Butch Bagabuyo “Quality, not quantify is my measure.” – Douglas Jerrold “Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shinning qualities beneath a rough exterior.” – Juvenal LIKE a doting father, I went to Iligan City early dawn Thursday with Wilbert “Willy” Cuenca and Onido “Ganging” Pimentel to accompany and inspire my eldest son Jude “Jobags” in attending the PDP-Laban’s Trainors’ Seminar-Workshop at the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Heritage House at Timoga, Buruun, Iligan City. The one-day seminar-workshop was sanctioned by the PDP-Laban’s Northern Mindanao president, former Iligan mayor and now congressional candidate Franklin Quijano. To ensure proper guidance and indoctrination of the PDP-Laban’s guiding principles, tried and tested facilitators and trainors from Davao--Jun Sera, Ernie Pascual, former mayor of Baroy, Lanao del Norte Roosque Calacat and deputy secretary general Pastor “Jun” Tenorio Jr.--took turns giving the lectures, workshop and what-have-you. The trainors’ seminar-workshop turned out to be well-attended as the participants came from the Davao areas as well as from Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, and Cagayan de Oro. Gloria dela Cruz of the Villaraza Law Office and the manager of the Macapagal-Macaraeg Heritage House gave the unexpected inspirational talk to the delight of the participants of the dormant and the most awaited awakening of the seminar-workshop which used to be the political party’s pool of no-nonsense and brilliant ideologues. As an added bonus to the whole-day seminar-workshop, the participants were surprisingly informed by management of the Macapagal Macaraeg heritage House that the ailing detained former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave a marching order a year ago to her people and supporters to support Davao Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte in the most likely event that the reluctant and tough-talking mayor eventually decided to run for the presidency upon the insistent clamor of the people.
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“The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.” – Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), English Prime Minister Undoubtedly, with the unending and growing-by-the-day clamor by the millions of Mindanaoans and the rest of the poor people of our country to have a true and meaningful change in our country, more and more are joining the bandwagon. And with the successful seminar-workshop of the PDP-Laban, the political machinery of the Duterte-Cayetano Team is slowly but surely growing even as the other political parties are clearly heading to its demise. With this turn of events, the Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich are now beginning to get the dose of their own medicine. Mindanao’s oppression is now coming to its end. Our countrymen and the whole world are beginning to witness Mindanao’s compelling force--men and resources--to elect a president from one of her sons, hence, our long and cherished dream to elect a Mindanaoan President has become a magnificent obsession and an idea that has come of age, and therefore, unstoppable. Not only that, it is now undeniable that of the present five “presidentiables,” only our very own Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte is the one and only clamor of the Filipino people. Ergo, only Duterte deserves the mandate while the rest are nothing more than the traditional blabber-mouths with vested interests. But because the culture of impunity, spawned by debilitating greed rules our country, we cannot afford to elect only a president. Mr. Duterte badly needs a strong, supportive and brilliant Vice President of his own choice, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, and a complete set of senatorial, congressional and local officials if we have to ensure complete change for the better within six months of his presidency. Here’s my take:
  • A revolutionary government at the start of his presidency in June 2016 must be installed simultaneously with the increase in salaries, wages and fringe benefits by at least a hundred percent for the police force, the military as well as all the public school teachers.
  • Call for a constitutional convention based on demographics rather than the old graft and corruptidden composition of the delegates prepared by the trapos and the filthy rich. In short, the Concon delegates should be proportionately divided between the 80 percent who are poor, 18 percent who compose the middle class, and only two percent who are rich.
It is for this reason and more that the few yet determined members of the Barog Pederal Mindanao (BPM), with our very own limited financial resources, are implementing what we call the hand-to-mouth-generosity otherwise known as the ant-type strategy of maximizing the strength of warm bodies over dirty money and its evil consequences. Mind you, BPM has the brain and the will to multiply and shout out loud: “Enough of thieves and drug-lords in our country!” Mind you, Barog Pederal Mindanao is unifying and strengthening Mindanao and elsewhere so much so that we are confident we can easily duplicate if not, multiply many times over, what we have successfully done since the opening salvo last Feb. 9 and during the first-ever presidential symposium mistakenly called a debate last Feb. 21. Believe you me, what the country witnessed with awe during that last so-called debate in our city was but a preview of what our country shall witness in the remaining two more of the so-called debates and during the final miting de abanse. Sobra ka na, Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich. Sa Mindanao na ta. Duterte-Cayetano pa more! Tsada di ba?