Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. The award shows that the world is hungering for a third kind of leadership. This third kind of leadership is cultural leadership. It is the demonstration of excellence in the area of culture, whether this be moral, normative, intellectual, ideals, or others. The Philippines demonstrated in action the cultural ideal of non-violent, peaceful removal of a corrupt and unaccountable president.
Cultural leadership is a kind of leadership that medium-sized or even smaller countries can provide.
Pierre Marchand, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation put it this way. The world is sick and tired of war and violence. You have given a gift to a world that knows only force and violence of effecting radical change without firing a shot . The world continues in its violent ways when only economic and political considerations dominate policy decisions. In this award, the excellence of the Philippine Spirit has revealed itself.