‘… I pray that Marcos does what he can to make sure that the last three years or so of his term of office will be spent focused on rooting out vestiges of corruption that some people will trace back to the years his father was in office.’
APPARENTLY, certain elements of our political elite were hoping that the September 21 rallies would end with the Marcos government being upended.
It was quite clear in the days leading to Sunday, as known supporters of former President Duterte began bombarding social media with posts calling for certain actions. Primarily, there were posts urging people not to go to the Luneta or EDSA rallies, as these had been “hijacked” by the NPA, the yellows and Marcos supporters. Instead, the posts urged people to concentrate at Liwasang Bonifacio and at Gate 4 of Camp Aguinaldo. These were the assembly points of people who wanted Marcos to reign (or be ousted) so he could be succeeded by Sara Duterte.
Even posts from abroad were echoing the same message. Former Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque was calling for People Power 2025; others were hinting at key individuals or groups turning their backs on the Marcos administration and provoking its collapse. Some retired generals were more openly calling on the AFP to act as “protectors of the People and of the State” as enshrined in the Constitution, and withdraw loyalty to Marcos.
Very clearly, the objective of this segment of the political elite was to install Duterte as President, the way Cory was installed in 1986 and Gloria in 2001.
They failed miserably. Because they misread the anger of the people.
The way I read it, a majority of angry Filipinos are angry at anyone and everyone involved in this massive, deep-seated and intricate web of corruption that has taken advantage of weaknesses in our government budget planning process to fleece the national treasury of billions upon billions of pesos in so short a span of time – apparently from 2016 to 2025. And among the angry I’ve spoken to are Filipinos who are putting their love of country above their love of relatives or friends. This tells you that anyone who pooh-poohs the anger of the public does so at his or her own risk. And anyone who thinks the anger can be channeled to suit the narrow partisan political interests of this or that faction of the political elite risks inflaming the public even more.
Personally, I give the President credit for daring to expose this scam of scams (for now) that has resulted in the removal of his own cousin as Speaker of the House and of his first choice for Senate President. I am told that he remains committed to seeing this to it’s just end – with the crooked in jail so they can pay for their sins.
At the same time, I hope he is aware that he will have to answer questions himself, the least critical being how this could have all happened under his very nose, given that he had to sign the General Appropriations Acts for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
But yes, I pray that Marcos does what he can to make sure that the last three years or so of his term of office will be spent focused on rooting out vestiges of corruption that some people will trace back to the years his father was in office. Indeed, a number of his predecessors made that lofty boast of being committed to eradicating corruption during their term, but no one really accomplished much, maybe because the boasts were meant to be empty.
But today the anger is different. It is real. And it cuts across social classes and generations.
And the greatest mistake any of the political factions can make these days is misreading that anger.
