They tried their best to hide their corruption – then God sent the rains.
They tried their best to hide their corruption – but then their kids flaunt their wealth.
Hearing after hearing, and the storm breaks – not the rains this time, but people – flooding the streets, and like the rains, unpredictable – some peaceful, some forceful, and some outright violent.
The floods culminated in widespread protests on the day being commemorated as the start of one of the darkest times in the history of the Philippines. It felt like all sectors of the Philippine society were represented that day, and the wide spectrum of protest was on full display – from peaceful and prayerful, to angry and cursing, to violent and destructive.
And like a storm breaking, it feels like it is only just beginning.
It wasn’t just a localized storm – it was nationwide. Not just in Luneta, or in EDSA, or in Mendiola, but in Angeles, in Olongapo, in Baguio, in Bulacan, in Tagbilaran, in Davao, in Bacolod, in Cebu, in Dumaguete, and in Iloilo.
It is hard to keep up sometimes with the flood of information online, as everything feels overwhelming. Like the rains, everything seems so volatile and unpredictable. Every single day, there’s a new thing.
New names being implicated, new revelations from resource persons who started as villains but are now witnesses.
Some children are deleting YouTube channels as a form of damage control, and some children are publicly denouncing their parent (also, probably, as a form of damage control).
Some politicians being tagged safe on one hearing, and then not safe in the next. Then after clearing their name, again being implicated this time by one of the villains-turned-witnesses.
For everything that happened in the past few weeks, it shows that in our country, the floods don’t wash away, but instead expose.
Hopefully, this time, real change happens. Instead of just waiting for these floods to subside, we should embrace it, and feed it, until those in power have no choice but to address this corruption at its heart.
Definitely wishful thinking, but all we can do is carry on, and wait and see.