Signs of the times

For the past two months, it seemed like we have been watching a zarzuela.

- 

Not “Walang Sugat” (without wounds or scars), an opera on the Spanish period, but a modern one. Perhaps it is more like “The Flooded Gates of Hell” or “Ang Baha sa Impyerno” as Senator Ping Lacson puts it. We can tell the mood of the times by watching people during social gatherings. Or through a cursory review of media content during the past weeks. Or listening to your Grab driver. Any researcher doing a study of the current pulse of the nation would find an answer by counting the number of times certain words are used in titles of columns, broadcast content and all forms of social interaction, The mood is “anger” couched in words like corruption, transparency, accountability, and cuss words.

The people are angry. “Tama na, sobra na” and familiar phrases describing exasperation are often heard.

We caught images of these emotions during the Sept. 21 “A trillion Peso March” at the People Power Monument and later, at the Baha sa Luneta, where hundreds of thousands of youth, celebrities, clergy, leaders and members of people’s organization convened to air grievances, offer prayers, and called on the government to come up with a credible response.