Anger and Armageddon

Butch Bagabuyo

“Righteous indignation is often nothing more than selfighteous irritation.” – William Arthur Ward

LOVE, not anger, defines a man, woman or LGBT. And that is why we, Christians all over the world are taught to have faith, hope and love. Of these three virtues, love is the greatest of them all.

As finites in this vale of tears, anger sets in every now and then, and every which way. It is in moments like this that the leader in a man, woman or LGBT illuminates or irretrievably shuts out.

Aristotle’s reading on the matter of anger is instructive: Anybody can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy. Ergo, a true leader is a lover who knows just when to be angry; hence, there is Armageddon.

Not a few Mindanaoans blew their top when our man, Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte, refused to file his certificate of candidacy for the presidency mainly because he is not interested to become president, his family is against it, he is old, and he has no money. But because a good many Mindanaoans agree with our man that the presidency is providential, we did not give up hope. Instead, we continued with our faith and practiced love by falling on our knees and praying for divine intervention.

As always, the Almighty, as He has done in 1986, listened to our pleas and made certain one thing leading to another: unmitigated culture of impunity, killings of the innocents and arrogance beyond imagination by those in government. So exactly a day after one month from the deadline of the filing of certificates of candidacy, the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) in an unprecedented move by a vote of 5-4 (five senators and all three Supreme Court justices and one senator) decided to dismiss the disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares.

Guess what? The decision by the SET created a rightful indignation among Filipinos who believe that citizenship is so vital to a country’s sovereignty that it should not be left to a presumption by the United Nations declaration that a foundling is a citizen (not a natural born) of the country to where she is found. Since our 1987 Constitution is the supreme law of the land, we are mandated to follow and obey our Constitution which mandatorily requires our president and senators to be natural born citizens.

Further, the records (1 Record 369) of the 1986 Constitutional commission rejected the proposal that both the natural born and naturalized citizens have equal rights. Ergo, the argument that those who have less in life should have more in law does not fly and may only serve as a good political mantra but worthless before our courts of law which proclaims “Dura Lex Sed Lex.” Hence, the most welcome sudden change of heart by Mayor Duterte is not only providential for our man but may also be the voice needed to overturn the close 5-4 vote of the SET during its motion for reconsideration. Duterte pa more.

Tsada, di ba?

• •

“Anger is a kind of temporary madness.” – Saint Basil

The violent outburst and uncalled for name-calling by transition Mayor Oscar S. Moreno when he received the dismissal order as our mayor proves beyond the scintilla of doubt that he is hambuguero (the one word Kagay-anons hate and reserve only for the uneducated yet schooled people) and a shameful disgrace to the people of our city.

As I’ve repeatedly written, Kagay-anons–both natural born and naturalized citizens (meaning, those who now consider themselves as Kagay-anon)–are a proud (but not hambuguero) people who emulate our leaders like the late Vice President Emmanuel “Maning” Pelaez, former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., former governor and assemblyman Homobono “Bono” Adaza, former no-nonsense mayor and assemblyman Reuben “Ben” Canoy, to name a few intellectuals. Their names and achievements are implanted in our hearts, minds and souls. Believe you me, an elected official who does not love his family (unfaithful spouse) is not only corrupt but ought to be dismissed from public service. Period!

Here’s my take on why dismissed transition Mayor Moreno is hambuguero:

• The Ombudsman (not anybody else) dismissed Oca as our mayor but he had the temerity to lambast leading mayoral candidate Rufus Rodriguez without any evidence at all. Worst, Oca ought to know that name-calling is taboo among righteous officials; only the uneducated yet schooled persons resort to it because it shows utter lack of intellect. There are a thousand and one ways to skin a cat. So avoid the lingo of the gutter.
• Undoubtedly, without the last 10 days endorsement by Rodriguez and the impassioned speech of Nene Pimentel during the miting de avance in the 2013 elections, Oca would have miserably lost to his dirty political mentor, former mayor Dongkoy Emano who was healthy and strong at that time.
• The many poor tinderas and tinderos of our public markets, all the kargadors, all the small sari-sari and talipapa store owners have never been given by Oca any discount from their sukay (local tax) but a super big business like Ajinomoto easily got a huge discount from P2.9 million to a mere P300 thousand. Worst, dismissed Mayor Oca callously and irreligiously claimed that he had no knowledge about the unconscionable discount when everybody knows that he was a co-defendant in the RTC case involving the tax reduction compromise agreement (compromise agreements are approved by the court only if done by proper parties-in-interest). This is not to mention that his acting treasurer Glenn Banez is his most trusted man from Quezon City, and a usurper to the position of city treasurer. Wa sya kyapi!

These and more are the reasons why there is Armageddon (final battle between good and evil) on May 9, 2016 elections. For the presidency, it is Duterte vs. all the crooks and the uncooked foundling. And for our mayoral race, the Armageddon is between Robust Rufus Rodriguez, who has one loving, beautiful and devoted wife and one child, who lives in their ancestral home at Nazareth against old and sickly Dongkoy Emano who lives alone in his mansion because he has been abandoned by his loving and beautiful wife unlike dismissed Mayor Oca who lives kuno with his wife in a house but definitely not a home even as he surreptitiously frequents at night somewhere in a newly constructed house in Lumbia. (Please correct me if my birdie is wrong about this blind item).