Butch Bagabuyo “We compete in the land of giants. What we lack in size we make up for in focus and agility.” – Clayton Jones IN my column the other day, I used the same quote above, which is not my norm. But I have to do it because a phenomenon is a happening beyond reason. As I have repeatedly written in my previous column, Davao Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte has become a super rockstar phenomenon. Further, I’m using the same quote simply because, I humbly believe it reinforces the fact that what our man, Duterte, does not have, the various volunteer groups spread all over the archipelago compensate (money and machinery) by innovation, agility, and focus. Consequently, Duterte has become unbeatable despite his bad tongue. After all, leadership is not about one’s tongue but focus, innovation and agility. Needless to say, while a foul mouth is unacceptable to high society, it does not mean lack of respect to womanhood or humanity itself. Anyway, bad mouth is preferable than hypocrisy. Otherwise stated, Mayor Duterte is fit to become the President of a hundred million Filipinos who are mostly poor and therefore accustomed to gutter lingo, but he is not a joker to the ruling elites. Gets mo? Hypocrites! Based on dialect, while it is true that the largest number of Pinoys today are conversant with the Tagalog dialect, it is only so because Imperial Manila imposed the same dialect as the base on what is to be known as the Filipino language, which is still evolving. However, the undeniable truth is that Cebuanos are the largest number of Filipinos in our country even to this day. Since today there are 100 million Filipinos, more or less, 90,000,000 of us belong to the poor - category D and E. Because ours is a government of, by and for the poor, it is safe to calculate that of the 55 million voters, more or less, 40%, or 22 millions are Cebuano-speaking Filipinos spread all over the archipelago. This being so, Team Duterte-Cayetano is assured of a landslide victory, the nauseating conspiracy between the oligarchs (owners of SWS and False Asia, the giant TV, radio and print networks), the few illegal operators in the Comelec and the 92,000 VCMs of Smartmatic notwithstanding. Now that we are on the last two weeks before elections, all the major political parties--the Liberal Party, The UNA and that of the oligarchs headed by the Cojuangco dynasty, the trapos and the Hyatt 10--have already retained practically all the 50,000 lawyers of our country. However, please take note that our PDP-Laban, the political party of Team Duterte-Cayetano is not included in the above list of political parties who are retaining the lawyers because we do not have the resources to pay for the exorbitant rates of a good many of us, lawyers. However, our country can rest assured that we have a few. I don’t really know the exact numbers, men for others. And, trust me, leadership is definitely not about numbers but quality. Therefore, as I have written above, what we lack in size we compensate in focus, innovation and agility. Because God is good, I have found out this early that the traditional illegal operators in every elections in our country, those I call political prostitutes, are now having a beehive of activities pocketing enormous amounts of money from the traditional political parties. Here’s how the scam works:
  • A group of known as the “political-extra-legal-dirty-tricks” manipulators (those I call political prostitutes) are now victimizing the existing political parties. They go around the barangays and contact the barangay and/or zone coordinators of all the interested political parties. Take note that the traditional political parties hire much more than enough poll watchers to ensure victory in every precinct. This is definitely “vote-buying” by any language. Of course, we all know that there is a law, that limits the number of poll watchers a political party and/or candidate is entitled to in every precinct. This provision of law is honored in the breach ever since, it came to be. But this scheme has been around and has become the practice simply because these unlawful practitioners know only too well that the Comelec, including the PPCRV, does not have enough personnel to stop the this illegal scheme. Besides, these criminals know by heart that vote-buying is not easy to prove, but not impossible, if only there is that political will. These criminals know that no one has ever been found guilty of “vote-buying.”
  • Under this scam, these political prostitutes secure, by hook or by crook, the list of the poll watchers of all political parties in their respective assigned areas of responsibilities. In other words, these illegal operators could have, at the very least, three different list of poll watchers – those of the Liberal Party, the UNA and that of the newly organized political party of the Cojuangco dynasty, the trapos and the Hyatt 10 – in every clustered precincts/precinct.
  • Thereafter, these known political prostitutes study their homework and by next week, starting Monday, 25 April 2016, they would start to sell to the highest bidder and to all of them their so-called “feasibility study.” You can just imagine the millions of pesos ransacked from our government coffers as well as from the favored cronies of PNoy and the Liberal Party, and those belonging to VP Binay’s UNA sa pagka tulisan, if you listen to their critics and to those who glued their ears to their TVs and radios during the Blue-Ribbon marathon hearings.
  • While this scam is ongoing “the Comelec illegal operators kuno” would also be doing their own thing. This is what is known as the digital-dagdag-bawas kuno. (I use the word “kuno” because the gullible buyers will never know whether or not the “product” comes from the Comelec, the Smartmatic or even a merger of the manipulators of the two entities.
There are many, many more political scams that shall come to light starting next week. Hence, we can only pray that the NBI – the National Bureau of Investigation – and the other agencies concerned will show us and the world that they know their work and are willing to do their job without fear or whatever, for the good of our country and people. Undoubtedly, Duterte and Sen. Cayetano will be the next president and vice president of our country if not, the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao-Sulu-Basilan-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi--only if the Comelec, God forbid, allows cheating. Duterte-Cayetano pa more! Tsada, di ba?