Vision and virtue

Butch Bagabuyo

“Wisdom is knowing what to do; skill is knowing how to do it; and virtue is doing it.” – David Starr Jordan

OF the four presidential candidates in the coming elections, only Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has got what it takes to be president of our country: wisdom, skill and virtue. Needless to elaborate, our President needs to excel, and not merely possess all three categories of wisdom, skill and virtue.

Undoubtedly wisdom comes with age. Hence, our man has got it. Not only because of the four wannabes, he is the most senior but because he is the only presidential candidate who has completely changed the biggest city of the world from being infamous as “a killing fields” to one of the four safest cities in the world.

On this score, it is clear from the very start that the self-confessed foundling is miserably lacking on wisdom. We are not only witnesses but continuing victims to the folly of electing a President not for his own outstanding qualities of a leader but only because he happened to be the son of a wellevered President.

Precisely because we chose a non-performing legislator for a president, our country is now precariously being made a sacrificial lamb of our so-called “Big Brother” in his conflict with our neighbor China.

With regard to executive skills, there is absolutely no doubt that the principal candidate of the greedy and arrogant Liberal Party is at the bottom. We need not recite the litany of his failures as an executive. But, lest we forget, the most glaring lack of management expertise is his open admission and confession that he was “out of the loop” in the brutal assassination by the MILF-BIFF conjoined twins of the 44 brave SAF commandos. Clearly, therefore, both candidates of the so-called “matuid na daan”–Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party and the self-confessed foundling who is free riding on the goodwill and name of her famous adoptive parents–sorely lack the necessary skill to steer our country out of the troubled waters created by the two warring giants of greed and imperialism.

Finally, on the issue of virtue–the practice of behaving or living a life of moral and ethical excellence–the four presidential candidates ought to be weighed in honesty and integrity. Not of selfighteousness which is frowned upon by our very own Pope Francis.

What is intriguing on this matter is that the three other presidential candidates are trying their utmost in making it appear that they are leading with regard to the issue of virtue.

But wait just a second.

The self-confessed foundling, the alternative candidate of PNoy, is actually the only one who is officially accused of lack of honesty. In fact, she is accused of falsifying her own certificate of candidacy on citizenship and residency requirement. What is truly troubling on this accusation is that Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares is  accused by people of known probity unlike the “fly-by-night” hecklers of “Super Digong.” This being an uncontested fact, would anyone still insist that she has the required virtue?

Further, only Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the so-called womanizer, is man enough to personally want to have an audience with our Pope Francis to apologize for his expletives which is actually part of his being an honest person.

The other leading kuno candidate, Vice President Jejomar Binay, is definitely the only presidential candidate who is accused in our courts of law as being the most corrupt and without integrity. Can you imagine one who claims of being a “poor boy” and yet topping the expenses on the TV, radio, print and what have you?

Duterte pa more.

Tsada, di ba!

• •

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet, notwithstanding go out to meet it.” – Thucydides

Thanks to the swift and timely action by Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, Kagay-anons are relieved and extraordinarily proud to know that finally Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach has extended, by a day, her short stay in our country to visit our city, the place she herself calls her own. Because Congressman Rufus truly loves his place of birth, he wasted no time in asking his rivals in the mayoral contest to close ranks and forget dirty politics if only to open the red-carpet to the beauty that gave our city a name to be proud of in the universe.

As a native-born Kagay-anon, I cannot help but pray that both dismissed transition Mayor Oscar Moreno and gravely ailing former mayor Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano would go out of their way by doing the following:

• Unanimously pass a resolution requesting the President and Congress to exempt from paying taxes on the income and other emoluments to our Miss Universe.
• Appropriate the necessary funds to give all Kagay-anons, especially the poor, the rare privilege of enjoying the honor and presence of our own homegrown Miss Universe in a once-in-a-lifetime fiesta-like extravaganza.
• Pass a unanimous citation of appreciation from both the mayor and the city council to Congressman Rodriquez for ensuring the visit of our own Miss Universe–truly, without action man Rufus Rodriguez, this once in a life time event would not have happened.

Kagay-anon Miss Universe pa more!

Tsada, di ba.