Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña has been conferred this year’s Honorable Eliza Rosales Ochoa (HERO) Awards for his valuable contributions "to the society and the humanity as a whole."

He thanked the Caraga State University (CSU) in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte for choosing him as one of the recipients of the HERO Awards.
"I am very pleased and honored to be one of the awardees of the 2021 Honorable Eliza Rosales Ochoa Awards from Caraga State University (CSU) in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte,” de la Peña said in a Facebook post.
The HERO Award is the CSU’s "tradition of giving the highest award of distinction and award of achievement to worthy individuals with notable and significant contribution to the society and the humanity as a whole.”
De la Peña noted that born and raised in Butuan City, Ochoa was the first ever Filipina congresswoman in the country.
"She was the founder of the high school that eventually evolved into the CSU. She was also an accomplished sportswoman, being the first and only Filipina to have won in the Asian Olympics. I am fortunate to have known from this award the life of a very outstanding Filipina,” he said.
It was Ochoa who filed and pushed for the passage of an Omnibus Bill that led to the birth of CSU in 1918 as the Agusan Agriculture High School (AAHS).
In 1946, the AAHS was constructed in a 232-hectare virgin forest land in Barrio Ampayon in the municipality of Butuan, province of Agusan del Norte through Proclamation No. 4 issued by the American Governor to the Philippines Francis Burton Harrison.
"I am more fortunate for the fact that I have been given an award in the name of the outstanding woman that I have mentioned. I would like to thank CSU, whose potential I found very promising and which I believe is one of the outstanding state universities in the country today for also having achieved much in a very short period.”
"I am happy to say that I have, in my own little way, also helped CSU in their efforts to become an outstanding institution.”