Thousands of Filipinos took to the streets yesterday, in different cities all over the country, with those from Bacolod braving the rain, as they protested the corruption, particularly the multibillion peso scandal over bogus flood control projects that has been orchestrated by politicians and contractors.
The protests coincided with the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the country, a turning point and dark moment in our history, when then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. solidified his iron rule by using the military to silence dissent and crush the opposition.
This time, the attention of the angry Filipinos has been turned on the ghost projects, ever since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. highlighted them during his State of the Nation Address. In an interesting plot twist, the son of the dictator who used martial law to silence Filipinos from all walks of life, said that he did not blame the people for protesting “one bit”, but instead urged the demonstrations to remain peaceful.
Marching in white, holding placards with witty slogans denouncing corruption, and braving the rain-soaked streets of Bacolod, thousands of Negrenses joined the nationwide “Trillion Peso March” that called for an end to systemic corruption, highlighted by the P1.9 trillion in flood control funds plundered over the past 15 years.
Rampant corruption has been a part of Philippine governance for decades, and for a while, it has seemed that Filipinos have come to accept it as part of our unfortunate fate. The massive protests over the weekend, coupled with the renewed interest in the investigations being held into the flood control issue, gives hope that we have not yet become that apathetic. Hopefully we can sustain the pressure until our government officials can no longer ride out the outrage just by simply waiting for us to lose interest as soon as the next scandal grabs our interest.
If those in government are listening to the outcry and willing to address the issue and institute sustainable reforms that will bring the guilty to justice, return the stolen funds, and establish the necessary safeguards that can prevent a repeat of the plunder, that would be even better.
Because if nothing comes from this outrage, the corruption will have won by proving that our government has already been corrupted to the point that it is beyond repair.
Hopefully we still have a government and public officials that can identify the rot, find the root cause, and fix the system that has been working for the plunderers, instead of the common good.*
