Wanted: men for others

Butch Bagabuyo

“Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.”––Samuel Johnson

IN high school, I fell so in love with the Jesuits of old on their mission to educate people to become “men for others” that during our retreat prior to graduation, I applied in vain to become a Jesuit seminarian. I thought then that I was custom-made to become a man for others. But si God dili jud parehas sa uban; He works in strange ways.

So early on, the lingering desire to be selfless led me to become not a prized boxer which was close to my heart next only to being a priest but a lawyer, a profession that I hated most where it not for the scholarship from my idol, the late former Vice President Emmanuel “Maning” Pelaez.

After passing the Bar with a high grade of 85.25, my head swelled so much so that I thought I had the makings and the training of a former Vice President to be the future President of our country. Pero si God, as I kept on repeating, dili jud parehas sa uban. So after two unsuccessful runs for public office, I felt then as I’m fully convinced now in the twilight of my life, that “I was born to other things” (Tennyson, In Memoriam). And because “Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom,” (Sir Boyle Roche) and “discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation” (Wilde, woman of no importance), I’ve volunteered to all the poor people in the land of my birth to become the messenger-spokesman-for-life, no more, no less, in the making of a President from the paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi.

Because si God dili man jud parehas sa uban, slowly but surely, the poor people of Mindanao and the rest of the country are now eagerly awaiting for the beautiful sound of music through a Constitutional Convention for a lasting peace and posterity in our Mindanao and the entire country––or the Independent Federal States of Mindanao will become a reality. Just you watch and see.

A Mindanao of armed neutrality, of religious pluralism and reasonable equity between Capital and Labor, where profits and losses are equally shared by labor and capital. Enough of the stupid minimum wage law. Undoubtedly, Capital is useless without Labor, vice versa! In the lyrics of an old song by Frank Sinatra, “You can’t have one without the other.”

This is what we, Mindanaoans and Pinoys, have all been dreaming of for a lifetime. Is it not?

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“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression is should be our first object.”––President Thomas Jefferson, 1801

With Imperial Manila having nine and the Visayans three Presidents, they have had their day in running our country. It is high time the President came from the second largest island in our country, contributing at least one-fourth of our GNP.

Truly, among all the presidential wannabes of today, only Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte, who has repeatedly denied presidential ambition, has the almost absolute respect of the Muslims, the Lumads and Christians combined.

Without fanfare and noise, the “I Love Mindanao Movement” has feverishly worked for over a year now among all the poor people of Mindanao to adopt and put to heart and soul the traditional motto of Switzerland: “One for all, all for one.” Ergo, with Mindanao as the main and rallying issue, come May 9, 2016, Duterte will be President of the Philippines or the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi will become a reality.

With Duterte at the helm, we can easily equal if not, surpass Switzerland, which is only about the combined size of our northern Mindanao and the Davao region and a population of about eight million only as compared to Mindanao’s 12 million voters. Yet Switzerland is “one of the richest countries in the world by per capita gross domestic products, and has the highest wealth per adult (financial and non-financial assets) of any country in the world.” (Franc’s rise puts Swiss top of rich list).

So what shall it be, Imperial Manila? Constitutional Convention simultaneously with the National and Local elections? Or the Independent Federal States of Mindanao of armed neutrality, of Religious pluralism and reasonable equity between Capital and Labor, where profits and losses are equally shared by labor and capital.

• •

“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 teach our leaders to practice honesty, humility and transparency in their task as our servants-leaders and not our masters for sovereignty resides in the people, the very source of their power and wealth. Finally, Lord, please make our leaders see the glaring folly of greed. Truly, there is more profit in giving than in receiving. 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 the blog iluvmindanao.net)