When the Filipino nation becomes the lamb

In earlier surveys, nearly three-fourths of Filipinos in Pulse Asia polls identified inflation as the country's most urgent concern.

- DIWA C. GUINIGUNDO

Issues like low wages and poverty followed closely, while corruption was cited by less than a third - comparable to concern for job creation.

That changed dramatically after the flood control scandal broke wide open. Exposed in the Senate, House of Representatives, and by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, the controversy spilled into the streets from the Trillion Peso March at the People Power Monument to the Baha sa Luneta at Rizal Park. The outcry has spread to key cities and provinces, marking a rare moment of national reckoning.

This time, Filipinos realized that their public officials, elected and appointed alike, together with favored contractors have been bleeding them dry, stealing not just their taxes but their dignity and their children's future. What once appeared as isolated irregularities in public works has now revealed itself as a vast, coordinated network of collusion and profiteering an entire system of plunder masquerading as infrastructure development.

By late September, Pulse Asia found that 97% of Filipinos believed corruption in government is "widespread," 85% said it had worsened in the past year, and a disturbing 59% saw it as a "normal" part of Philippine politics. These numbers are staggering. They reflect not only outrage but fatigue, a moral exhaustion that comes from seeing scandal after scandal end with impunity. The sudden spike in public disillusion followed President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.'s own exposé in his State of the Nation Address and the continuing legislative investigations that have since dominated public discourse.

Corruption, of course, is not new.