Du-30: Don’t waste your vast political capital

We are in the last albeit dying days of this highly dramatic presidential campaign, which to my mind was marred by worse mudslinging this nation ever saw from presidential candidates. But from my Pulse Array Radar screens, if elections were held today, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte would win the elections with a landslide victory and no matter how many monkey wrenches Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV throws at DU30, it is useless. His numbers aren’t going down.

What is deeply disturbing to this nation is that news report last Tuesday emanating from the foul mouth of Sen. Trillanes that a Duterte presidency would be vulnerable to a military coup because of his closeness to the Communist rebels. Trillanes revealed this before the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) and it only reveals his mutinous character despite the fact that the Filipino voter honored him with a Senate seat so he could affix the title “Honorable” before his name.

But on the other hand, the Philippine Senate under the Aquino regime has become less honorable than the Senators of yore because they convicted the late former Chief Justice Renato Corona for failing to include certain monies in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), which many pundits insist could still be corrected. In the end, Divine Justice (or in Cebuano, we call it “Gaba”) came from the Supreme Court itself when it declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional, thus sending the likes of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada into house arrest. This is still an unfinished chapter in the Senate’s history and we expect that under a new presidency more Senators would be jailed!

At this point, I would like to believe that what Sen. Trillanes told the FOCAP correspondents was a not-so-veiled threat to Mayor Duterte. Mind you, it is not a secret that he has close ties with the Communist leaders, notable amongst them is its chairman, Jose Maria “Joma” Sison who intends to return to the country if Mayor Duterte is elected.

Let me add my 10 centavos worth on this issue. If Joma were coming home to lead the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Communist rebels, then even I would welcome this move. But whatever peace talks we would have with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or the New People’s Army (NPA) or the National Democratic Front (NDF), it should start with their laying down their arms in a safehouse only they have access to. This happened in Ireland during the peace talks with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) where they kept their arms in a secret hideout until the peace talks produced the peace that Ireland is having today.

But Mayor Duterte should be warned that he should not waste his political capital because so many people have pinned their hopes on him. This means, he should never think of putting Joma Sison as a member of his cabinet unless the Communists lay down their arms and embrace peace with us. I’m writing this piece to assure many pro-Duterte voters who are still insecure with Duterte’s links to the Communist leaders.

May I further suggest to Mayor Duterte that a separate peace negotiation with the Muslim question should also be initiated, not just with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but including the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and please, keep Malaysia out as an International partner for they have interfered too long with our internal affairs. I’m positive that a Duterte Presidency can do this because of his political capital. But above all… the most awaited part of his program is the Charter Changes so we could shift from our unitary form of government into a parliamentary and federal form of government. This is what DU30 has promised us.

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As this is my last column before the May 9th elections, let me release my list of Senatoriables that I’m voting for this May 9th and it begins with Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon, Sen. Migz Zubiri, Tito Sotto, Rep. Martin Romualdez, Roman Romulo, Edu Manzano, Raffy Alunan, Princess Jacel Kiram, Sen. Ralph Recto, Sen. Serge Osmeña, III and Atty. Greco Belgica, whom we owe our votes because he was responsible in filing cases against the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2014.

As for my candidate for President, it has now boiled down to two Presidentiables, either I vote for Mayor Duterte or Sen. Grace Poe… that’s a decision I will make inside the polling center. My Vice-Presidential candidate is Bong Bong Marcos. Yes, I’m one amongst many anti-Marcos people who believe that the Marcoses have tasted unbridled power and then humiliated 30-years ago in EDSA. I’m betting that Bonget has learned his lessons well.

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