Edmundo "Ed" Guidote Garcia (born February 3, 1943) is a Filipino human rights activist, peace advocate, and writer.

[7][8][9][10] In 1970, then a seminarist, he co-founded the militant youth political movement LAKASDIWA (Lakas ng Diwang Kayumanggi).

[11][2] The movement and its distinct political ideology (Filipino Social Democracy) sought to create a nonviolent path towards social change through a "parliamentary of the streets," drawing from diverse sources such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Liberation Theology, including indigenous philosophies.

[7][2][11][12][13] The group was conceived as an alternative to the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (MLM) ideology of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front (NDF) which called for armed struggle.

[3] He also served as peace envoy and policy adviser at International Alert, a non-governmental peace-building organization working in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.

[14][15][16] In 1970, Garcia co-founded the militant youth political movement LAKASDIWA (Lakas ng Diwang Kayumanggi).

The movement and its distinct political ideology (Filipino Social Democracy) sought to create a nonviolent path towards social change, drawing from diverse sources such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Liberation Theology, including indigenous philosophies.

Among Marxists and more radical formations, the movement was often derided as being too moderate and bourgeois, and its members branded as "clerico-fascists," alluding to its close ties to the Catholic hierarchy and the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University.

[2][17] During the Martial Law, members of Lakasdiwa formed the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas that also shared a Social Democratic alternative to the Marcos regime.

Later, Garcia became a member of KAAKBAY, a broad nationalist political movement against the Marcos dictatorship led by imprisoned senator Jose W.

He served as one of the framers of the 1987 Philippine Constitution and together with youth representative Chito Gascon were key advocates for the inclusion of human rights and social justice provisions in the charter; he consulted Diokno a fortnight before the plebiscite.

[19] In 2015, Garcia was conferred the Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan, a public service award by the Ateneo de Manila University.