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By Butch Bagabuyo

“It is not a matter of possession but of desire. One man may have much money on him but no greed in him, whereas another may have no money on him but much greed in him.”––St. Augustine

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UNDOUBTEDLY, Interior Secretary Mar Araneta Roxas II and his family have much money, hence, I can only pray to the Almighty that his possessions do not make him greedy. In contrast, former Senate president Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. is definitely with much, much less possessions but the millions of the poor and yours truly know that there is no greed in him.

So as St. Augustine, the patron saint of my place of birth, says, “It is not a matter of possession but of desire.

Since 2009, we all know that Roxas has been salivating over the presidency but despite his and his family’s enormous worldly possessions, I dare say that he would not make it if the elections were held today, not even tomorrow or even in 2016.

But why?

More than determination and focus, desire needs timing even more.

From all indications, if the presidency were held today, Vice President Jejomar Binay would win by a landslide; the man is not only determined and focused on the pinnacle of his ambitions but all indicators show that Roxas is not the man to replace President Aquino.

Why is Mr. Mar Roxas poorly lagging behind leading presidentiable Jejomar Binay?

Like my idol, former Senate President Pimentel, Roxas took the wrong position to achieve his dream. They chose the leadership of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), a department that has nationwide coverage but, sadly, with not enough budget and without clout, hence, open wide to never ending flak with no rewards on site.

Had they chosen the Defense portfolio, they could have reaped what former President Fidel Ramos had on a silver platter. But why?

Both the defense department as well as the DILG have countrywide coverage. But in the case of the DILG, you have the prima donnas: the City Mayors and the Provincial Governors who are themselves presidentiables with unconscionable intelligence funds eveready to say: “Go to hell” to whoever is the Secretary of the DILG.

The defense portfolio has the same coverage. But the funds are in the hands of the Defense Secretary who has the almost perfect loyalty of the generals down to the last enlisted man and his family. This is exactly what former chief of staff, the then Lt. Gen. Ramos, took to the hilt. And because of this, my idol never made it even to the official list of presidentiables. But that only shows that the man is not greedy but a statesman of no ordinary caliber. He had the power but instead he chose to relinquish it and gave it to the local officials via his landmark piece of legislation, the Local Government Code of 1991, as amended.

The more compelling fact is timing. Otherwise stated, it is whether your desire or call it ambition is made in heaven or not. Or whether the Almighty has other better plans for you in later years.

So the question is, should Mr. Mar Roxas continue with his proposal on extending the term of PNoy only because he has no chance against Mr. Jejomar Binay in 2016?

You be the judge!

Right now, if I were Mr. Mar Roxas, I certainly would fire pronto my greedy think tank. Their greed is putting their boss on the edge of disaster––not only certain defeat but dishonor. And the late President Manuel Roxas was a man of honor and a statesman worth everyone’s emulation.

Mr. Mar Roxas must be told pronto that the undeniable fact remains that the 1987 Cory Constitution has outlived its usefulness, hence, if I were him, I would listen to the people and urge the president and his lackeys––Senate President Franklin Drilon (remember the caricature of the pork?) and Speaker Sonny Belmonte––to stop the folly of the much discredited Constituent Assembly on the sugar-coated “as may be provided by law,” and go ahead with a joint House resolution on calling for the much urgently needed Constitutional Convention, and thus, regain the respect of the nation.

Don Robinson says, “If you want to make a man happy, don’t give him more possessions. Take away his desires… One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our needs from our greed.”-

So what shall it be, Mr. Roxas? Happiness or greed?

With a Constitutional Convention held simultaneously with the elections for the President and other officials, Roxas could have the edge in winning its presidency. And from there on, a grateful nation could hand him the peak of his ambition––the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines. No one has ever been elected President of a constitutional convention and the presidency of the country later on. Wow! What a feat!

During the Constitutional Convention, the delegates should address:

• The form of government: Federal, so that we could have states within a state, not a substate where only for the misquided armed rebels (actually greed-driven terrorists masquerading as ideologues) are made happy and rich to the detriment of the peace-loving people especially in the paradise-like-islands of Mindanano-Sulu-Palawan, where the predominantly Catholics, the Lumads and the Muslims have peacefully co-existed without violence except only when imperial Manila imposes on them, for funds and greed purposes only and nothing more; and,

• A government that is truly for its bosses: the teeming millions who are in the quagmire of poverty since time immemorial must now be empowered. We are, after all, the sovereign and master of our public servants, unlike today when the “selected” public officials, thanks to PCOS––the electronically contrived “dagdag-bawas”––act even more than kings and queens do.

And since I am a believer of the adage: “No guts, no glory…” and “no gain without pain,” as a perpetual-volunteer-messenger, I appeal to our enlightened youth, the martyr-like heroes of our academe and the awakened Church of the poor in our paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan, to unite so that our millions of the poor in the country side would be able to put up a viable and formidable candidates for the presidency and the vice presidency, all coming from our very own paradise-like-islands of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan. We can fight and definitely win, not with guns and bullets that maim and kill but with words of wisdom that give life to peace and posterity amid diversity, hence, the greedy crocs in Congress and the hard-headed president would have no choice but come clean or be wiped out pronto. (to be continued)

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