Butch Bagabuyo “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it.” – Abraham Lincoln, 1st inaugural address, 1861. BECAUSE Imperial Manila trembles at the thought of having a President from the paradise-like islands of Mindanao, they have been making all sorts of survey-kuno by their minions pretending to be scientifically trained and equipped opinion takers. But since Mindanao’s time has come and the office of the presidency in our country is and has always been made in heaven, tough-talking and wellespected Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte will be the next President of either the Philippines or the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi. Slowly but surely, Mindanaoans are beginning to believe in themselves, and since long before you and I came to see the light of day, democracy has always been for the people, of the people and by the people, we have the God-given right to amend or alter the 1987 Constitution. To paraphrase the immortal words of the great President of the US, Abraham Lincoln, it is our call, not PNoy, Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich to completely overhaul the Cory Constitution or to exercise our “revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.” As I’ve repeatedly written in this column, our leaders have the solemn duty and obligation to ensure that the voice of the people – through the teeming millions of poor Pinoys – are heard and respected. Otherwise, we, the poor, have the “revolutionary right to dismember” and inaugurate the Independent Federal Republic of the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi by May 09, 2016. Believe you me, the one and only way to stop the unstoppable coming of age of a new nation and state is to elect a President from the paradise-like islands of Mindanao: Rodrigo Duterte. Further, it is incumbent upon all the members of Congress to ensure that a Constitutional Convention is had simultaneously with the National and Local elections on May 9, 2016. Otherwise, we, Mindanaoans, will have no choice but to exercise our God-given and “revolutionary right” to consider the May 9, 2016 national and local elections as a referendum for the creation of the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao, a country of cultural diversity, melting pot of religious freedom and armed neutrality where the economy is equally shared by labor and capital. Sobrakana, Imperial Manila. Sa Mindanao na sab ta. Tsada, di ba!
  • •
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…, the art of the next best.” –Otto von Bismark, conversation with Meyer von Waldeck, Aug. 11, 1867 Before you listen to the trapos this time around, please tell them some undeniable facts in Philippine politics ever since the snap elections of 1986, thus:
  • The time has come when you are to be listened and heard rather than lectured by self-serving trapos, the likes of the Liberal Party, Imperial Manila and the filthy rich.
  • The so-called political machineries are nothing but misnomers. The fact is national politics is all local politics; hence, the power is with you, not the so-called political power lords but the problem is, since the advent of the PCOS (Pesident C-ory’s O-nly S-on, according to former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel in one of his speeches) dagdag-bawas has become digital and without paper trail; hence, worse than “hello Garci.”
Otherwise stated, instead of having a clean, free, transparent and honest elections, we have had, since the 2010 national and local elections electoral process that has become worst and the cheats have become more protected and richer. But everything is not yet totally lost. Let us prove to one and all that we, the poor, are capable of changing radically the rules of the game. In the days to come, your self-appointed messenger, yours truly, will be sending out systemics in order to have a clean-sweep despite zero funding from Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich. All that we have to do is to have little faith in ourselves and in the goodness of God. In fact, whatever little we shall have, none of them will come from the trapos, the filthy rich and Imperial Manila. Every single centavo for our election kitty will come from us, the poor, and the few generous Mindanaoans, the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Jose Pepito Chaves Alvarez and a few others who would not like their names to be published or the good deeds advertised, unlike the filthy rich.
  • •
“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, transparency and hard work 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)