Butch Bagabuyo  “None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.” - Franklin BECAUSE the poor in paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-tawi and elsewhere have been excruciatingly taught by experience that greed knows no limit, we had to study and implement the ways of the ants- helping each other for survival. So now, unless our pilot project is not made in heaven, the poor will definitely commence by Sept. 17, this year irregardless of whatever conditions prevail on that very day. And your self-appointed messenger cum spokesperson has already chosen the venue far from home to ensure the envious, the green-eyed and the greedy are deprived of the usual hidden agenda issue. Now, it can be told, after the late former Vice President Emmanuel “Maning” Pelaez chose principle over personal victory, silently, I prayed for Divine guidance on how to defang Imperial Manila, the trapos all over the country and the filthy rich because they will never ever give the poor the chance to rule our country, as a sovereign. And so when we were able to convince the powerful and proud Cebuanos to hold the first “freedom march” in Cebu City during the ruthless conjugal dictatorship of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife Imelda, we knew then that the snap elections were inevitable. The rest is the proud history of the Filipinos in creating a game-changer: People Power. But the biggest problem––debilitating greed among us, especially the poor from our paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi––continued to flourish and unabated to this very day. We waited... and waited in vain. A quarter of century has passed since 1986 and we have already elected four Presidents, all from Imperial Manila, and yet we, Mindanaoans, are still bullied and abused and our sufferings have become almost beyond human endurance. Enough is enough! Sobra ka na, Imperial Manila. Sa Mindanao na ta.
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Enough of the unending excuses by Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich. Believe you me, where it not for our “PACmen”: former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., former governor Homobono “Bono” Adaza and former no-nonsense Mayor Reuben “Ben” Canoy, we would not have regained our lost democracy. Candidly, the “manana culture” instilled in us by the Spaniards took your self-appointed messenger cum spokesperson some precious time before he started last year the idea of self-help, working only with the poor to gain momentum and timing. By the time Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte files his certificate of candidacy as well as those of Team MindaNow Na, our landslide victory would be a certainly because of our  “ant-strategy” in collaboration with   “momentum and timing,” a strategy found in the  writings of Zun Tzu, “The Art of War.” So what shall it be, Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich, “Cocon” simultaneously with the 2016 elections or the installation of “Super Digong” Duterte as the first ver President of the Philippines from Mindanao or the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao, PNoy and the Comelec’s PCOS notwithstanding? “No guts, no glory” and “no pain, no gain.”
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“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible unto to you.” - Matthew 17:20 “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do to me.” –Psalms LVI. 11 Thank you Lord for everything. And Lord God, kindly implant especially in our leaders, honesty, humility, transparency and hard work in their solemn task as our servants-leaders because those who have less in life are the sovereign and the very source of their borrowed power and wealth. Finally, Lord, enlighten us all to see the light that greed is a flawed way of life. For truly, there is more profit in giving than in taking. For it is in giving that we receive. Truly, love begets love. Amen! (Call or text 09188030197, email to bagabuyos@yahoo.com or check out iluvmindanao.org.com)