Miriam Coronel-Ferrer on her role in peace-building

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 23) — The first woman to lead the government's peace panel is among this year's Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Final Word on Friday, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said her peace advocacy started right after the EDSA revolution in 1986.

"I realized that the armed conflict that is besetting our country at that time needed to be solved in a more civil way through political negotiations," she said.

Ferrer said she handles these complex and sensitive issues with a lot of help from friends and colleagues.

"This is a project that requires wide consensus and sometimes you don't get that," she said. "Not everybody agrees that we can find a peaceful way out of all the troubles that are besetting our country."

"It's very helpful that we have a women in peace movement who will accompany all these process and that is a message to the rest of the world," she added.

Ferrer, a former political science professor at the University of the Philippines, led the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Considered as Asia's Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is the region's premier prize and highest honor bestowed upon outstanding organizations and individuals who have offered solutions to some of the most challenging problems of human development.