Butch Bagabuyo “By union the smallest state thrive, by discord the greatest are destroyed.” – Sallust GOD loves the poor, He created so many of them. And the philosophers rode high on the idea and humored us, thus: a government of, by, and for the poor. Sadly, however, ever since the American type of democracy was installed in our archipelago if not, rammed down our throats, our so-called democracy has always been a government of, by and for the rich and powerful, at the excruciating expense of the many who are poor. After years and years of unforgiveable neglect, the teeming millions of the poor from our paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Basilan-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-tawi and elsewhere in our country have had enough of the few ruling elites a.k.a. Imperial Manila. So in May 9, the tough-talking poor probinsiano named Rodrigo Roa Duterte of Davao City won a landslide victory and is now the presumptive president of our country. But as Adlai Stevenson once said in a speech, the Americans pick on a president, and for four years they pick on him. How true! The problem lies in the fact that those who pick on our president are the few who are rich, the ruling elite, a.k.a. Imperial Manila. This early they are now picking on our newly elected president from our very own Mindanao. And the reason is simple: the ruling elite has all the money there is in our country even as they own and manage mainstream media. What compounds the problem of the poor in our country is that the noisy ones become mercenaries and because they are one of us, they easily drown the uncoordinated pleas of the greatest majority. In my watering hole last night, outspoken media personalities lectured us: “Long before Digong threw his hat for the presidency, you were at the forefront preaching federalism and the urgent need to have a president from Mindanao. But now that your dream, which was also ours for the longest time, has come, you are left out while all the opportunists are now in Davao savoring the juiciest of positions. “So, what now?” my good friend from Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) concluded with a pointed query. Undoubtedly, governance is not about economics and what the economists call the GDP – Gross Domestic Product - but service first and last. We do not have to compete with other nations as far as economic growth is concerned just like today when our government claims to have made economic miracles in the region or even the world. Many of our people are starving to death and those who go to the streets to beg for food are brutally gunned down. Let me repeat: unless, we, the 90 million poor Filipinos, continue to unite and hire buses/jeepneys with our hard-earned pesos and troop to Davao City on June 12, Independence Day, we will lose our newly achieved independence from Imperial Manila. Sadly, what is happening is definitely not the kind of change we’ve all been dreaming of and fought for but a nauseating repeat of debilitating greed. Believe you me, right now Imperial Manila is building impregnable structures to shield our man, Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte, from ourselves: the small people to whom our man dedicated his life. Why can’t the cabinet be like our own presumptive president Digong--poor and used to be unknown but with oozing love for the millions who are poor? Enough is enough! In the meantime, we, the small-time but die-hard members of the PDP-Laban, will continue to fight with all we’ve got the insidious and creeping attempt by big business in Imperial Manila to make a repeat of the 1986 fiasco. As I keep repeating: with God on our side, we can make miracles after miracles happen, as what we’ve just done in the contest for the presidency. Right now, unless we choose to be radical and bury the past that led us to this sorry state of governance, presumptive president Duterte will fail us even before the start of his term. Here is my take:
  • Start a determined campaign to have an exclusive bus/jeepney caravan of the poor in Mindanao--every 200 poor individuals contribute five pesos each and choose one among them either by raffle or whatever to lead the jeepney hired at a much discounted rate from all points in the paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Basilan-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-tawi and converge at the Freedom Park in Davao City for the Independence Day celebration.
The reason why one will be chosen from among the group of 200 poor people who have contributed five pesos each is because the travel expense in going to and from Davao City is one thousand pesos more or less. Hence, the computation should be based on the estimated travel expenses from one’s place to Davao and back.
  • All the names of the donors should be reflected on the list and signed by them individually. The list should also incorporate the Federalism Manifesto with a plea to have Sen. Koko Pimentel as Senate president which is but logical, PDP-Laban, being the largest and most potent political party in the country today. In fact, it was only in Mindanao where Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano won.
  • Every participating bus/jeepney must be headed by a non-politician Mindanaoan, and the names of the head of every bus/jeepney as well as the participating members in that same bus/jeepney should be submitted not later than June 6 to the Cagayan de Oro council of the PDP-Laban, care of Gangging Pimentel, Jobags Bagabuyo, or Welvert Cuenca, VIP Hotel, City of Cagayan de Oro or by e-mail to bagabuyos@yahoo.com or by phone or text to me (Atty. Rogelio “Butch” Bagabuyo, tel. nos. 0918-803-0197/ 0928-434-5041) and/or to our Facebook and Tweeter accounts to be opened today.
  • No bus/jeepney should travel faster than 60 kilometers per hour, and to ensure absolute compliance to this unique rule, only the participating bus/jeepney that submits to the coordinator the exact time of departure from the originating place as well as the exact time of arrival at the designated area with the names of the leader and the members will be considered part of the bus/jeepney caravan.
  • Every participating member should provide himself with his own provision plus one other (“BYOPPOO”) with enough paper bags to ensure the area be cleaned after the event.
This kind of discipline will prove to one and all that the real strength lies not in wealth and machinery but in well-disciplined warm bodies. This is the kind of power that prevented and sent chilling if not, freezing effects to the illegal operators of the Smartmatic’s counting machines--clearly designed digital “dagdag-bawas” machines known as VCM (“vicious count for Mar”), formerly the OMR (“Oplan Mar Roxas”), a all indicating cheating in favor of the Liberal Party standard bearer, and against our presidential choice in the May 9 presidential elections. But how come the VCMs counted only 16 million, more or less, when my estimate is that no less than 22 million overwhelmingly voted for Super Digong Duterte? Did the so-called cosmetic change actually alter the vote count? Trust me, the big business, the very few ruling elite and the trapos of the filthy rich will, without fail, put up roadblocks one after the other but, we, the 90 million poor Filipinos, are all solidly behind our Super Digong and Koko Pimentel as we are confident they both know the best of the thousand and one ways of skinning a cat. Gets mo? Duterte-Pimentel pa more! Tsada, di ba?