Butch Bagabuyo “One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our needs from our greed.” –Don Robinson GREED and none other has made nightmares even during day time in the life of a once sure winner for a vice presidential run named Grace. And where Grace, the presidential contender, is now reminds me of the anecdote about the great US President Abraham Lincoln, which according to Dr. Roy B. Zuck goes: “A neighbor of Abraham Lincoln heard someone crying outside and went to his front door to investigate. He saw Lincoln passing by with his two sons both screaming wildly. ‘What’s the matter, Abe?’ asked the man. ‘Just what is the matter with the whole world!’ answered Lincoln. ‘I have three walnuts and each boy wants two!’” Prior to avarice, all the early president wannabes earnestly courted in vain Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares to be their vice presidential candidate. Everybody conceded then and now that had the good lady senator humbled herself she would have been sitting pretty by now. Senator Grace would have been assured of a presidential run by 2022. But perhaps because it is truism that in the Philippines, the presidency is providential, there is now a strong possibility that she would even be declared as disqualified from her senatorial candidacy in 2013 and be unseated as a senator, following the Supreme Court en banc ruling in Maquiling vs. Comelec, et al, G.R. no. 195649, April 13, 2013. (In that case a dual citizen secured the legal process of re-acquiring his Filipino citizenship. Unfortunately for him sometime after re-acquiring his Filipino citizenship he went back to the US using his American passport. He ultimately won the elections, sworn into office and served as mayor. Unfortunately for him, the Supreme Court declared him disqualified in that election and his disqualification reached back to the day he filed his certificate of candidacy. He was, therefore, unseated and the second placer was declared the rightful winner in that 2010 elections for being the winner among all the qualified candidates.) Of course, greed is not the exclusive domain or territory of the moneyed class but it is also equally shared by those who have less in life but are not contented with what God has given him. As a litigation lawyer for over four decades now, I dare say that the Comelec has no choice but to deny due course to the COC (Certificate of Candidacy) for the presidency as filed by Sen. Poe-Llamanzares. But it would be the height of insensitivity should the Comelec drop the name of the candidate from the ballot. After all, the Supreme Court, being our last bulwark of democracy, would definitely issue a TRO or even an SQA (Status Quo Ante) order and allow vox populi, vox dei to reign unhampered on May 9, 2016. Lest I be misunderstood, there is absolutely no doubt that the disqualification case against our man, Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte, is a mere harassment suit but we, poor Mindanaoans, welcome the disqualification case because we need all the publicity but we do not have the kind of money that the camp headed by street-smart Chiz Escudero with Senator Grace as its figure-head have. Their camp is heavily funded by Imperial Manila and the Hyatt 10. However, in the likely event that Senator Grace is eventually disqualified by the Supreme Court for running for the presidency she would practically lose nothing because she could still serve her remaining term as a senator, unless the Supreme Court says otherwise. But in the most unlikely event that the Comelec disallows our man “Super Digong” to run and removes his name from the ballot, there shall, undoubtedly, be riots leading to civil revolution because the poor Mindanaoans and elsewhere have waited from more than a hundred years for this once in a life-time dream of dreams to have a Mindanaoan President for our country. Or the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi.
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“People who live for self never succeed in satisfying self or anybody else.” – Trumbull Right after the landslide upset victory by transition Mayor Oscar S. Moreno in the 2013 local elections against immediate past mayor Vicente “Donkoy” Emano, well-meaning friends, including yours truly, tried in vain to talk to “hambuguero” Mayor Moreno for the good of our city to form some kind of a critical working alliance with the city council, composed mostly of members of the Padayon Pilipino  political party headed by Vice Mayor Ian Acenas. But to make the long sad story short, Oca immediately shut down the proposal. According to him, he succeeded in the province despite a belligerent provincial board composed mostly of Oca’s opponent in politics. And precisely because of his “knows everything” attitude, transition Moreno got a non-stop beating from the city council from Day One of his “mal-administration.” Candidly, the most compelling reason why many Kagay-anons, both young and old, and of all walks of life are joining  the ever increasing volunteers for the Team Robust Rufus Harus is because Oca is, more than anything else, the worst “hambuguero” that ever lived in our City of Golden Friendship. Transition and dismissed Mayor Moreno does not listen to anybody else, not even to those who have exemplary experience in good governance who put their lives on the line all throughout the election period of 2013. Because of the consuming influence by Pope Francis among Kagay-anons, the family will take the center stage in the coming elections. And precisely because Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is a devoted family man even as his opponents have little respect for women and their respective families, Team Rufus harus is expected to win big in the coming elections. In a recent wake of a wellespected former city health officer of our city, the late Dr. Jack Frias, a good many litigation lawyers (mostly former students of the late doctor in medical jurisprudence) are in near unanimity that “hambuguero” Oca would be in deeper legal troubles on the 60th day of the precipitately issued SQA (Status Quo Ante) based on the following:
  • Oca is presumed to have filed a Motion for Reconsideration of his dismissal order rendered by the Ombudsman, headed and signed by feisty and no-nonsense former Justice of the Supreme Court Conchita Carpio Morales but in the interim (before the Ombudsman could resolve with finality the pending motion for reconsideration) the hambuguero went to the Court of Appeals.
  • Because the dismissed, hambuguero and transition Mayor Moreno has very limited court practice, he did not wait for the final resolution of the motion for reconsideration. The better option of the complainant in the Ombudsman would be a nolle proseque or a non-prosequitur motion rather than a violation of the non-forum shopping because the latter has some well-defined exceptions. On the other hand, refusal to prosecute is quite easy to prove.
  • The moment the complainant is able to secure the finality of the dismissal order, based on long experience in actual cases, I submit that the case before the Court of Appeals would be “a moon-light night walk in the park” if not, easier than picking apples, as a matter of saying, if a litigation lawyer knows what I’m talking about. Gets mo?
With “Super Digong” Duterte and Team Robust Rufus, we, Kagay-anons, will, beyond the scintilla of doubt, attain our dream of dreams. Tsada, di ba?