Elections and People Power

Butch Bagabuyo

“There’s small choice in rotten apples.” – William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Taming of the Shrew

IN Sept. 28, I wrote for the nth time in this column warning our government that unless it calls for a constitutional convention simultaneously with the May 9, 2016 elections, chances are, a People Power led by Mindanaoans would come to be if Imperial Manila, the filthy rich and the trapos cheat through the PCOS, and the newly added Optical Machine Reader. Is the OMR another digital dagdag-bawas?

Thus far, all our efforts on Charter Change fell on deaf ears. Both PNoy and our greedy “riding in tandem” legislators (the congressmen and senators) are more concerned with having all the money they need to buy their reelections and those of their chosen heirs as though they own all of us and our land.

Enough is enough!

Our man “Super Digong” Duterte is truly the man of the hour. The reason why he is now the uncontested leading contender to the presidency is because he is not only a tough-talking servant-leader, but he knows how to apologize, especially when what he says is taken out of context.

Undoubtedly, our man’s tongue needs a lot of taming.

Be that as it may, he is the first winning presidential candidate who has volunteered to wash his dirty linens in public unlike all the others who were and are great pretenders. Mayor Duterte is a man who wants the public to know what kind of a President they can expect of him. He is unlike all the rest who are worse than the Pharisees of olden times.

When he uttered the expletives when Pope Francis caused almost intolerable heavy traffic, our man did not intend to offend our Pope. In fact, he apologized for using the Pope as his props to lambast the administration of PNoy for causing him five hours from a nearby hotel to the airport.

Undoubtedly, even the devil uses the Bible to serve his nefarious schemes. Everyone knew how PNoy bungled the traffic during the recently concluded Apec yet a deserving President could have easily used high-tech choppers. Period.

Imperial Manila, the filthy rich and the trapos are panicking. This early, they know that we are on our way to prove to the world that indeed sovereignty resides in the many who are poor, the chosen people of God. Ergo, let us not be distracted by the selective justice of Imperial Manila, the filthy rich and the trapos.

What we have is a man who has proven to be an action man; he has converted Davao City, the biggest city in the world in terms of land area, from “Killing Fields” to the 4th safest city in the world. Because he wants everybody to know what he is made of, he has admitted being a womanizer, having two wives (his first wife filed an annulment and thereafter he married a nurse whom he impregnated), and he has confessed as having executed a heinous kidnapper.

So let the man who is without sin cast the first stone.

Anyway, whom do you prefer to lead our country?

A man, who kept too irritatingly quiet when the President had the 44 brave SAF commandos ruthlessly massacred all in the name of the fantasy to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for peace? Or would you rather have an aspirant who was once a poor man but is now perceived as the wealthiest and most corrupt public official, having converted the business capital of our country as the business park of his own dynasty?

Or would you rather choose one who has been found by the Comelec as having materially misrepresented her certificate of candidacy, who claims to be a foundling. Neither the 1935 Constitution nor the present one mentions foundling as a natural-born citizen?

But a wrong can never right another wrong. Hence, the poor of today, have no other alternative but to do it right. After all, we, the poor, deprived and the oppressed Mindanaoans are not only innovative but intuitive as well.

Mind you, the present brouhaha now going the rounds reminds me of the fable about a young lion and a mountain goat. “Quite thirsty, the animals arrived at a water hole at the same time. They immediately began to argue about who would drink first. The disagreement became so heated that each decided he would rather die than give up the privilege of being first to quench his thirst. As each stubbornly confronted the other, their anger turned to rage. Just then something distracted them, and they both looked up. Circling overhead was a flock of vultures waiting for the loser to fall. That was all they needed to end their quarrel.” In the words of William Arthur Ward: “Righteous indignation is often nothing more than selfighteous irritation.”

Our man has already apologized. Period. But both PNoy and Marcos remain defiant to this day.

To make sure that the dawning of the New Order––equality between capital and labor, the rich and the poor, is achieved on May 9, 2015––let us see to it that all the slots in the 2016 elections shall be completely filled up by the PDP-Laban, the CDP candidates and allies, from the President, Vice President, 12 senators, congressmen, mayors and governors down to the last municipal councilor. Undoubtedly, it’s a People Power in the making.

Of course, this is better said than done. But there is always a first time!

For the nth time, permit me to remind one and all that People Power came at a time when Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich were all trembling in fear of losing not their loved ones but their worldly possessions–their money in the banks and extracurricular activities. While the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos and his beautiful wife had the near-absolute control of the military, the police, the Cafgus and all the cheating machines, the warm bodies of the poor, the deprived and the oppressed were able to install a mere housewife who turned out to be our well-beloved President for all time.

Undoubtedly, we can prove that righteous servant-leaders can win without spending for their elections on May 9, 2016. Because the money stolen from our government coffers by the trapos, the filthy rich and Imperial Manila will flood the streets and provide the poor with food, clothes, and what-have-you, we would have everything but we will vote according to our conscience come May 9, 2016. Just you watch and see.

With “Super Digong” Duterte and Team Robust Rufus, we will attain our dream of dreams.

Tsada, di ba?