Where did we go wrong (after EDSA I)? . . . Poverty has worsened. Criminality has risen. Armed conflicts between government and the MILF have displaced more than half-a-million Mindanaoans . . . Millions of Filipinos have escaped abroad . . . the Philippine economy has been kept afloat by the remittances of these hard-working Overseas-Filipino workers (OFWs) . . . the children of OFWs have fallen by the wayside . . . suffer increasingly from substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, worsening education performance -- Amina Rasul

Ms. Amina Rasul, the chairperson of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, has captured perfectly the true sentiments of millions of Filipinos and Overseas Filipinos about the 1986 EDSA Revolution. Many Filipinos say, “Sayang lang ang ESDA” (the EDSA Revolution was a waste of efforts). After all, it appears now that the Philippines was better off in so many ways under the Marcos Administration than in the present Arroyo Dispensation, which is said to be the most-corrupt presidency ever in Philippine history.

Thus, Ms. Amina writes further, “The dream is morphing into a nightmare and people are waxing nostalgic about the Marcos years.” To read Ms. Amina’s latest column, please go to Forgetting EDSA I.  Readers may like also to read her February 2008 article about the EDSA Revolution in this hyperlink: People-power Demonstrations (in Metro Manila) Do Not Address Human-rights Violations in Rural Areas

On Nov. 21, 1993 (1-9-9-3), this writer wrote on behalf of a Southern California-based coalition, as spearheaded by the Media Breakfast Club (MBC) of Los Angeles, to then visiting President Fidel V. Ramos a proposal to “reinvent” the EDSA Revolution into an “Economic-Development & Social-Advancement” Evolution. (A separate original was submitted through channel, via the Philippine Consulate General of Los Angeles.) The Office of the President of the Philippines (OP) and the Philippine Consulate General did not bother even to acknowledge our suggestion, if not a formal proposal. An identical copy of our proposal bundled in a three-ring binder was handed at the same time on Nov. 21, 1993, to then First Lady Ming Ramos by an MBC cofounder, Nena Aragon Decena, a Filipino-American publisher, as she was a personal friend of Mrs. Ramos. Ms. Decena (now deceased) did not receive also the courtesy of even a receipt of the proposal from the Office of the First Lady.

Our coalition is that makulit (obstinate, hard-headed and determined). We never give up on an idea. And so, when former President Ramos visited again Los Angeles on May 20, 2006, we prepared another “love letter” to him and submitted it through the then Consul General Willy C. Gaa (now the Philippine ambassador to the United States), as per protocol. The letter is reproduced in its entirety at the end of this article.

A gain, former President Ramos did not even acknowledge receipt of our “love letter” or much more address the proposals contained therein.

So, our Southern California-based coalition – in cooperation with other progressive-minded Overseas-Filipino entities – will launch the “EDSA Evolution” as part of our budding OF-led political alliance’s platforms of governance and socioeconomics for the 2010 elections. More details can be found in this document, The OFW-led Political Party's "Vision RP 2021" Master Plan

So, whether former President Ramos and the other Filipino national leaders like it or not, we will push the reinvention of the EDSA from a revolution to an evolution called the “ReVOTElution,” as may be described in the www.ReVOTElution.com  (URL: http://www.mabuhayradio.com/Sections/Phil-Shadow-govt.html)

Young Filipinos, especially the Overseas-Filipino youth, may like also to join an experimental version of a social website called, www.revotelution.com

* Here is the reproduction of the May 20, 2006, letter to former President Ramos:

Bobby M. Reyes

Media Activist and Community Advocate

3411 Paula St., West Covina, CA 91792

Legal Residence: 514 Ramon Magsaysay Blvd., Bibingcahan, Sorsogon City, RP

Tel.: (626) 825-0628 * E-mail: mediabcla@aol.com

May 20, 2006

His Excellency

Former President Fidel V. Ramos

Republic of the Philippines

Through the Honorable Consul General Willy C. Gaa

The Philippine Consulate General

Los Angeles, California

Your Excellency:

Let me thank you again for listening to the sentiment of Southern California’s Filipinos when Your Excellency withdrew the nomination of Tomas “Buddy” Gomez III as consul general of the Philippines in Los Angeles, California, in 1993. I initiated the crusade against the nomination of Mr. Gomez and which petition my friends at the Ilocano National Association, as headed then by Dr. Carlos P. Manlapaz, supported and fought to a successful conclusion.

I wrote you a letter when you visited Los Angeles on Nov. 21, 1993, and met with the representatives of the Filipino-American community and media practitioners at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. I do not think that your staff submitted to you my letter for your perusal and consideration. Please find a copy of my published 2003 essay about “Reinventing the Philippine Government’s Budget and Servicing of Local and Foreign Debts.” I mentioned in it the said letter to Your Excellency that I gave personally to your Press Secretary on Nov. 21, 1993.

I urge Your Excellency to consider the proposals that I have advanced in my advocacies. Perhaps – under your leadership and guidance – we can initiate a crusade that for want of a better name I call the “Economic Development and Social Advancement (EDSA)” Movement. Maybe it is time to turn the political gains obtained at the 1986 People-powered peaceful revolution at the EDSA Avenue in Quezon City into a movement to promote socioeconomic empowerment of the Filipino people and solve some, if not all, of the social cancers that have plagued the homeland.

Perhaps Your Excellency may now want to rally the Overseas Filipinos, especially Filipino Americans, to spearhead and fund the suggested EDSA Movement. The movement may be able to accelerate the acceptance of fundamental structural reforms in the Philippine economy and spur the development of the countryside.

I wish to suggest most respectfully that if Your Excellency so desire, we may be able to help inaugurate formally the EDSA Movement in the United States in a series of rallies in February 2007. We have of course to devote the next eight months to laying the groundwork such as doing the documentation, recruitment of well-meaning community leaders to join the movement and establishing the infrastructures.

Please let me know at your earliest convenience if Your Excellency may give your support or even the equivalent of a moral imprimatur to the suggested EDSA Movement, as may be structured and organized to spearhead economic development of the homeland and the social advancement of our people.

On behalf of my friends and supporters, I send to Your Excellency our deepest appreciation of your favorable action and the highest esteem,

Very respectfully yours,

(Signed)

Bobby M. Reyes

Founder and Chairman Emeritus,

Media Breakfast Club of Los Angeles

Enclosed: as stated # # #