The poor has spoken again?

Butch Bagabuyo

“We never stop seeing, perhaps this is why we dream.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

NOT money nor machinery––and not even celebrities––but warm bodies of common tao proved to be more precious than gold. This fact happened only on Saturday, 26th of September 2015, in Imperial Manila. That day proved beyond words that only the poor have the power to make a leader and nobody else. And all that we need is faith in ourselves and God.

At noon time last Saturday, our country stood still. The middle class and the social climbers trooped to the dome at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, while the poor littered the streets of Metro Manila. The ABS-CBN’s “It’s Showtime Kapamilya Day” had the Araneta Coliseum jampacked with celebrity lovers. What with the channel’s young love-teams-celebrities in attendance. On the other hand, the GMA’s Kalyeserye, now better known as “Aldub Nation” “kilig” all walks of life on the streets, the comfort of our homes, the public markets, the talipapas and the SPAs of the rich and poor, the beauty saloons and the barbershops as well.

But despite the absence of any known celebrity, the poor, the deprived and the oppressed, who are more concerned with love of country if not, for survival, chose to converge on their own and at their own expense at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. The attendance kept on swelling by the minute yet there were no known public figures and the rest proved a certainty. The gathering as shown on pictures and the wide TV screens speak volumes. And the determination of the many who are poor, abused and oppressed compelled the man of the hour, Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte, in far-away Davao City to text, saying with all sincerity: “I’m asking for more time. But I promise you, I will not abandon you.”

The events on Saturday were proof that no matter what the paid national political survey takers say, the call of the hour in our country is for a genuine leader of and for the poor, not the publicized clones of Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich. What our country urgently needs today is a man who can impose discipline yet remain untainted by graft and corruption, an action man who can and has turned the “killing fields” into one of the safest cities in the world––Davao City. We need a leader whose love for the poor, the deprived and the oppressed is as high and towering as his pockets are almost empty, a man of action, not a man who says, “matuwid na daan” but who cannot stand on his own and keeps his bank accounts in secret and in full while he lavishly spends the money of the poor, pretending to be his own.

Anyway, in the battle of tweets among the two giant TV noontime shows, the verdict was a lopsided score of 6.7 million tweets for the rich, the middle class and the social-climbers at the dome while GMA’s kalyeserye better known as “Aldub nation” of Alden Richards a.k.a. “Pambansang Bae,” and Maine Mendoza, most popularly known as “Yaya Dub,” scored a whopping 25.1 million tweets, taken at 7:30 Saturday night.

That lopsided verdict on Saturday proved once more that whenever the poor unite and speak as one, the world freeze out of shock and disbelief, then tremble in fear and absolute surrender.

Now that our man, “Super Digong” Duterte, is honestly contemplating on answering the call of the hour, let us help him decide in and for our favor not by paying the political survey takers kuno or paying expensive ads but by opening a free Twitter and Facebook account, “Du30AtoNi,” so that Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich will know that the teeming poor people of Mindanao and elsewhere can beat the tweets record of “Aldub nation.” After all that “nation” is composed mostly of the poor, the deprived, and the oppressed. We are the “Aldub nation” And “God gave us you.”

Tsada, di ba?
••
“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” – Goethe
“One is easily fooled by that which one loves.” – Moliere, Truffe

Because the well paid Imperial Manila’s political survey takers know only too well that man is a social being and greed knows no limit, they are now coming out regularly, not for us and country but for their secret bank accounts, with the so-called “statistical tie” results kuno. They make it appear the Mar Roxas is now inching his way to the presidency by making junior Senator Grace Poe come out the topnotcher both in the presidency as well as in the vice presidency. But what these highly paid spin doctors pretending to be fair scientists do not know is that the common tao knows better. They know that if junior Senator Grace is the topnotcher in the presidency, it is plain stupidity that she should also top the vice presidency. The implication in coming out with such ludicrous result is that Senator Grace should run for the lower position if she wants to win. Wa mo kyapi!

But what these political survey takers kuno and these greedy “presidentiables” refuse to accept in public is that the poor, the deprived and the oppressed gather their “facts” not in the lucrative TV infomercials but in the public markets, the talipapas, the community parlors and barbershops. And most importantly, the poor take as gospel truth the radio comments by hard-hitting radio commentators who put their lives daily on the line and usually become part of statistics of unresolved heinous crimes. These are the compelling reasons why the common belief among the poor, the deprived and the oppressed is that the PCOS (President Cory’s Only Son) machines used since the 2010 elections is far worse than the infamous “dagdag-bawas” manual count. To the masa, since In the PCOS there is no paper trail, hence, the PCOS becomes the haven of the Comelec operators’ shenanigans.

This inequity is among the compelling reasons why a Concon simultaneous with the May 9, 2016 national and local elections is a must. Otherwise, Mindanaoans shall be constrained to execute our perfected People Power on May 9, 2016.

Tsada, di ba?