by Diego Morra
That’s exactly what 116 million Filipinos will suffer if the current campaign to put sanity, morality, ethics and accountability at the spearhead of the people’s movement to establish a political order shorn of the graft and corruption that has impoverished the country and sustained the rapacity of political dynasties that have become a millstone on the country’s neck.
Indeed, the insistence of some elements that the raging movement to denounce corruption and hold those responsible, like President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself, Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, former Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Diaz, along with the phalanx of senators and Congress members, to admit their guilt and quit to enable the entire government to clean the slate and establish a leadership that is imbued with civic consciousness and fealty to what the Constitution says, that it will promote, protect and defend the people’s welfare.
Thus, it amazes many that some anti-corruption advocates are now saying that they do not call for the resignations of the very elements who committed the plunder of the people’s money and instead demand that some of the accused be jailed first, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. This smacks of a futile approach to win the battle since it immediately limits options to “reform” or thoroughly revamp that structurally corrupt system that propped up the colonial principalia and the compromisores of the US imperialist era.
Some observers now say that these elements are acting as “loyal opposition” to both the Marcos and Duterte factions, meaning they would not rock the boat. So, down with the outrage, down with the enraged citizenry, and down with any attempt to clean up the mess. The flood control mess, which Marcos Jr. assailed during his July 28, 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA), which Malacanang apparently did not evaluate comprehensively, became a case of the President shooting himself in the foot. The scams happened under his very nose, indicating that he failed to put the brakes on the plunderers from the time he secured the helm of government.
The same elements would want a subpar people’s campaign to denounce the perpetrators of the budgetary scams and hope that justice that moves as quick as tortoise would immediately put the accused plunderers on the lam. As has been shown in recent days, the system has zeroed in on the small fry of the DPWH in Bulacan while the dragons of corruption in the two houses of Congress still sit on their fat asses and deny they ever filched a single red cent. Kumita na ang ganyang pelikula, furious activists say, and the people want not only for the accused facing mountains of evidence to quit but to have their feet to the fire. Certainly, not one of the plunderers will commit hara-kiri and suffer seppuku. The last guy who chose to commit suicide after he was thrown under the bus was Angie Reyes and he did what he had to do before his mother’s grave.
For its part, the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) issued a call on Nov. 24 for radical revamp of the government and the institution of governance with integrity, and by the people and for the people. “When Andres Bonifacio organized the Katipunan, he and other patriotic, freedom-loving Filipinos firmly believed that there was an alternative to the oppression and slavery under colonial rule. He opened the imagination of oppressed Filipinos: Together they dreamed of national independence, the hope of living with dignity, and the possibility of liberation from the yoke of slavery.” PCPR added: “For the state and those invested in the status quo, it was unimaginable. Even more, at that time under colonial rule, the idea that the working class, the commoners, led by one from those who lived in nipa huts north of the Pasig could have such vision.” Friedrich Nietzsche also warned that corruption should not be merely a swear word for the autumn of a people. The times of corruption are those when the apples fall from the tree and breed a rotten future.
PCPR said the way to honor Andres Bonifacio and the Katipuneros is to stand up for the people. PCPR will join the ecumenical community and Filipino people in flooding Luneta Park once more– not only to expose the evil of corruption but also to propose an alternative. “Jesus, who lived at the side of the oppressed, neglected, marginalized, and victimized by the empire and its collaborators, not only exposed the hypocrisy of the ruling powers, but also offered an alternative. He took the scroll and read from the tradition of faith: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18/Isaiah 61:1-2).
“The rulers and those who comfortable in the violence of corruption and exploitation thought these unthinkable. Jesus himself would be criticized and persecuted for his partiality for victims and for his unimaginable vision—the Kingdom of God,” PCPR argued. “We call upon the faithful embrace trust and dare to hope. This hope is not about narrowing our choices between evils, but trusting that the Filipino people are capable of establishing a government that genuinely manifests in serving the poor and marginalized and honors the sovereignty of our country, the potentials of our prosperity, and democratic representation of our people. It is counterproductive and nonsensical to offer the plate of power to any of the same leaders who are responsible for the current corruption and failed governance.”
