Mindanao has come of age

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” – Motto on Jefferson’s seal

EVER since the Americans gave our country the kind of government that our leaders then asked for––“a government run like hell by Filipinos”––Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi has been made by Imperial Manila the calvary from where they secure and feed their insatiable greed. In the last 80 long and excruciating years, Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich have made sure that our islands are perpetually suspicious of one another; hence, divided all the way. Every time the Armed Forces are hungry due to corruption, they simply create a war between the very few armed rebels and the starving soldiers of our country. By so doing, peace-loving Mindanaoans and unarmed civilians are in perpetual fear and in harm’s way all the time.

Enough is enough. The time has come when we, Mindanaoans, have found a home-grown leader: Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte of Davao. While our leader has not yet declared officially his intention to run for President, the poor Mindanaoans are slowly but surely working for such eventuality. In the days to come, the country will see the dawning of a Mindanaoan President or the birth of the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao with “Super Digong” as our first President.

In the meantime, the poor people of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi are moving like ants, anticipating and preparing for the big day for all of us.

“Systemic change” is, to my humble and uncomplicated mind, the ultimate legacy awaiting Mindanao’s topmost leaders. But why is imperial Manila deaf-mute to “systemic change?” Because greed is debilitating, the “elitists” who crowd the snake-pit––Malacanang and the Congress––know by heart and mind that the sovereign Pinoys might just do away with them altogether and use People Power to change the one-sided elitists equilibrium where only the rich and powerful rule the country like their very own kingdom, and treat us, the sovereign, as their tenants if not, downright slaves instead of their true master.
In short, only a “systemic change” can unify our countrymen towards social, political and economic advancement.

If imperial Manila insists on ignoring the plight of the poor, the deprived and the overly oppressed Mindanaoans, as they have willfully done in the past and continuing to this day, now, we can turn to and pronto to our God-given right to “self-determination” as guaranteed by the United Nations and the ICJ (International Court of Justice) of the same United Nations.

Now that we have a strong man of integrity, dedication and love for Mindanao, and a living legend in integrity, statesmanship and consuming love for the poor, we, Mindanaoans, are on the way to top of the world. All we need to reach the top is to possess the political will to institutionalize and implement the kind of system in governance where the sovereign is truly represented in governance unlike in our country today where only the rich and powerful run our country a-foul.

In the words of Duterte during his recent speech in Davao City: “I am not a saint but how can one remain clean if you have a system where one needs billions of pesos to win and then you have to satisfy the insatiable greed of those whose support you need to be in power? If you don’t know this, then you are either naïve or you don’t know what you’re talking about… With due respects, but I do not wish or dream – nor am I even qualified – to be president of this country, the way some sectors are now suggesting. This system is shot. There is no way we can redeem it. Unless we radically change things.”

According to Jess Dureza, the good Mayor Duterte concluded his speech with a challenge to his visibly awed listeners to have a group of Mindanaoans “to get together and redeem ourselves and go for changes in the system. Then and only then can you count me in!”

So, there is the strong challenge from a brave and fearless leader! So, what shall it be, Imperial Manila? Constitutional Convention? Or the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao, an armed neutral country of religious pluralism and equity between capital and labor, where profits and losses are equally shared by labor and capital. After all, both capital and labor equally need each other. Useless is capital without labor, vice versa. This is what we, Mindanaoans, have all been dreaming of for a lifetime. Is it not?

Yes, we can do it pronto. Tsada, di ba?
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“In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can to do me.” –Psalms LVI. 11
Thank you Lord for everything. And Lord God, kindly implant in our leaders honesty, humility and transparency in their solemn task as our servants-leaders because those who have less in life are the sovereign and very source of their borrowed power and wealth. Finally, Lord, enlighten our leaders 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, e-mail to bagabuyos@yahoo.com, and check out iluvmindanao.net)