Butch Bagabuyo “The greatest leaders of men are those who have been purified in the furnace of affliction.” ––Dr. James Kennedy WHEN controversial Grace Poe Llamanzares conceded defeat to now presumptive president, Davao Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, as early as midnight of election day, right there and then I concluded without any hard evidence that I was correct all along: she was a candidate of the covert operation of the CIA through the ruling elite, if you know what I mean. Undoubtedly, publicly accepting defeat in less than 24 hours from the unofficial count of the presidential election was a stunning first and would never ever happen in a long, long time. This thesis is clearly debatable. Hence, I would rather focus this column on what I consider as the largest roadblock to the kind of change that we, the teeming 90 million of poor Filipinos, have fought for – the ruling elite. And I dare say: unless, we, the 90 million poor Filipinos, focus on cementing our newly achieved unity against the very few but powerful ruling elite, Duterte is headed for the sad repeat of the hard fall by the overwhelmingly elected President Erap not so long ago. Sadly, what is happening these past few days is definitely not the kind of change we’ve all been dreaming of and fought for but a nauseating repeat of debilitating greed by Imperial Manila. Believe you me, right now Imperial Manila is building impregnable structures by the cordon-sanitaire to shield our man from ourselves: the small people to whom our man, “Super Digong,” dedicated all his life. Right now, Imperial Manila is succeeding in their infamous avarice beyond compare. Look at all the appointments by Super Digong Duterte to this day. Because almost all of them are recycled garbage, we can only kneel in prayer and ask why can’t the cabinet be like our own presumptive president--poor and used to be unknown but with oozing love for the millions who are poor? Honestly, what our country urgently needs now are not the so-called experts of debilitating greed. What we are in dire need of are poor men for others. Enough is enough! In the meantime, we, the small-time but die-hard members of the PDP-Laban, ought to and will continue to fight with all we’ve got the insidious and creeping attempt by big business in Imperial Manila to make a repeat of the 1986 fiasco. As I keep on repeating: with God on our side, we can make miracles after miracles happen, as what we’ve just done in the recently conducted contest for the presidency. Right now, God-willing, we can only hope and pray that our man will choose to be radical in his determined mission to make our country the model of what democracy is: a government by, of and for the people, and because the poor are overly abused by the ruling elite a.k.a. Imperial Manila, we can only kneel down and pray that for the first time in the world, the poor will be made to rule side by side with the Duterte, the phenomenal super rockstar of the time. Since our man has already made some appointments to his cabinet, let us all hope and pray that God, in His infinite wisdom, enlighten and open the hearts of the cordon sanitaire and allow the incoming president to meet and talk with the millions who are poor, who are, to this sad day, all “outside de kulambo,” due to and by reason of the cordon sanitaire. Here is my continuing take:
  • Only the hotels for the rich and powerful are overcrowded in Davao City since the 10th of this month. This means that Imperial Manila are as usual crowding the president. This is so, because of the cordon sanitaire.
  • Almost all the inns and the lodging houses in Davao City are still open to accommodate the millions who are poor; and, by the grace of God, our planned caravan of buses and jeepneys of the poor on a Bring Your Own Provision Plus One Other (BYOPPOO) on the 12th day of June for federalism and the election of Sen. Koko Pimentel as the Senate President can still succeed despite time and all the odds.
By the way, as soon as our column reached the Internet, we have so far received a couple of hefty pledges and donations from concerned Filipinos and sundry who want to graciously share with what little blessings God has provided them in order to ensure that we are able to gather 20,000 people at the Freedom Park of Davao City on Independence Day. Bear in mind that 20,000 warm bodies in the Davao Freedom Park would translate into 20,000 people times 200 poor individuals contributing only five pesos each or a total of four million warm bodies supporting the expeditious approval of federalism--the most sought-after dream by every poor Filipino. It would also open the minds of the number-conscious senators, and ensure the election of Pimentel as the Senate President, he being the president of our PDP-Laban. The initiative of Cesar Ledesma, the head of PDP-Laban’s Party Institute (PI), in conducting the one-day trainers’ meeting on Thursday at the Lispher’s Inn in Davao was refreshing and a huge success. It was attended by 22 hardcore trainers as well as the diehards of the party, namely: Welvert Cuenca, Gangging Pimentel, Jobags Bagabuyo, Nerio Navarro of Davao City, Thaddeus Tuburan and Jose Tuburan Jr. of Kidapawan, Apan Piang of Buluan, Maguindanao, Jerson Pandillo of Sarangani, Earl Whitmer of General Santos, Edwin Samadalan of Sultan Kudarat, Danilo Asong, of Koronadal City, Ammylis Bisnan  and Erlinda Frias, both of Panabo City, Cesar Cuntapay of Tagum City, Pastor Tenorio of Iligan City, Mar Bullen, Faisal Ebzla of Datu Unsay, Maguidanao, Nasser Salendab of Sultan sa Barongis, Norodin Yasin of Radja Buayan, Maguindanao, Roy Catalan of Panabo City, and yours truly. As a consequence of the highly successful one-day meeting coupled with the urgency and importance or the essence of time, the group unanimously decided to hold what is to be known as the continuation of the PDP-Laban’s Mindanao Summit on the 15th of June this year at the City of Cagayan de Oro City, with the PDP-Laban Cagayan de Oro City Council headed by Barangay Gusa chairman Marlo Tabac as the host of this year’s 2nd summit meet of the PDP-Laban, the emerging largest and most potent political party in the country today. The core group of trainers and the PDP-Laban diehards unanimously decided to invite as our main speakers former Senate President Aquilino Nene Pimentel Jr., founder of the party; Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, and Duterte, chairman of the PDP-Laban. Former Senate President Pimentel has already graciously accepted our invitation to be one of the triumvirate of the PDP-Laban. Hereunder are the other undisputed facts and events:
  • Our determined campaign to have an exclusive bus/jeepney caravan of the poor in Mindanao is snowballing--every 200 poor individuals contribute five pesos each and choose one from among themselves either by raffle or whatever to lead the jeepney hired at a much discounted rate from all points in the paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Basilan-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-tawi and converge at the freedom park in Davao City for the Independence day celebration this June 12th.
  • Every participating PDP-Laban member will provide himself with his own provision plus one other BYOPPOO with enough paper bags to ensure the area be cleaned after the event.
  • Finally, we, the 90 million poor Filipinos are all solidly behind our Super Digong and Koko Pimentel because we we are confident both of them know the best of the thousand and one ways of skinning a cat.
Gets mo? Duterte-Pimentel pa more! Tsada, di ba?