Butch Bagabuyo “The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing.”--Leigh Hunt EVERYBODY knows that “an army can be stopped but not an idea that has come of age” (Victor Hugo). Because the teeming millions of Mindanaoans and the rest of the Filipino people know by now that of the 15 presidents that we have had elected, including PNoy,  12 came from Luzon, three from the proud Visayans, and none from Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippine archipelago as well as the breadbasket of our country. Hence, the idea that the next president ought to come from Mindanao is unstoppable. Not only that, there is also the reality that there is always a first time in anything and everything. Thank God, the presidency in our country has always been providential, so they say, hence, everything points to a Mindanaoan president come May 9, 2016. The undeniable fact that of the 15 elected presidents in our country, 12 came from Luzon, otherwise known as Imperial Manila, the rest of our country can only say, in dismay: “What a consuming avarice, taking into account that our country used to be among the top in all of Asia.” Because of the insatiable greed of Imperial Manila, we are now wallowing at the bottom in the quagmire of poverty among Asian peoples. Now that 12.5 million of Mindanaoans and the rest of our poor brothers, sisters and LGBTs all over our country are hoping and praying that this time, we would overwhelmingly elect a Mindanaoan president against all odds, we are left with no other choice but to rely heavily on our warm bodies. Thank God, the time has come when Mindanaoans are put in such a situation where we have no other alternative but to unite and fortify ourselves in order to elect a president from Mindanao. Here’s my take:
  • Broad daylight assassinations especially among innocent people, including media practitioners and lawyers, are so rampant that everyone – young and old from all walks of life – succumb to heinous crimes at the hands of senseless  addicts and ruthless mercenaries.
  • The President’s men, women and LGBTs are so callous they appear to be exempted from PNoy’s mantra of Tuwid na Daan as they are licensed to execute the culture of impunity what with the billions of pesos lost through the unconstitutionally declared PDAF and DAP.
  • All the four other “presidentiables” are for status quo and allergic to the federalism as they are well aware that with a federal form of government, lasting peace and prosperity would be spread out all over the archipelago unlike in the present form of graft and corrupt- ridden governance where all the economic progress are aimed at the national capital of the government, and only crumbs are left to Mindanaoans and the rest of the poor areas in our country.
  • None of the four other “presidentiables” know what it is to live and fight in a war zone, and come out unscathed, and, in fact, untainted by graft and corruption charges in changing and transforming “a killings fields” into one of the four safest cities in the world. While drug lords and queens have found their bodies riddled with bullets on meeting the horrific end, not a single case of murder and/or homicide was ever filed against the one, and only Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte.
Duterte-Cayetano pa more! Tsada di ba?
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“He was like a cock who though the sun had risen to hear him crow.” – George Eliot, Adam Bede “Every man is the architect of his own fortune” (English proverb) but because “self-love is the greatest of all flatterers” (La Rochefoucauld), now we know why an emperor was pictured playing his guitar or something like it while his kingdom is burning and razed to the ground. No wonder, dismissed transition Mayor Oscar Moreno celebrated among his extraordinarily paid consultants and out-of-town cronies when a division of the Court of Appeals Mindanao station issued a last-minute preliminary injunction, thus, preventing his final dismissal from the Office of the City Mayor. However, I would not be intrigued why some would not find parallelism in the anecdote of a cock and an emperor unless one has read that story of a cock believing the sun had risen to hear him crow. Surely, an average man would never ever think that the sun had risen to hear the cock crow but a cock or a hambuguero like Oca may entertain that weird idea because every time he crows, that’s the time the sun also rises. In the case of the dismissal of transition and hambuguero mayor by the Ombudsman, no sensible person would buy the legal excuse made by Mr. Moreno in the unconscionable compromise agreement between the City of Cagayan de Oro and Ajinomoto in reducing the tax collectible against the latter in the tune of a few millions of pesos to a measly sum of P300 thousand, more or less. Candidly, the reason given by dismissed transition Mayor Moreno that he had no personal knowledge of the transaction by and between the Ajinomoto and the City of Cagayan de Oro is an insult to the intelligence of the people of this city. Mr. Moreno’s self-serving alibi is a slap on the face of every Kagay-anon because everyone knows that there can never be any compromise agreement on a civil case on any court of law and equity without the parties in interest – the complainant and the defendant – giving their approval to the compromise agreement, hence, the better words to say, in dismay, to Moreno is: “Tell that to the marines. We were not born yesterday.” Otherwise, “Hoy, layas na diha!” Robust Rufus Team Harus, pa more. Tsada di ba?