Butch Bagabuyo “Work is the true elixir of life. The busiest man is the happiest man. Excellence in any art of profession is attained only by hard and persistent work.” – Sir Theodore Martin NOAH Webster was reported to have spent 36 years, crossing the ocean twice, to perfect his dictionary. But of the 26 letters in the English alphabet, “X,” the 24th and penultimate letter, has the shortest and conflicting words in the dictionary. In my various English dictionaries, the most number of words beginning with the letter X is less than 20. And I say conflicting because when the letter X is used at the end of a letter, it means a kiss while, to drug addicts, X is the term for ecstasy. In Greek, the letter X is the first letter in Christ, our redeemer. And, of course, to the young as well as the young-at-hearts, the X Factor is known far and wide as the British reality franchise for music lovers. With your kind permission, the X Factor in this column means the compelling mix in the coming May 9, 2016 elections. Of the five presidential-vice presidential teams, the standout is clearly the Duterte-Cayetano tandem. Here’s my take:
  • During the last 80 long and excruciating years that our country has had national elections, this is the very first time that a Mindanaoan candidate is the front runner, trending by the so-called survey-takers (kuno) notwithstanding. In fact, of the five vice presidential candidates, none comes from Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi, for no other reason than Imperial Manila’s debilitating greed.
  • In the beginning, circa 1935 up until the ruthless dictator from the north, Ferdinand E. Marcos, the presidential tandems were always North and South teams, excluding Mindanao except at the height of our illustrious statesman from Mindanao, the late Vice President Emmanuel N. Pelaez.
  • All the four other presidential bets volunteered themselves as standard bearers of the four other political parties kuno--meaning, a political party only in name and not by deed.
  • Of the five presidential candidates, only Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte is the true clamor by the people. He is, in fact, the only hesitant and financially challenged (personally and by choice) presidential candidate. “Super Digong” is the one and only presidential candidate who has been offered huge financial backing by business tycoons. But despite his lack of personal funds to run a national campaign, “Mr. Punisher” has politely turned them all down.
  • Only the Duterte-Cayetano team and none other has pledged that they will, without fail, change governance in our country within six months, from the worn-out-scandalidden presidential type to the only system where every state is sovereign yet within a federal form of government, thereby spreading and ensuring progress to every state in accordance with its own work-style or constitution. That would be unlike today when only Imperial Manila syphons off all the resources and gives back to the locals crumbs befitting second-class citizens if not, beggars of their own hard work and toil.
  • Finally, the Duterte-Cayetano tandem is the only team where the teeming millions of the poor are encouraged and empowered by joining our hand-to-mouth-generosity-caravan to ensure overwhelming victory of the charismatic and men of the hour Duterte-Cayetano tandem.
“Du30-Cayetano” pa more! Tsada, di ba?
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“My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me try to be in the first group; there was less competition.”--Indira Gandhi As a young litigation lawyer trying to make a name for himself, I believed then that the better place to carve a niche was in Cebu rather than in Metro Manila. Hence, I moved my law office in January 1980. And, thanks God, with the able assistance of well-meaning schoolmates both at Xavier University-Ateneo and the Ateneo Law School in Padre Faura, it did not take long or me to mingle and interact with the proud but amiable people of my mother’s birthplace. And before I knew it, I was already in the forefront of the dwindling opposition against Dictator Marcos in Cebu. True enough, I was able to form and organize the first freedom march in our country in the heartland of the opposition, Cebu City. Setting humility aside, I, a Mindanaoan, was able to form the biggest group of the opposition to the Marcos dictatorship during the snap elections of 1986. It was our brainchild--“The Facalt” or the Federated 38 Associations of Cory-Laurel Team in the province and city of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Danao. Candidly, our group was so huge in Cebu that in all major political rallies of rival oppositionists (the Osmenas and the Pusyon Bisaya) our group, in spite of lack of personal funds, was always at the forefront. The rest is history leading to the People Power of 1986. As I’ve written the other day that the Filipino people can rest assured the 93,000 OMRs, the newly invented camouflage of the highly controversial PCOS (read: Oplan Mar Roxas and President Cory’s Only Son), notwithstanding coupled with the fabricated trending greedily manipulating the so-called survey-takers kuno, “cannot stop the idea that has come of age”--a Mindanaoan President and Robust Team Rufus Harus for mayor of the City of Cagayan de Oro. God-willing, our United Mindanao will touch base with all poor Mindanaoans all over our archipelago starting on Valentine’s Day, using our very own God-sent-dream-come-true: “The hand-to-mouth-generosity,” the only alternative to vote-buying scheme perpetrated by Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich. While money will flow in the 2016 elections, warm bodies will prevail. Tsada, di ba.