Unity and understanding

Butch Bagabuyo

“By union the smallest states thrive; by discord the greatest are destroyed.” –Sallust

 “I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had I been understood.” –Clarence Darrow (1857-1938, American lawyer, writer

BECAUSE our country has never been serious about having a real political party, whoever wins the presidency, the political party to which the winner belongs instantaneously becomes the political party in power, and so go the spoils.

Mindanaoans are well aware that that the late President Cory Aquino registered as the candidate of the PDP-Laban. But because the late dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos, called for the snap elections to the surprise of the many victims of Martial Law, the PDP-Laban anointed the late President Cory Aquino as the standard bearer of the political party even without, to my personal knowledge and understanding, undergoing the BMS (Basic Membership Seminar), a condition precedent before becoming a bonafide member of the PDP-Laban.

Consequently, the PDP-Laban, as a political institution, became a victim as much as the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. And since then the PDP-Laban became no better if not, worse than all the other so-called political parties in the archipelago: living dead or zombies.

But a miracle happened!

Right after the so-called first National Presidential Debate on Feb. 21, 2016 when our man, Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte, was the overwhelming winner against the four other presidential bets, the remaining old, reliable and indefatigable PDP-Laban workhorses or “men for others”–among them, Cris Lanurias, Cesar Ledezma and Jun Serra of Davao, Mike Sueno of Cotabato, to mention but a few–started to begin where the party was dropped off the day VP Binay hurriedly and unceremoniously left the party, perhaps, believing in vain that the billions of reasons he has acquired mainly because  former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. picked him up from oblivion was more than enough to win the presidency.

Bear in mind that prior to the People Power of 1986 there was not a single Binay in the political firmament of the Makati City and elsewhere.

Now that Duterte has proven to one and all that he has the wit, the charisma, and the necessary experience to run a city much bigger than Singapore, the PDP-Laban is making wonders in fast-tracking the necessary BMS, the trainors’ seminar as well as the Campaign Leaders’ Training Seminars all over the country using their own personal funds, and not asking any campaign funds from our own candidates Duterte and Senate majority floor leader Alan Peter Cayetano.

As Mayor Duterte himself told everybody, including and especially the volunteers for the Team Duterte-Cayetano: “I did not want to run because I do not have the money.” But because we forced him to be our candidate, he is now asking everyone to make sacrifices. Not so much but just enough. Because, according to him, if we don’t do our share, then we can never have the real change that we are clamoring for.

During the whole day seminar-workshop in this city of Golden Friendship on Saturday, 12th of March, all the participants coming from four provinces, two chartered cities and component cities as well as all the municipalities comprising Region 10, all came on their own, just like all the seminars-workshops of the PDP-Laban in the past starting in 1982.

What the participants lacked in logistics, they generously contributed ideas on how to make things work the right and proper ways without any funds coming from the PDP-Laban and the candidates themselves. And thank God, doable ideas came up for successful execution in converting hopes and expectations into votes that could be counted by the VCMs (Vote Counting Machine, formerly called OMR or Oplan Mar Roxas), the replacements of the most discredited electronics “dagdag-bawas,” the PCOS (President Cory’s Only Son) machines, for the May 9, 2016 elections. Once duplicated in all the other regions in the country, then we, Mindanaoans, and the rest of the country, would have a Duterte as president and Cayetano as vice president come May 9, 2016,

Right now, what is crucial is the coming training seminars for volunteer lawyers, and the paralegal student volunteers. Without exposing what is known among businessmen as trade secrets, it is important that as early as now, everybody should be aware that the final testing and/or sealing of the 93,000 VCMs or the replacements of the PCOS machines would be done on May 2 to May 6, 2016. All of us, every Filipino, must watch the opening of each and every OCMs using the duly authenticated key in the presence of the duly authorized representatives of the dominant majority and the duly authorized representatives of the dominant minority political party. After the opening of the said OCMs, the same must be made to demonstrate that it functions properly. Finally, the source code should be inserted back to the OCMs, and the monitor of every OCM must show on its monitor that it is empty. Thereafter, the OCM would be closed using the duly authorized i-Key and deposited in the duly secured warehouses. However, in order that the OCMs are properly secured our trusted paralegal members of the PDP-Laban and the assigned poll watcher must accompany the VCMs from the final testing and/or sealing to wherever the warehouses they may be brought to. Thereafter, the same procedures should be done before the start of the elections on May 9, 2016. And the PDP-Laban watchers assigned to each of the said VCM machines must see to it that prior to the start of the voting each of the VCM must not be loaded–meaning, the monitor must show on its monitor screen the figures “00000000.”

• •

“All for one, one for all.” – Dumas, The Three Musketeers

The principal reason why the 1986 People Power was a success is because God was with us and we have proven to the world then that our warm bodies were prepared, able and willing to protect come what may the sanctity of our votes.

Lastly, let us not forget that at that time, all the money and the forces of evil were unleashed by the conjugal dictatorship of the late Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. But as we all know by now, the People Power of 1986 mesmerized the world.

In the days to come, the PDP-Laban stalwarts should be able to slowly but surely rebuild, strengthen and revitalize the one and only political party from our paradise-like islands of Mindanao which has all the potentials to lead our country to the much needed change from the failed highly centralized form of governance to the most-sought after federalism, where every state is independent of each other but in harmony with the five basic principles of atheism, humanism, enlightened nationalism, democratic socialism as well as consultative and participatory democracy.

Duterte-Cayetano pa more.

Tsada, di ba?