ARMM needs Datu Toto Paglas

I am told Datu Toto Paglas has a snowflake’s chance in hell of being elected in today’s ARMM election as the new Governor. Datu Paglas was not anointed by Malacañang and knowing how elections are held in that region, that just about wraps up his candidacy. The last time around, cheating was so efficient, to the point that Datu Paglas lost in his own town of Datu Paglas. I’ve been in that town and I know they love him there and there is no way he could lose an election there.

The unfortunate thing is that our Muslim brothers, just like the rest of us, are simply unable to elect the right leaders. It is obvious that our Muslim brothers are as victimized by poverty as many of our fellow Christians in many parts of the country. That’s because political leaders have taken advantage of them and neglected their development needs.

In the case of the ARMM, billions of pesos of taxpayer money had been wasted through the years by leaders who failed to use their position and resources to uplift their people out of poverty. Yet, now that they have a second opportunity to elect someone with a proven economic development track record, it seems our Muslim brothers will choose to take the old path leading them nowhere. The fact that Malacañang endorsed an untested young scion of a political clan out of gratitude for her lopsided win in that province last year, exposes Ate Glo’s baser instincts for politics as usual.

I do not see how any Muslim voter who honestly wants to see an economically developed Muslim Mindanao area can vote for anyone other than Datu Toto Paglas. Here is a man who can honestly lay claim to having delivered on his promise to uplift his people from poverty, and in the process tamed a deadly rebellion, of which he was once a part.

I saw with my own eyes how he managed to marshal the resources that has transformed his town into a bustling economic zone. I have talked to the people in his town who are happy beyond belief that they now have jobs, are able to send their children to school and have peace of mind because they no longer have to live with the shadows of war and lawlessness looming over them.

What Datu Paglas has achieved for his town is nothing short of a miracle. Israeli and Latin American experts are working side by side with Muslim Filipinos in the banana plantations. Former MILF guerilla leaders are working with former AFP officers in assuring security for the plantations and the town. Small entrepreneurs also blossomed as locals started to have purchasing power. Economic activity has also reached a point that made the establishment of a bank necessary.

Datu Toto has a vision not only for his townmates but for all of Muslim Mindanao. He has in fact, started working in other towns in ARMM, experimenting with other cash and export crops. He has also invited young Muslim leaders to see what progress can do to a town that was once the center of a secessionist war zone. Jobs, he told me, are key to peace.

Datu Toto’s ability to engender harmonious relationship between Christians and Muslims is also well documented. When Gawad Kalinga, a project of the lay Catholic ministry Couples for Christ, built houses in his town, Datu Paglas remarked that after his people saw how Christians worked with their own hands to build houses for the poorest Muslims in his town, no better expression of love and friendship has been demonstrated.

I imagine Datu Toto Paglas decided to seek the top ARMM post as a means to share his vision of development with the rest. I imagine too he has no illusions that he is on an uphill battle, but one that is worth fighting. I hope reports reaching Manila about the sure defeat of Toto Paglas is exaggerated. I hope our brother Muslims know how to recognize a good leader when they see one. While I am sure he has his faults too, as any human does, he is as good as they get not just for Muslim Mindanao but for the Philippines.

This column is not meant to get votes for Toto Paglas because it is too late for that. I just wanted to highlight Toto Paglas as another missed opportunity, which is the story of our lives. Nationally, we had our chance to have a leader who could have inspired us with a no nonsense kind of leadership but we chose the one we now have. Alas, Raul Roco has passed away, and that missed opportunity is now permanent. It is sometimes easy to conclude that because we are unable to take advantage of opportunities, we are hopelessly beyond help.

Consumer Protection

Atty. Victorio Mario Dimagiba, director of the consumer protection unit of DTI, wrote me to reassure me that his office is always ready to help all consumers who may have complaints against manufacturers and marketers of products they have purchased. "We are always guided by the 3Rs on consumer redress mechanisms,"Atty. Dimagiba wrote, "which are Repair, Replace, Refund with a fourth R added in rare occasions, Recall."

Vic, who was a former colleague at PNOC, also reported that the case of former Press Undersecretary Mila Alora against General Motors had been resolved. Ms. Alora complained about a lemon car she bought from General Motors, as well as the shabby after sales service she received. Atty. Dimagiba wrote that Ms. Alora informed him General Motors has made proper amends, to her satisfaction.

Atty. Dimagiba also reported that General Motors has turned around to the point that it has thrown its support to the formulation and passage of a Lemon Car Law. Vic said GM is providing significant inputs that will help in the formulation of provisions for the proposed law. Finally, Vic is also inviting distressed consumers to contact him at DTI, and his phone number is 8904949.

Raul Roco

When I heard about the death of former Senator and Education Secretary Raul Roco, it came to me not so much as a shock as with sadness. And the sadness was not just because I lost a friend as much as our country losing a leader of the type we could use right now in this moment of national crisis.

Raul Roco’s passing was not unexpected, given his well known illness that he valiantly fought. In a sense, Raul was fighting two cancers, the one that finally ended his life and the cancer in our society that is even now, consuming the nation.

The best that modern medicine had to offer were not good enough to save Raul’s life. Hopefully, enough people would accept Raul’s prescription of moral regeneration so as to save our body politic from a social cancer that is fast metastasizing to consume us all.

As I wrote earlier, I see Raul Roco as an unfortunate missed opportunity for our nation. Hopefully, Raul’s passing does not mean the end of his quest for a just society. He has always dreamed of a country where youthful idealism will never give way to sordid political pragmatism; and where national leadership means self sacrifice rather than the accumulation of personal power and wealth to the disadvantage of the people.

May Raul watch over our troubled country from his vantage point in the heavens! To Sonia and children, my deepest condolence.

Little Patrick

This one was passed on to me by Ray Orosa.

For his birthday, little Patrick asked for a 10-speed bicycle. His father said, "Son, we’d give you one, but the mortgage on this house is $80,000 and your mother just lost her job. There’s no way we can afford it."

The next day the father saw little Patrick heading out the front door with a suitcase. So he asked, "Son, where are you going?"

Little Patrick told him, "I was walking past your bedroom last night and I heard you telling mom you were pulling out. Then I heard her tell you to wait because she was coming too. And I’ll be damned if I’m staying here by myself with an $80,000 mortgage and no bike!"

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]