Butch Bagabuyo “Faith is the force of life.”--Tolstoy YESTERDAY’S “opening salvo” shows beyond any shadow of doubt that faith, being a “force of life,” can make things happen but only when we put out our utmost in  sharing with the needy whatever little blessings from our God and master. With practically nothing but faith, we dared to walk our talk. We called on all groups of volunteers to meet in order to finalize our preparation, not plan, for what came to be. Inspired by the Gospel last Sunday which made Simon, the fisherman, a fisher of men, we lowered our nets as it were in spite of the fact that we had worked hard all night and had no catch. And as it turned out, the nets of the fishermen were tearing out as a consequence of the abundant catch. Of course, we could have done better. And that is precisely the goal of the coalition of volunteers for the Duterte-Cayetano tandem. As of this writing, various activities are lined up and are now being ironed out. But because our coalition of volunteers are but support groups of the main vehicle – the PDP-Laban and the Duterte diehards--we would do whatever is best under whatever circumstances we may be brought to. As we have written the other day, here in our City of Golden friendship, the various and countless small groupings of ordinary citizenry who believe in the cause espoused by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Senate Majority Leader, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, are doing everything within their respective limited resources to make a difference in the national political landscape much better, hopefully, than the 1986 epoch-making People Power. By agreement, through consensus, we have divided ourselves into three major strategic locations: the Southwinds, the UCCP and the VIPs. And as the names suggest, the three groupings can be found in the above-mentioned places. The Barog Pederal Mindanao or BPM-DC (Duterte-Cayetano), an umbrella organization of the various no-name-men-women and LGBTs, regularly meets at the VIP Hotel, and our daily activities are usually disseminated within the vicinity of the Andres Bonifacio monument at the downtown Divisoria. Starting today, the BPM-DC, will be organizing what we call as autonomous cells within the 80 barangays of the City of Cagayan de Oro. As we have already mentioned, our group is composed of self-supporting “work horses,” not commanders.  And as the calling suggests, BPM-DC are servants-leaders, if you may. If only to ensure that everyone knows what we will be doing from now on and until there is true freedom, democracy, equality for all in order to attain lasting peace and happiness, not wealth, here is the basic list of what we will be doing on our own--meaning no solicitations of money from any of the candidates:
  • Self-help-empowering moves in conducting symposia and what have you on what is Federalism and why it is the best solution to the graft and corruptidden presidential form of governance – the principal cause of the greedy-elitist- hypocritical-government that ran our country-a-foul ever since elections have been held in 1935.
  • As servant-leaders based on principle rather personality, the very cause of Philippine poverty in an ocean of God-given wealth and intellectual supremacy, as proven in the peaceful uprising of the 1986 People Power, we will conduct fun runs for a cause, among others, designed to empower the poor rather than chain us all to perpetual indignity by mendicancy.
  • Total if not, absolute cessation of the culture of impunity spawned by debilitating greed and thereby causing massive quagmire of poverty lurking in every nook and cranny in the archipelago.
  • We will never rely on what our country can do for us but on what we can do for our country (John F. Kennedy).
Duterte-Cayetano pa more! Tsada, di ba?
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“Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses the force.” – Pascal Undoubtedly, of the three groupings of the Duterte-Cayetano Team, the Barog Pederal Mindanao is envisioned to touch base with those who have less in life but determined to push federalism to its limits come what may. In the days to come, as we already have mentioned and will keep on repeating, our group of the unwashed and mostly unschooled will make do with what little we could spare and share with our fellowmen. In order to achieve our goals in the most expeditious ways, only constructive suggestions of what’s best in every which way will be resorted to. Debates will, as much as possible, be avoided. Solicitations of whatever is strictly prohibited even as every autonomous cells are mainly guided by what we call the templates in our journey to a life of dignity and happiness even without money, the root of all evil. All can rest assured that because I have been designated as the chairman of our group, I am the leading servant of all: we will listen, suggest and implement whatever consensus we will arrive at, and never will we dictate on whatever. By the way, the only presidential team t-shirts that are selling like hot barbeques/bananaques as high as P300 to P400 each is the Duterte-Cayetano tandem, and no other. In fact, the yellows are given for free by the dozens yet they mostly end up as trapos in the dirty kitchens. This undeniable fact speak much, much louder than any lucrative trending business now going on in Imperial Manila. Duterte-Cayetano pa more! Tsada, di ba?