Butch Bagabuyo “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.” –George Bernard Shaw, John Bull’s Other Island AFTER the last and final debate among the local as well as the national candidates, the frontrunners kept on surging on to no end. From the very beginning of the campaign, there was little doubt that consistent outstanding Rep. Rufus Rodriguez was the leading mayoral candidate compared with the dismissed transition Mayor Oscar Moreno. In the presidential derby, our man, Davao Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, was on an uphill fight for obvious reasons. Firstly, “Super Digong” Duterte did not file his certificate of candidacy even on what the Comelec tagged as the deadline for the filing of the certificates of candidacy. And everybody knows that Duterte has no financial resources to mount a presidential run. Hence, despite the huge crowd that gathered at the Luneta to convince Mayor Duterte to run for president, he was at the tail-end based on the giant national media owned by Imperial Manila and the ruling oligarchs. Various issues were raised during the campaign and up to the last and final debate. But now on the last four days of the campaign, it cannot be denied that media has trimmed down to the sole issue of who among the contenders are telling the truth. Or, in the reverse, who are liars. With due respect, I am convinced that now, the name of the game is agility versus force. And here are some of the compelling reasons why I believe that during the last four days of the campaign, the frontrunners in the local as well as in the national scene, it is game over if we would talk about truth and lies:
  • As far as the mayoral candidates are concerned, it is beyond any shadow of doubt that truth favors outstanding Rep. Rodriguez and against dismissed transition Mayor Moreno.
  • It is undeniable that up and coming Mayor Rodriguez is not facing any criminal case in our courts of law. On the other hand, a string of criminal cases is hounding dismissed transition Mayor Moreno. This is not even to mention that Moreno has been found guilty by the Ombudsman in the administrative case involving the Ajinomoto tax compromise entered into by and between Moreno and the owners of the Ajinomoto. And while Mr. Moreno claims that he has been issued an Injunction by the Court of Appeals, Mindanao, the fact is that based on jurisprudence decisions of the Ombudsman on administrative cases are final and executory, the injunction notwithstanding.
The fact that Moreno is still holding on as city mayor does not, in any way, diminish or render nugatory the undeniable fact that the decision by the Ombudsman is final and executory. And, precisely, because of this truth until proven otherwise, a vote for Moreno is an exercise in futility even as it is a waste of time and everything because of the following:
  • Moreno is the only mayor in Cagayan de Oro since it became a highly urbanized city who does not have a single barangay chairman among the 80 barangay chairmen. All his candidates for barangay chairmen miserably lost to the candidates of former city mayor and now gravely ailing Vicente Emano and those of outstanding Congressman Rodriguez.
  • All the few classrooms that were built during the incumbency of Moreno were unconscionably overpriced and done illegally because they were without public bidding.
  • Granting without admitting that Moreno survives this election, it would only create false hopes and fatal stress since he would definitely be declared disqualified from assuming the post as mayor of the city because his dismissal by the Ombudsman carries with it the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office. This being so, all the efforts by outstanding Gusa barangay chairman Marlo Tabac would only come to naught.
  • Believe you me, where it not for the giant-killer, Marlo Tabac of Gusa, Moreno would not have been able to put up a full ticket in the local polls. Candidly, if there is any doubt in your mind, take this into account:
  • In all elections in the past, the biggest problem of the sitting mayor was the undeniable fact that a year before the filing of the certificates of candidacy, the incumbent mayor would have, at the very least, 240 candidates in waiting. But in this year’s filing of the certificates of candidacy, the biggest headache of Moreno was that his own people abandoned him (councilors Roger Abaday, now vying for the vice mayoral position; Bong Lao and Eric Salcedo who are running for reelection under the Centrist Democratic Party, and Candy Darimbang, now running as the congressional candidate of the Padayon Pilipino in the 1st district.)
In short, Moreno can never be a leader of a highly urbanized city as large and as progressive as our very own City of Golden Friendship; hence, he is only a transition mayor, at best. And his dismissal by the Ombudsman shortened his term. Rodriguez and his entire team pa more! Tsada, di ba?
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“A liar is not believed even though he tells the truth.” – Cicero In the national scene, it is definitely game over. And here’s my take:
  • All the three moneyed presidential wannabes--Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party, Grace Poe-Llamanzares of the newly organized political party of the oligarchs and the Hyatt 10, and Vice President Jejomar Binay of the UNA--are engaged in a witchhunt against frontrunner “Super Digong” Duterte which boils down to nothing more than hearsay.
We all know that hearsay evidence is not acceptable in our court of law. Further, Sen. Trillanes has acquired the title of Palace mercenary so much so that even in his own Magdalo group, he is last among the five vice presidential candidates.
  • Unfortunately for the three other “presidentiables,” they have ran out of time. We are now in what is known among basketball fans as the “last two minutes” which is not applicable in politics. The handlers of the three moneyed aspirants were so complacent in believing that the rule of the game remained the same. Either they don’t know the power of what is known as phenomenon. Or they simply thought that cheating was still the rule.
  • In politics, the sovereign decides within the last two weeks. And that is precisely why the last debate for the presidential candidates was held in April 24.
What the oligarchs, the filthy rich and the trapos either forgot or did not really know is that a phenomenon is not determined by time and or dates. It simply happens. Further, the final debate among the “presidentiables” turned out to be a rout or a landslide victory for super rockstar Duterte. Super Digong’s performance caught all his opponents with their underwear down, as a matter of saying. It was so powerful that Mayor Duterte was able to pull Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to the winning column. This being so, it would not be surprising to have a landslide victory for both Duterte and Cayetano. Duterte-Cayetano pa more. Tsada, di ba?