Need for change and need to change

Last Sunday, tens of thousands flocked to the EDSA People Power monument and the Rizal Park for the Trillion Peso March to protest and denounce the massive corruption scandal enveloping the government which is threatening to drag the current administration down.

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Similar demonstrations were held in different areas of the country, including in Hagonoy, Bulacan, where people symbolically marched in flood waters supposed to be alleviated by nonexistent flood control programs.

It is but natural to be enraged and disgusted with how the system has been gamed to enrich the few government officials, bureaucrats and their allied contractors. Even more galling is their propensity to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth for all the world to see. Their offspring, so called "nepo babies," have also grown to become accustomed to obscene wealth and privilege that they show off on social media their firstclass travels, designer this-and-that and ultra-fine dining.

The call is for change, change in government to prevent future reenactment of the wholesale theft of government funds, which you and I have to give the government in the form of taxes: income tax, sales tax, import taxes and value-added tax (VAT) which even the poorest citizen has to pay on every item he/she buys. In return, the government is to provide its citizens social services. Thus, it is supposed to subsidize health services, transportation and to make life easier for the ordinary folks.