Rage over balikbayan boxes

Butch Bagabuyo

“Vice is a creature of such hideous mien that the more you see it the better you like it.” ––Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936), American journalist, humorist

WHAT do you think brought about the furor over the “balikbayan boxes? Debilitating greed – the seal of Philippine presidency.

When a Philippine eagle – Philippines’ national bird – was shot down a few days back, PNoy and his anointed successor, Mar Roxas, did nothing. Period. In fact, none of the “presidentiables” lifted a finger, as a matter of speaking. Period.

The infamous Hyatt 10’s leader, the inventor of PDAF and DAP who is a sure stay-in at the Veterans after the May elections, needs billions of reasons for the May 9, 2016 on why he dished out the bright idea. Because, as I always say, greed kills, the Bureau of Customs, now managed by the “former” owner of the highly profitable courier business “Air 21,” was made to implement the Liberal Party’s destined waterloo.

What the “Hyatt 10” did, unwittingly or wittingly, for the benefit of all the teeming millions of poor Mindanaoans and elsewhere, who can only dream of better lives, the balikbayan boxes are the individual love letters, flowers and chocolates of our heroes sweating it out in humid foreign lands. The contents of those boxes are not even a drop of whatever the Bureau of Customs, as an institution, steal daily ad infinitum, from our government coffers.

Believe you me, nothing less than a “Cha-cha” via “Concon” can reform both the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), especially the presidency and the entire Executive Department of our government. The whole truth is: all the three branches of our government need an absolute change since yesterday. And no amount of palliatives, such as legislation including judicial reforms, can do it.

Only a “Du30” can change our country. He is a man of uncommon bravery without any taint of graft and corruption since his lifetime.

So what shall it be?

Concon simultaneously with the May 9, 2016 elections or People Power in Mindanao only with Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Super Digong” Duterte as our President, or only with the Independent Federal Republic of Mindanao-Sulu-Palwawan-tawi-Tawi?

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“No exile at the South Pole or on the summit of Mont Blanc separates us more effectively from others than the practice of a hidden vice.” –Marcel Proust (1871-1922) French Novelist.

Of course, we all know that “presidentiables” Mar Araneta Roxas and VP Binay are both multimillionaires who are known for their generosity in giving out our money, not theirs in all past, present, and, I’m certain, all future calamities. In short, both are greedy. Truly, Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi has said, “There is enough for the needy but not for the greedy.” So, there you are, both presidentiables represent what I call Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich. As you and I very well know, they will only be enriching themselves at our expense.

Changing bad habits is certainly not an easy task. No doubt about it. But doable and the only alternative left for us, the poor. Otherwise, Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi will remain the perpetual source of wealth for the greedy.

This anomaly has to stop. We are the teeming millions of Pinoys, who are the sovereign and ought to be the rulers, not the slaves, as what we have been for so long a time. And please don’t tell me that even now, we, the poor, would still choose to be happy and merry for just a day on election day but carry the heavy cross for the rest of our life and family.

Enough is enough.

We have the numbers. So, all that we need is the will. As they always say, “Where there is a will there is a way.” And the beauty of it all is that today, unlike before, we have a leader, who is one of us. And, like us, the millions who are poor all over the archipelago, Du30 does not have the money to spend for the presidential campaign. Thank God.

What many of us do not know is that we have the resources: warm bodies. We are more than enough resources to win the presidency and all elective positions come May 9, 2016. This is what we, the poor have slowly but surely started more than a year now. And as I’ve already written many times, we are practicing the ant-strategy or philosophy––only the poor helping one another without asking for any donation. Ours is empowering the poor. Period.

Believe you me, we are going to multiply the People Power on May 9, 2016 by our chosen strategy––“the ant-type” approach, the poor helping the poor.

Tsada, di ba?

 (Call or text 09188030197, e-mail to bagabuyos@yahoo.com, and check out iluvmindanao.org.com)