning center in Cavite that will be able to provide regular tutorial classes to more underprivileged students in Cavite.

Truly, Kuya Ef is showing what it is to be a true Filipino hero.

Jun Yupitun takes the lead as this year’s awardee in the field of entrepreneurship and harnessing information technology to help uplift the lives of Filipinos.

Yupitun is a licensed electronics and communications engineer, a graduate of De La Salle University (DLSU). For the last 10 years, he has been working towards developing innovative call center solutions that will help make government transactions easier.

A sterling example of his good work would be the establishment of the National Statistics Office (NSO) hotline wherein Filipinos no longer need to queue up for several days just to be able to get a copy of their birth or marriage certificates.

In yet another project, Yupitun was also instrumental in working with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in institutionalizing the DFA Express Passport Delivery that has helped many OFWs save time and money. Yupitun has shown that when used properly, information technology can make lives easier for all of us and in the end, address many social problems in our country today.

Aside from them, other TOYM awardees for this year include, Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara for Government Service (Legislative); Therese “Gang” T. Badoy for Alternative Education and Youth Leadership; Alan Peter S. Cayetano for Government and Public Service (Public Accountability and Transparency;) Maria Rachelle R. Gerodias for Arts and Music (Classical); Edsel Maurice T. Salvana for Medicine and Social Activism; and Beatrice “Bea” P. Valdes, Fashion Design and Entrepreneurship.

The author is director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo School of Government (ASOG). Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.com and you can follow me at Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/harveyke