By Butch Bagabuyo
“They are able because they think they are able.” – Vergil Aeneid
THE quotation is taken from the Latin epic poem written by Vergil between 29 and 19 BC. All I can remember about that long poem is that of the Trojan Horse where the cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to enter the walled city of Troy by offering a huge wooden horse as a gift to bring luck to the Trojans to conquer Greece. But the wooden horse was actually filled with Greek warriors inside, well-prepared to open the gates of Troy. Thus, the gift turned out to be the source of Troy’s end (Please correct me if I’m confused.)
Trust me, the episode has nothing to do with the entry of Vice President Binay into the Aquino administration. Neither does the story––myth, if you may––related to the entry of both junior Senator Grace and cunning Senator Chiz into the snakepit a.k.a. Malacanang and/or the Liberal Party.
To me, the quotation is my humble offering to the long-bullied, abused and oppressed Mindanaoans and all the poor people of our country: faith in action conquers all; after all, faith is belief in God and only with God can we attain happiness even in poverty. To stress further, only the poor is able to savor true happiness; while the affluent are perpetually battered by endless woes, for the simple reason that man is not destined to be rich but to attain everlasting happiness. Further, happiness is not equated with wealth but peace, for peace and greed are worlds apart.
As we, Mindanaoans, are now on center stage and all the trapos and the filthy rich are now using our own hard-earned money stashed from our government coffers to buy our votes, as they have done in all past elections, let us now show the world that People Power came to be only because we, Mindanaoans, showed them the way but only to lose it along the way.
As a flashback, bear in mind and tell your adoring children that at the height of the ruthless conjugal dictatorship in our country, when Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich , more than their loved ones, our three then young intellectuals––Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr., Homobono A. Adaza and Reuben R. Canoy, lawyers all––from our paradise-like islands of Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan-Tawi-Tawi, whose love of country was as full as their pockets were practically empty, took the road less travelled and the rest is the unwritten history for now but not for long.
“They were able because they think they are able.”
Tsada, di ba?
••
“Ability is of little account, without opportunity.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
The unfolding events in our country today show beyond any doubt that today, Mindanao has both the ability and the opportunity to right the wrong that our former leaders, not excluding the present, have imposed on us. Now is our time and since opportunity rarely comes our way. In fact, only today can we all “make hay while the sun shines.” Otherwise, we’ll lose it again, as we did during the time of our former Vice President Emmanuel N. Pelaez.
During the reign of our great leader, Maning Pelaez, Imperial Manila, the trapos and the filthy rich successfully conspired to divide us by making us believe that only a political machinery can make a president. Because of our own stupidity in believing that only money can make a political machinery for the presidency, we were punished by a ruthless conjugal dictatorship followed by the greedy Imperial Manila.
Let us not put to waste the hard lessons we’ve learned since time immemorial. And let not the costly split of our once most promising young intellectuals lead us to perdition once again. Bear in mind that former Pimentel, Adaza and Canoy are aging yet they are full of wisdom, all the more.
We have failed them because we, their followers, insidiously poisoned them with our own selfish hidden agenda by pitting one against the other. Because a leader needs as many followers as determined by his goals and objectives, a leader become vulnerable to debilitating greed, which is the beginning of a sad and pathetic end.
The quotation from a former warrior and World leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was banished from his country and whose bones were returned to his homeland only after a long, long time, should serve as our road map to Malacanang. Today, “Du30” is the nation’s political phenomenon next only to the “AlDub nation” because every time he says no to the presidency, his invincibility gains more power; hence, the dawning of the New Order is within reach––equality between capital and labor and rich and poor.
Believe you me, lasting peace and posterity in Mindanao can only be attained under his envisaged revolutionary government. Period.
“Super Digong” and his entire team will show to the world that Mindanaoans have perfected the People Power of 1986.
And hopefully with divine providence, “Super Digong” would find us worth fighting for.
Tsada, di ba?
