2006 Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards

Lifetime Achievement: Alex Esclamado
Sponsored by AARP California

?Alex Esclamado’s signature song is “The Impossible Dream,” the theme of “Man of La Mancha.” What makes him different is that, unlike Don Quixote, he makes the impossible possible. The story of his crusades is replete with triumphs few men have achieved, against odds few men have dared to face, under circumstances few men have been willing to suffer.

Esclamado has always been obsessed with the idea of Filipino American empowerment. In 1963, as publisher-editor of Philippines News, he used his media clout to persuade a small group of committed individuals to form the National Filipino Council.

The group lobbied for an increase in the quota of Filipino immigrants allowed into the country and for Filipino doctors, dentists and accountants to be allowed to practice their profession in America. Their efforts and that of other minority groups resulted in the amendment to the Immigration and Naturalization Act that dramatically increased the immigration quota and allowed family reunification outside of the quota. The fight for Filipino professionals was also won.

During the darkest years of martial law, Esclamado worked with Ninoy Aquino, Raul Manglapus and other exiles to erode the support of the Reagan White House for the Marcos dictatorship. In retaliation, the Marcos machinery starved Philippine News of advertising revenues. Esclamado sold his assets, including his house and commercial building, to keep his newspaper alive. Offered $12 million to muffle the newspaper, he declined.

Esclamado was virtually wiped out financially. But, bucking impossible odds, he never missed a single issue. Even more amazingly, after the People Power revolt, he never asked for any special favors from President Cory Aquino or from his brother-in-law, House Speaker Ramon Mitra, Jr. He was happy enough with his reward: the Philippine Legion of Honor and Medal. It was one more addition to the many awards bestowed on him, which includes the Ellis Island Medal of Honor on the occasion of the bicentennial of the Statue of Liberty. He was the only Filipino among 79 awardees.

The Marcos years had only interrupted but not derailed Esclamado’s quest for Filipino American empowerment. In 1987, Philippine News sponsored a “Unity Con-ference” in Anaheim, California that resulted in the formation of the National Filipino American Council—the mother organization that subsequently gave birth to NaFFAA, the National Federation of Filipino American Associations.

NaFFAA itself was the result of a cross-country travel by Esclamado and his wife Luly, at their own expense, to persuade delegates to attend the First National Filipino American Empowerment Conference in Washington, D.C. on August 22-24, 1997. In that historic meeting, over 2,000 delegates voted to establish NaFFAA with Esclamado as founding national chairman.

When Esclamado relinquished the chairmanship to business magnate Loida Nicolas-Lewis, at NaFFAA’s 5th National Empowerment Conference in San Jose in August 2002, he had already realized the impossible dream of a national organization of Filipinos with a voice in Washington, D.C. Other dreams remain, among them, Veterans Equity, but Esclamado has set the example for others to follow.

The 2006 Filipinas Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award is a modest tribute to a truly great man.—GBM