How can PBBM tame the tempest
It is in the character of Dabawenyos to be patient, kind and forgiving. This may have sprung from the fact that Davao City, Mindanao’s center of commerce and communications, is inhabited by migrants from Luzon, the Visayas, and indigenous tribes all over Mindanao. They came to dwell in Davao to till the fertile soil, fish in the marine-rich Davao Gulf, and engage in trade and commerce.
Despite the diversity of faiths and cultures, they live together in peace and understanding. United, they have repelled those who attempted to bring chaos and stir divisiveness in Davao.
But patience has its limits. When threatened or cheated, Dabawenyos do not shut their eyes to the abuse they see and hear.
Thus, when the freedom of speech and the press are curtailed to purchase its people’s votes to alter the Constitution via a shady people’s initiative spawned in the House of Representatives, Dabawenyos came together to deliver a strong message: “Davao is Not for Sale.”
The leadership of the House and an acquiescent Malacañang had just turned a couchant lion into an angry beast.
Recall that Dabawenyos initiated the Yellow Friday movement in 1983 following the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. That protest was headed by social activist and civic leader Soledad “Nanay Soling” Duterte and businessman Jesus “Chito” Ayala.
Last Sunday’s “Hakbang ng Maisug” (Movement of the Brave) rally was led by Nanay Soling’s son — former president Rodrigo Duterte. The difference this time is that last Sunday’s ominous event was participated in not only by Dabawenyos but also by people from different tribes from all over Mindanao, the Visayas, and, surprisingly, Luzon.
The dyed-in-the-wool critics tweaked the call of Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte for President Ferdinand Marcos to resign, asserting that his sister VP Sara Duterte will be the beneficiary if BBM does. They forgot Sara could have had the presidency on a silver platter had she run for president.
When Baste Duterte reminded Marcos that it was his father who ordered a hero’s burial for the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., the critics scoffed at the mayor’s remark and instead segued to Antonio Trillanes, who rattled off verbiage of recycled issues against the Duterte family.
His most recent antic was to resuscitate the mythical Davao Death Squad that he and Leila de Lima said was a creation of Duterte. This is far from the truth.
Arturo Lascañas, a perjured witness previously presented by Trillanes and De Lima in a Senate hearing, surfaced out of nowhere to claim that some 3,000 victims were buried in an abandoned quarry in Davao City. With that many bodies, they could have just shot an arrow into the air, and anywhere it landed, they would have dug up a dead man’s bones. They have found none to date.
What transpired these last few days is a test of courage and leadership. Last Sunday, around 60,000 people assembled in Davao City to show their solidarity against the plot by certain politicos to perpetuate themselves in power. That led to the people’s initiative scheme to tamper with the Constitution hatched in the House of Representatives with the tacit approval of Malacañang.
Davao protested following reports of the overt buying of signatures. The President’s sister, Senator Imee Marcos, joined the Mindanao movement and, on her own, led the tirade against her cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Martin denied his involvement in the people’s initiative, but Imee, imbued with a love of country over ambitious kin, came up with photos that couldn’t lie.
The die is cast. Only President Marcos can temper the storm from the south by jettisoning the characters with whom he cavorts, not knowing they had caused the schism in his administration that could lead him to suffer his father’s fate.
“But patience has its limits. When threatened or cheated, Dabawenyos do not shut their eyes to the abuse they see and hear.
“The dyed-inthe-wool critics tweaked the call of Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte for President Ferdinand Marcos to resign, asserting that his sister VP Sara Duterte will be the beneficiary if BBM does.