Playing with Fire
Where we should stand
By Gonzalo Duque
AND so we in Dagupan City are on top of the news – national, regional and world news – because of the national elections!
UPang-PHINMA suddenly is the talk of the town everywhere because the five presidential candidates will face one another in a grand Third and Last Debate before D-Day, Election Day on May 9.
Oh, yes, matira ang matibay!
Alam nyo naman where we stand. Hindi tayo umaalis dyan sa Rody Duterte campaign.
Ano man ang batikos, paninira at pag-alipusta kay Digong, dito pa rin tayo. Alam nyo naman ang karakter ng eleksyon natin… may kahalong propaganda, lies, paninira.
OK lang, mga abay.
What seems not ok ay nakikisawsaw ang simbahang katoliko. Naku, naloko na ang separation of Church and State sacrosanct principle.
What all this confusion leads to is that we are being made to lose track of the real, crucial, critical issue facing this electoral exercise – the capability of the nation to survive and prosper.
What’s dragging us down the pit of darkness is, well, we’ve said it time and gain – massive corruption, criminality and drugs! This and related issues are tearing the nation apart.
Can we still survive?
Well, outside Duterte, all the presidential candidates are only scratching the surface!
Our neighbor columnist Secretary Bebot Villar has seen it — the impossibility of government to rid the nation from illegal drugs!
Know what? Hope Manong Bebot won’t degrudge us if we say this.
You know, when President Aquino was collecting material for his State of the Nation Address a couple of years or so back, Manong Bebot was asked to prepare a report on the illegal drug problem being the Dangerous Drug Board chair!
What happened? Kung ilang gabi pinuyat ni Manong ang staff niya to prepare the report!
But when the President delivered his SONA, there was no mention of the material that Manong and his staff painstakingly prepared.
All the presidential bets outside of Duterte are also pathetically mum on the subject.
Fr. Floro Barcelona of the Ateneo says Digong may have a foul mouth, but he says the truth and does the right things.
How about where the country is going? You see, one of our esteemed historical and cultural guardians, Ms. Virgie Pasalo, has touched on the sensitive parts of our constitution, that’s preventing us to advance – the over concentration of power in a central government.
We who chair the historical commission of the province and the city are of the sacred view that the only way for the Philippines to go up unencumbered is to adopt federal system of government.
Our presidential bet, Digong Duterte, is zealously fighting for it.
We all know that overcentralization of power in Metro Manila is a bane of national progress. We need to give more power to our local governments.
Take the angst from the heart of Sual Mayor Bing Arcinue, whose town which is host to a major source of power, can’t even collect the right amount of tax due the town. Blame the overconcentration of decision-making in the presidential system.
And back to the uproar on Digong because of his candidness.
What’s important is, has he been accused of any crime, much less rape?
Iba naman ang manner which certain quarters are reporting about him. That’s the way of small minds. They blow up non-sensical issues to put down a sure winner.
Most of our young people are unabashedly for Digong even if he is being associated with the devil and the monsters.
Ganyan talaga ang role ng informist. He breaks the rules assigned by the pathetic insensitive and callous. Yes, many are hurt, many are derailed, many cry foul! Savage! Evil! And so on.
But in the long run, they feel it in their guts that the controversial guy, the so-called the evil one, the Satanas, and all that crap may yet turn out to be the savior, the leader, who crafts out the real path to progress and greatness.
Watch the debate closely, and you’ll know what we exactly mean.
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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