Surgery is what is needed

Butch Bagabuyo

“No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.” – Lincoln Speech, 1854

BECAUSE God is good, May 9, 2016 should be recorded in our history books as the first ever and the only time that our country bowed to the will of poor Filipinos. And this is the only time where the second and third placers conceded defeat long before the official count. Further, this is the only election where no giant business and/or the businesses financed and/or operated by the filthy rich can claim as “the father” of president-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Neither can the middle class, the Bishop Conference of the Philippines, the Iglesia ni Christo and all the armed rebels in our country be considered as “the father” of “Super Digong” Duterte. Not even the PDP-Laban or any other political party that formed an alliance with it.

In short Duterte is the president of all the 100 million Filipinos. Period.

However, since it is normal for the greedy to shamelessly announce that they are “the fathers” of President-elect Duterte, as early as yesterday, our newly elected president should already be shielded from all the pretenders and the plunderers-to-be who are growing by the day.

As the self-appointed (and uncontested to this day) spokesman of the 90 percent of poor Filipinos, I humbly submit the following:

• In order to start the reign of the president-elect the right and proper way, it is incumbent that a Transition Team of five members be formed ASAP.
• The Transition Team should and ought to be headed by a Mindanaoan of far and wide experience in governance and a holder of well respective positions in our government.
• Ask Duterte to appoint ASAP former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. as the overall chairman of the Transition Teams to be composed of the following groups: PDP-Laban, the MRRD headed by Mayor Evasco of Maribojoc, Bohol, the Group headed by a bosom friend of the President-elect, Bong Go; and all the various volunteer groups should elect from among themselves their chairman.
• It must, however, be emphasized to the various groups composing the Transition Teams that their members be composed of the 90 percent who are poor, 9.9 percent of the elite and the middle class, and one percent of ruling class, including the trapos, who are now building their so-called strengths.
• The final recommendees of the various Transition Teams must be submitted to President-elect Duterte by end of this month, and in the event that some or all of the recommendees are rejected by the President-elect, the latter is requested to sit down with the group involved to avoid miscue, if I may say so.

The President-elect should already talk to lawyer Jesus “Jess” Dureza to form ASAP his team to be composed of:

• Mindanaoans as far as the Mindanao problem is concerned;
• people from the Cordillera region as far as their region is concerned;
• Filipinos to be composed of the 90 percent who are poor, 9.9 percent of the elite and the middle class, and one percent of the ruling class, including the trapos as far as the Communist Party;

The President-elect should also form a transition team to handle exclusively the American-Chinese relations, taking into account the other countries involved in the Philippine Sea disputes.

Now that our once impossible dream has been achieved, permit me to remind us all what Will Durant said once upon a time: “Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision and heroism. When she had overcome all her enemies, she flourished for a moment and then begin to die.”

I am also reminded of a quote by Dr. Roy B. Zuck, who wrote: “In Villadolid, Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the great discoverer. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memorial is a statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s motto for centuries. Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards thought they had reached the outer limits of earth. Thus their motto was “Ne Plus Ultra,” which means “No more beyond.” The word being torn away by the lion was “Ne or no,” making it read “Plus ultra.” Columbus had proven that there was indeed “more beyond.”

As for me, a dreamer, it is time to pursue the dream for all the poor people of the world but was put on hold for a while due to the more compelling dream of having a President from our paradise-like islands of Mindanao. But, that is of no moment to us all.

Now that we have proven to the world that money and political machinery are no match to warm bodies, I continue to pray that we remain steadfast in our unity and focus in providing our next president the necessary tools to have what we, Mindanaoans, have been dreaming of: equality for all Filipinos of all walks and ages under a federal system within six months of our President-Elect’s six- year term of office.

Of course, the first task ahead of us is making our streets safe by night and/or day for all of us, especially women and our children, friends and visitors as well.

We have proven to the world that nothing is impossible under God. And since our incoming President Duterte has made a campaign promise to rid our country of drugs and the culture of impunity within six months of his term, let us all continue to unite and focus in helping our President fulfill his promise, which is not an impossible dream.

Now, that everybody knows that the so-called “impossible” is a misnomer with God on our side, permit me to suggest the following simple and doable tasks:

• The world envies us for our unique hospitality and friendliness. Using, therefore, this God-given talent, it is safe to say that all of us, especially those called by Imperial Manila as “probinsyano,” know and are friends of our respective neighbors. This being so, all of us know who are the drug lords and queens in our own neighborhood.
• Undoubtedly, the PDP-Laban, will be the largest and most potent political party in our country by the end of this month of May, this year. This being so, let us, therefore, support our own president of the PDP-Laban in his program to continue what we, the original and die-hard members, have done – conduct the 24/7 BMS in our respective local councils primarily to organize a task force to monitor and stop the drug menace in our neighborhood. Trust me, within this month, we could already have a strong monitoring task force on anti-drug lords and queens.

Please take note that the task forces will be limited to the drug lords and queen, not their victims. By so doing, the drug lords and queens will either all be dead by due process of law or simply out of our country while having a top of the line rehabilitation centers for the victims of drugs.

• Simultaneously, through the PDP-Laban, we could set up an effective monitoring task forces in the no-none-sense anti-drug lords and queens drive within our country; ergo, by June this year, we could already celebrate the distinct privilege of being the one and only country in all of Asia without Drug lords and queens and having the best possible drug rehabilitation facilities.