Is hope all?

Over the many years this paper has seen fit to publish my rants, the incessant refrain one would find in this column would be the scandalous waste of taxpayer’s money. Over and over again, our politicians and oligarchs have been excoriated, but of course, this being the Philippines, and since there have been no names (or not much), nothing has ever come out of it.

The recent uptick in online “dissatisfaction”, to say the least, is therefore particularly gratifying. Finally! Because President Marcos Jr. exposed the crocs gobbling up government contracts, people are talking. They are clucking, they are barking. They are outraged. Netizens are manifesting their inner keyboard warriors, and not just that! Outside of social media, people are showing up to demonstrate their unhappiness. Actual demos, with curses and graffiti and noise.

Of course, Indonesia has something to do with this. Filipinos are gawping at what’s happening over at their neighboring country, and being given lots of food for thought. If results can be obtained so rapidly over there, why not here? Idea!

Are we at a tipping point then? Is this where and when we see Filipinos mobilized, ready to actually fight for the survival of this nation? Is this when history will be made?

A commentator has nodded to the mythical Pandora’s Box, horrors unleashed upon the nation by those with an agenda. Perhaps the thinking was, the scandal would be quickly contained. Name the top 15 contractors, publicly excoriate them, and then get them out of the way. Once that’s done and public outrage satisfied, then the politicians can steer the public on to the next hot topic. And conveniently, whatever was the hot button issue then would be buried. Well, we’re certainly not talking about the consequential decision written by Justice Marvic Leonen and Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment. Big sigh of relief from those quarters.

But the cache of information just keeps leading to more troves of data, and bigger and bigger fish are being caught in the net. More than that, the public’s becoming aware, project by project, of how systematically the coffers of this country were looted. If there was a fantastic example of plunder that would be a slam dunk for those assigned to prosecute the case, this would be it.

Public opinion would be behind prosecutors of this case, and any judge or justice faced with the case would be hard-pressed to acquit the accused. Public opinion would be so strong and the potential reaction to an acquittal would be so fierce, that only someone truly gutsy would go against public grain. That or, the prosecutors were so incompetent (or compromised) that they failed to present the easy evidence to the judge.

So we’ve seen some government crocs fired. We’ve seen the public excoriation of contractors and their nepo babies. We’ve seen evidence of small and medium fish flying out of the country, perhaps never to be seen again. Or if seen, with the necessary crutches, wheelchairs, and neck braces accessorizing their sorry asses. But is this all we’re going to get?

Because this is certainly not all we deserve. We deserve punishment inflicted upon the guilty, for sure. We deserve bigger fishes caught in the corruption net. We deserve reimbursement of all those funds that disappeared. We deserve the safer streets and more comfortable environs, free from flood and traffic, that we would have gotten had those funds only been applied to their original purpose. We deserve much better infrastructure, actually. We deserve a reform of government, such that this will never happen again. We deserve better politicians than those currently holding the reins.

Will we ever get what we deserve?

The lesson in Pandora’s Box was that tiny, fragile Hope was hidden, last to be released unto the world. Well, we certainly do have hope. That’s why all these rallyists are out there, that’s why people are praying and posting and reacting. Let’s just hope that Hope isn’t crushed by reality.