Journalism and the debates

Butch Bagabuyo

“We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.”- Wendell Phillips

IN his time, Napoleon was quoted as having said, “I fear three newspapers more than a thousand bayonets.” Consequently, rulers made sure that the newspapers–meaning, tri-media–are on their side come what may. Precisely because the conjugal dictatorship of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos and his powerful wife, Imelda, held media hostage to their nefarious ways and desires, ever since People Power, the capitalists in our country own the tri-media. Thanks to their debilitating greed, the teeming millions of the poor Mindanaoans and elsewhere in our archipelago became poorer by the day.

But the time has come, as it did in 1986 when Mindanaoans led by our then young and brilliant statesmen in the persons of Nene Pimentel, Bono Adaza, Ben Canoy, and Caesar Climaco who took to the streets in Mindanao and ignited the uncommon bravery that awed the world.

Everyone can be assured that the unprecedented holding on Sunday, the 21st of February, of the presidential debate in our Mindanao is going to be watched and fully scrutinized by Mindanao’s young and the young-once. Otherwise stated, on Sunday tri-media will be put to an acid test more than the “presidentiables” themselves by Mindanaoans, the Visayas and by the Cebuano-speaking Mindanaoans in Metro Manila who are clearly and undoubtedly the majority.

We are well aware that the venue of the debate, the Capitol University, is owned by an avid supporter of Mar Roxas. Ergo, as a fair warning to the organizers of the debate in Mindanao, make sure the sitting arrangement, the video, the audio and everything else are not stacked in favor of Mr. Roxas and the administration’s alternate candidate, or it shall, without doubt, boomerang on you, as it did in the 1986 snap presidential elections and the 2010 junking of the administration’s candidate in the person of Gibo and their suspected alternate candidate, mega rich Manny V.

As a last and final warning to the presidential debate organizers, you better study well the questions that you will ask to the “presidentiables.” Everyone in local and the social media will be watching you every inch of the way.

Please, for your own good, do not force us to shout out loud: Sobra ka na, Imperial Manila!

As my son, Jobags, say: “Our last card and only hope – Du30.”

Tsada, di ba?

• •

“I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.” – Patrick Henry, 1775

For the benefit of Imperial Manila’s giant tri-media, please be reminded and guided that when the late strongman, Ferdinand E. Marcos, unleashed his ruthless dictatorial powers, Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich were all trembling in fear for their own lives and their loved ones. The few capitalists who were opposed to the dictatorial regime left our country and spent their millions in the comfort zones elsewhere. At that time, our country had no one to turn to except the young whose hopes were full as their pockets and stomach were practically empty. But because God is good, just when our country was on the edge of giving up all hopes of regaining our freedom and democracy, young Mindanaoans started the parliament of the streets, leading to the awesome People Power.

Sadly, however, People Power of 1986 succeeded only in kicking out Marcos and his cronies. Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich quickly regained their power, and made the poor even poorer to this day.

Because the teeming millions of Mindanaoans and the rest of the Filipino people know by now that of the 15 presidents that we have had elected, including PNoy, 12 came from Luzon, three from the proud Visayas, and none from Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippine archipelago as well as the breadbasket of our country. Hence, the idea that the next president ought to come from Mindanao is unstoppable. Not only that, there is also the reality that there is always a first time in anything and everything. Thank God, the presidency in our country has always been providential, so they say; hence, everything points to a Mindanaoan president come May 9, 2016.

The undeniable fact that of the 15 elected presidents in our country, 12 came from Luzon, otherwise known as Imperial Manila, the rest of our country can only say, in dismay: what a consuming avarice.

Now that the 14 millions of Mindanaoans and the rest of our poor brothers, sisters and LGBTs all over our country, are hoping and praying that this time, we will overwhelmingly elect a Mindanaoan president against all odds, we are left with no other choice but to rely heavily on our warm bodies. Thank God, the time has come when Mindanaoans are put in such a situation where we have no other alternative but to unite and fortify ourselves in order to elect a president from Mindanao.

Undoubtedly, none of the four other  “presidentiables” know what it is to live and fight in a war-zone and come out unscathed, and, in fact, untainted by graft and corruption charges in changing and transforming “a killings fields” into one of the four safest cities in the world. While drug lords and queens have found their bodies riddled with bullets on meeting their horrific end, not a single case of murder and/or homicide was ever filed against the one and only Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte.

Further, all the four other “presidentiables” are for status quo and they are allergic to the federal form of governance, as they are well aware that with a federal form of government, lasting peace and prosperity would be spread out all over the archipelago unlike the present graft and corruptidden governance where all the economic progress are aimed at the national capital, and, only crumbs are left to Mindanaoans and the rest of the poor areas in our country.

Sobra ka na Imperial Manila. Sa Mindanao na ta!

Tsada di ba?