Butch Bagabuyo “Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” – Henry clay, speech 1829 AT the rate the giant businesses in our country and their dummies are trooping to Davao City just like pilgrims to the Holy Land, I would not be surprised if well-meaning individuals close to the heart of President-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte are now tempted to become middlemen no better that the Pharisees in the time of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Be that as it may, we, the teeming millions of poor Filipinos who went our respective ways of giving whatever little we had for the noble cause, could only kneel and pray that our good Lord and God continue to provide “Super Digong” Duterte the much needed Divine guidance in all his ways leading to the inauguration of the first ever President who made it without the stranglehold of the ruling elite and the trapos of the filthy rich. Unless we, the teeming millions of the poor all over the archipelago, move fast to seek swift change from the graft and corrupt ways of the past to the promised change for the better and in favor of the poor, debilitating greed will slowly but surely inch through the close buddies of our next President. This being so, it is therefore imperative that we, the 90 million poor Filipinos, hold on together, hand in hand, and cement our newly discovered formidable force--warm bodies as opposed to the wealth of the filthy rich. Right now, the only unifying force to shield the President-elect and the “Mayor of the Country” is none other than the PDP-Laban. Here are the uncontested facts:
  • All, with few exceptions, are trying their best/worst to be officers of the PDP-Laban at all cost. This is the usual course of action in our country ever since I first saw the light of day. Further, since the practice is that whatever is the political party of the President so goes the rest of the country, it is incumbent upon the die-hards of the PDP-Laban from Mindanao to continue if not, double their efforts in having the 24/7 Basic Membership Seminar (BMS) in our paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Basilan-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi. Let us bear in mind that from a rag-tag political party during the GMA reign, the Liberal Party all too suddenly became the largest and most potent political grouping, cornering any and all juicy contracts.
  • At the time Duterte decided to run for the presidency, everybody knew that the PDP-Laban was practically non-existent where it not for former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and his namesake senator-son nicknamed Koko. But with the stunning landslide victory of the President-elect, Davao Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, now everybody wants to be a part of the fast-growing PDP-Laban.
  • But as I’ve already written, unless the PDP-Laban die-hards and loyalists act fast, not only will the sad and pathetic history of our political party be repeated, but even the persistent, nay, the Mindanao magnificent obsession federal form of governance, may even be forgotten even before the inauguration of Duterte. We have to “morning the nights,” vice versa, before the end of June this year. We could do it. No doubt about it.
  • We have to continue building and/or restructuring the PDP-Laban on our own without asking or accepting cash donations in our 24/7 BMS.
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“The infinitely little have pride infinitely great.” - Voltaire We all know that the 1987 Constitution needs an immediate radical change. The poor knows that the answer to our persistent problem of the culture of impunity is federalism, not more of the same. But what is troubling these last few days is that more and more of the greedy businessmen, women and LGBTs are selling the selfish idea that what we need is the amendment to the “archaic economic provisions” in our 1987 Constitution. The truth is if we have a Constitutional Convention under the same 1987 Constitution then it would mean more of the same abuses by the ruling elite and the trapos of the filthy rich. Repeatedly, I dare say that the one and only way to give the poor equal opportunity with the moneyed and the mighty, unlike today, is for Duterte to have a revolutionary government in his first six months of the presidency. Honestly, what our Constitution needs badly is not just a mere cosmetic change for the greedy. We have to completely overhaul our Constitution. But first things first. Unless we have a revolutionary government just like what the late President Cory did in her time, only the rich and the mighty can become a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Hence, a revolutionary government for at least six months is a must. The representation to the Constitutional Convention must be altered radically. Otherwise, the overhaul would amount to nothing favorable to the many who are poor. With a revolutionary government, we could have a constitutional convention composed of the following formula: 90% of the delegates must come from the poor; 9.9 percent must come from the intellectuals and the middle class, and only one percent must be those from the ruling elite. Enough of Imperial Manila and the abusive ruling elites. To repeat, I cannot end this column without begging our next President to completely overhaul the graftidden Comelec and Supreme Court from top to bottom, and in so doing finding the best way of having a truly independent, transparent and corrupt-free Supreme Court and the Comelec by the time Mayor Duterte starts his presidency. Of course, the ruling elite and the trapos of the filthy rich will, without fail, put up the roadblocks one after the other, but we, the 90 million poor Filipinos, are most confident that our “Super Digong” knows the best of the thousand and one ways of skinning a cat. Gets mo? Duterte pa more! Tsada, di ba?