| Photo by Kelvin Han on Unsplash
Part III of “Sorsogon 2025-2046” Series
A week ago, this column relaunched the “ReVOTElution of H.O.P.E.” Today, we will discuss how this columnist also came up with a “Dapitanization” idea in 2019 and how to fund the “reVOTElution” (sic).
The Filipino foremost national hero, Jose P. Rizal, was exiled to Dapitan. It was then a town (and now officially the City of Dapitan) in the province of Zamboanga del Norte on Mindanao Island of the Philippines. While in Dapitan, Dr. Rizal devoted his time to its landscape, forests, seas, and rivers as he engaged in agriculture, fishing, and small businesses. He maintained and operated a hospital where he practiced his medical profession as an eye doctor. It was probably an early 19th-century version of an H.M.O. operation. He also empowered the youth by hiring them as “working students” in farms and businesses so that they could finance their schooling.
From July 17, 1892, to July 31, 1896 – four years and 13 days—Rizal lived in Dapitan town as a “proactive” political exile.
In late 2019, as a Knights of Rizal Commander, this journalist coined the phrase “Dapitanization of the Poorest Towns in the Philippines” as a first project of a “ReVOTElution of H.O.P.E.” The first word means “Revolutionary Ventures and Outreach for Technology and the Environment.” And “H.O.P.E.” is another acronym for “Helping Online People’s Empowerment.”
One of the first groups notified of the new movement by this prime mover was the National Association of Railway Boosters (Philippines). This writer also suggested that a “Filipino Railroad Renaissance”—as part of a reVOTElution —could be started in Sorsogon Province. But then the COVID-19 pandemic came, and many proactive endeavors were suspended or halted. However, the twin ideas of a “revotelution” and “Dapitanization” continued to be brainstormed and improved after the pandemic years ended.
Last Sunday, this columnist talked with his long-time friend, Numeriano Bouffard, who recruited this writer to do public relations work for the “Pueblo Filipino” project he founded in Mexico. Mr. Bouffard is a Filipino-American entrepreneur of Spanish descent and, coincidentally, a Knights of Rizal chapter member in Orlando, Florida. He is also one of the architects of a growing movement called “Hispanidad” that spearheads the revival and teaching of oral and written Spanish forms in former Iberian colonies like the Philippines.
Ting (Mr. Bouffard’s nickname) also founded the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida and the F.P.A.C.C. Foundation, Inc. F.P.A.C.C. is the acronym for the Federation of Philippine-American Chambers of Commerce. To our limited knowledge, the F.P.A.C.C. is one of the most prominent federations of minority chambers of commerce in North America.
The good news is that Ting pledges that he will sponsor a resolution for the F.P.A.C.C. Foundation to spearhead the formation of a federation of Filipino-American foundations and non-profit organizations like the Knights of Rizal, Filipino-led chapters of Jaycees, Lions, Rotarians, and other similar entities. Thus, the new federation (of federations) can be the fundraising arm for the “reVOTElution,” the “Dapitanization,” a Filipino railroad renaissance, the “B.O.B. libraries” (as discussed in Part I of this series), and other allied or similar projects in the Philippines.
Another good news came from Ricky Rillera, the publisher of this online publication. Mr. Rillera wants to help push this columnist’s idea of making Sorsogon the pilot province of modern writing, editing, publishing, state-of-the-art printing, and distribution (either by mail or online service) of books and periodicals. In his early working days, he was an executive assistant of an American paper manufacturer’s subsidiary in the Philippines. Now, he suggests a new component to the writing-publishing project. Mr. Rillera adds the idea of a bond-paper manufacturing facility. Sorsogon and adjacent provinces can grow trees that can be harvested in three years or less. It then turned into pulp and later processed as quality paper for books and magazines.
“Filipino Americans collectively earn more than U.S.$92 billion per year. In less than five years, we aim to secure a minimum of 3% of the said amount as investments for our barrio-based operations. That will come to approximately $2.75 billion (spelled with a B) annually.“
Incidentally, Mr. Rillera is a former president of a New York Jaycees chapter and the Filipino-American Press Club of New York. He also became the second Filipino-American Pearl S. Buck Foundation of Pennsylvania board member. Sir Ricky is also the new deputy chapter commander of the Knights of Rizal—Long Island (N.Y.) chapter.
As the founder and head admin of the “ReVOTElution of H.O.P.E.” Facebook Group, this columnist posted this note in it last Sunday: QUOTE. (T)his column will also inform Filipino-American communities why investors in the barrio co-ops (starting in Sorsogon as a pilot province) will receive some sense of immortality as extra incentives (besides the R.O.I.).
This journalist has adopted (as a motto) the words of an American author, poet, and editor, Albert Pike (1809-1891). Mr. Pike wrote: “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”
A semblance of immortality will come to our investors, donors, staff, consultants, and co-op members through trees planted in our coming “Memorial Tree Parks.” The parks will be built as part of terraces in the barren mountains of provinces. Trees, of course, are the best antidote to Global Warming, aside from producing oxygen that circulates worldwide. Those mountains will be green in less than three years (starting in Sorsogon).
There will also be naming rights for every townhouse, condo, library (and its contents and even bookcases), goat farm, milk-processing facility, barn storage silo, and buildings erected or done. Every marble slab and roof/wall tile we will use for the coming infrastructures (including sidewalks, corridors, and lobbies) will carry the engraved name of an investor, worker, or co-op member.
Filipino Americans collectively earn more than U.S.$92 billion per year. In less than five years, we aim to secure a minimum of 3% of the said amount as investments for our barrio-based operations. That will come to approximately $2.75 billion (spelled with a B) annually.
Why would Filipino Americans and other Overseas Filipinos trust us? That will be explained in Part III of this series. It means that by 2028, we will start to do the ReVOTElution in many areas of our homeland—province by province. UNQUOTE.
Also, as explained in Sunday’s column (Part IV), Ting Bouffard’s “Hispanidad” project will generate billions of dollars in additional revenues for Overseas Filipinos and workers (including Filipino call-center employees) if and when our O.F.W.s and local counterparts become bilingual. It will translate into more sources of family gross income for “reVOTElutionary” workers, co-op shareholders, and our foreign-and-local co-op investors.
