By Butch Bagabuyo

“A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.” – William Blake

“Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen.” – John F. Kennedy

I UNDERSTAND that after the fingerpointing by national and provincial government officials concerned with our environment, Mayor Dongkoy Emano emerged (as in the Batman thriller), broke his self-imposed silence and finally boasted that he authorized the dredging of the Cagayan River by the secret owners of those barges for free (without any cost on the part of the city government). And to complete the arrogance, a councilor even had the temerity to challenge the opposition to have their own barges and do the dredging themselves. Do you really believe that?

I am beginning to suspect that these overstaying arrogant Padayon Pilipino public officials have acquired the godfather mentality if not the flea on the carabao, and believe that they own the city and we are their servants. Wa mo kyapi!

These bootlickers are so convinced that their constituents are so naive and so ignorant that they would not even dare ask the following compelling queries:

Who own the barges?

Are they the very same favored contractors if not, dummies?

Why are they dredging for free?

Are we now in the advent of “free lunch” society?

Or is this just like the “piso-piso” land project of Mayor Emano where the voters in exchange for their blind loyalty become usufruct (use and enjoyment of a land belonging to another). Mind you, the owner is the City of Cagayan de Oro and not Dongkoy and his Padayon Pilipino.

Are they not businessmen and, therefore, motivated by profit (read: greed) and not out of love for our city?

Where are the silts and the gold dust (courtesy of columnist Fernando Almeda Jr. of Surigao whose write-up on dredging know-how I’ve enthusiastically read in this paper) dumped into? Don’t tell me they’ve dumped those silts and gold dusts in the dumpsite, just like what Mayor Emano did to the poor victims of Killer Sendong! (My Plazan friends swear: “Nga magaba-an na siya kay guibalhibo na iyang kalag.” Hmmm!)

With the Storm Sendong killing hundreds of Cagayanons, destroying hard-earned properties and doing untold miseries in the city of my birth on the eve of the traditional “Misa de Gallo” for Catholics last 2011, the country and even the world sympathized and sent in their donations if only to ease the excruciating pain we all we had to experience (save those Padayon Pilipino officials who, unlike Nero playing his harp while his kingdom was on fire) who were either playing high stake mah-jong or gallivanting in Metro Manila with a sexy never mind.

Well-intentioned people tried to find ways and means to ensure that there would be no more rampaging waters and logs cascading from our rivers. As a consequence thereof, the unanimous verdict was, among others, to dredge the Cagayan River due to the presence of silts brought about by rampant illegal logging within the watersheds in nearby Bukidnon and the uplands of the City of Cagayan de Oro.

Then, all too suddenly, a barge or two appeared in our river. And the Misamis Oriental Provincial government as well as the national agencies involved in the protection and preservation of the environment started fingerpointing only to find out later, to their dismay, that Mayor Emano was the very person responsible for the “free dredging” of the Cagayan River. And the rest is… abangan and susunod na kabanata!

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This early, I’ve already been receiving numerous text messages designed to influence poor Pinoys from Mindanao. From Bukidnon, I received text messages from Malaybalay, Maramag, Valencia, and Manolo Fortich.

Some read: “Migz, pag cheat ka, so very bad ka, di ba Juan?”

“Sa mga Koko ng katarungan, Pimentel ang maaasahan ng sambayanan.”

These messages, according to the senders, who asked anonymity, are bumper stickers on vehicles roaming in the different towns and barrios of Bukidnon.

Paging Rolly V. Pelinggon Jr., the alleged founding chairman of the non-existent Mindanao for Mindanaoans, Mindanaoans for Mindanao.

And, by the way, Mr. Penny-a-liner, where were you when one of our councilors in the City of Cagayan de Oro dared in vain to change the name of a street in honor of our local hero, Dr. Antonio Montavan, to that of an alleged kingmaker from Imperial Manila?

Further, why are you dumbfounded now that the UNA is becoming more and more “Utosan Nila Arroyo”?

How true is the creeping buzz that millions are knocking on the doorsteps of the Acostas to ensure that your principal would land in the winning circle in Bukidnon come 2013? How come? But is it not that not so long ago, your principal claimed that Bukidnon was his turf? If this is how precarious his standing now even in Bukidnon, is it not high time your principal raised the white flag in his Senate return quest?

Your silence, Mr. Mercenary, is deafening!

(Butch Z. Bagabuyo is a former senior state prosecutor. Text/call 0918 803 0197 or e-mail to bagabuyos@yahoo.com)