When the Response from the State Intensifies People's Outrage
Protestors are more likely to be arrested than thieves, plunderers, and other scumbags in this country. This is not an exaggeration but the daily reality under a system that protects the corrupt while punishing the desperate. The Congressional Hearings people are watching are nothing more than just lip service.
Nobody will get prosecuted, nobody will be held accountable. And it is all nothing more than a clown show.
And yet, the outrage is not performative. The people remain furious at those who pocket kickbacks but pretend to be “for the people.” No to bad! Corrupt, take responsibility!
Mud, Paint, and Rotten Fruit vs. State Neglect
On Friday, police clashed with demonstrators outside the House of Representatives. The protesters threw mud and paint, actions that officials quickly branded as “violence.” Inside, lawmakers carried on with budget deliberations for the Department of Public Works and Highways. Outside, citizens demanded accountability for anomalous flood control projects that drain billions yet fail to stop the floods.
Such actions is a repetition of what happened yesterday at the Discaya building in Pasig City, wherein protesters also threw mud and painted words like "thief" and "corrupt" at its gates. And Netizens had mixed reactions knowing there's some kind of action against these profiteers using public funds as contractors abusing public trust.
Meanwhile the Discaya family, whose compound in Pasig was splattered the day before, made sure the protestors would be punished. “Those responsible for the protest this morning, September 4, where mud stoned and painted the fence and gate of their compound… [must be held liable],” said their lawyer Cornelio Samaniego III.
Even local officials lined up to condemn. Mayor Vico Sotto invoked the “primacy of rule of law.” Mayor Isko Moreno called it “mob rule” and promised his police would not tolerate it. But mud, paint, and rotten fruit pale in comparison to the violence inflicted by the state itself: corruption that robs communities of safety, neglect that drowns families in floods, and police crackdowns that punish the victims rather than the plunderers.
As People Surge asserted: “The protest actions on flood control project anomalies are legitimate and just. We refuse to be pacified by hollow words while we drown, literally and figuratively, in decades of systemic corruption, incompetence, and the boundless greed of those in power. Calls for ‘calm’ from President Marcos Jr. ring hollow when the outrage stems from living through the real consequences of these abuses. ‘Calm’ is a slap in the face to the flood victims and survivors whose homes, livelihoods, and lives are washed away by criminal neglect and corruption.”
The Empty Call for “Calm”
The appeal to “sobriety” is a tired tactic. Politicos and their apologists invoke due process not to uphold justice, but to delay it indefinitely. They draw comparisons to Indonesia’s revenge-driven riots, warning that the Philippines must not descend into chaos.
But must the people continue waiting for an EDSA-style miracle of “peaceful, nonviolent action” when time and again, the system betrays the people? Every cry, every raised fist, every scrawled banner is dismissed as disorder. But such cries, ignored long enough, may indeed pave the way to the molotov cocktail or the gun—not from bloodlust, but because of the violence of neglect and betrayal.
From the riots under Martial Law to recent uprisings in Southeast Asia, governments cling to power by demanding obedience to laws they themselves routinely break. In such a situation, “peace and order” becomes nothing more than a shield for plunderers. So long as the state wields violence, resistance will flourish alongside it.
The Philippine Collegian captured it perfectly back in 1982: “Since it stands in sharp contrast to the objective interests of the people, the regime can only rest upon the strength of force. And a regime founded upon the strength of force develops no other logic but violence.”
Conclusion: When the Regime’s Logic Aggravates
That was written under dictatorship, but today reads like prophecy. The cycle repeats: plunder disguised as progress, corruption rewarded with silence, and resistance punished with police batons. The regime clings to power not through legitimacy but through force.
Whether it was Marcos's "Martial Law" guised as "New Society", Cory Aquino's "Iron Fist with Velvet Glove" guised as "Restored Democracy", Arroyo's pseudo-Thatcherism guised as "Strong Republic", heck even Duterte's vulgar Marcosianism and Marcos Jr's own "New Philippines", so long as it benefited the corrupt and the tyrant such statements of theirs are one and the same: rephrased and updated yet benefited the same old corrupt and tyrant.
Whether it was Marcos's "Martial Law" guised as "New Society", Cory Aquino's "Iron Fist with Velvet Glove" guised as "Restored Democracy", Arroyo's pseudo-Thatcherism guised as "Strong Republic", heck even Duterte's vulgar Marcosianism and Marcos Jr's own "New Philippines", so long as it benefited the corrupt and the tyrant such statements of theirs are one and the same: rephrased and updated yet benefited the same old corrupt and tyrant.
And as history shows, when power-especially those who upheld entrenched interests and the continuity of its rottenness, rests on force, it can never truly stand on peace.