Talkin’ ‘bout a revolution

MANILA, Philippines - If there is anything that the #millionpeoplemarch protest gathering last August 26 showed me, it’s that I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t alone in my anger against the blatant corruption in our government and that there are billions and billions of taxpayer’s money that is unaccounted for and has been awarded to fake NGOs.

There are many who say that the event was a failure. Reports vary at the exact number of participants who came to Luneta Park and the Quirino Grandstand that day, but all of them say it was not a million people. Some might say that the lack of a plan or a leader or an agenda caused confusion. By 2 p.m., people went home, not exactly sure what had happened or why they came. A lot of people are still wondering.

But I think the true power of what had transpired in the #millionpeoplemarch is not quantifiable in numbers or in a particular result. If this is a chess game, this was a crucial second move. That’s what I think.

The first move began when a barrage of news reports came that exposed a scam of billions of pesos worth of taxpayer’s money went to fake NGOs and projects that never saw fruition. Our disbelief and rage began to take form on social media sites. We let out our anger there and we heard it shouted back at us with equal might. When we discovered we weren’t alone in our outrage, we knew we were united in this.

The second move was that gathering. Without a real leader, we organized ourselves by sharing information through the Internet and managed to stage a protest numbering in the tens of thousands, mostly dressed in white, others in costume, some carrying banners and signs, others chanting. The energy inside that crowd was electrifying.

Standing there with everyone and walking around, there was an energy being passed around. It was good to see so many people sharing the same views. People from different walks of life – different ages, different social classes, different beliefs and ideologies – all hanging out together and expressing how much theywant transparency in our government and accountability for all the hard-earned money that they give in tax.

And it wasn’t just in Manila. It happened in key cities all around the nation, and it was also staged by Filipinos in other countries. In that moment, we were all together, unified, and stating our demands: “abolish pork,” “pass the Freedom of Information Bill,” “investigate the corruption,” and “try and sentence all who have abused public trust.”

People will say that the #millionpeoplemarch was unsuccessful. Some people say, “Yeah, so what? What has changed?” Already, news reports have come saying that certain politicians have refused to abolish the pork barrel system outright.

But what they don’t see is that we were able to do it; that tens of thousands of people were able to gather together without a leader, without an agenda, and without a plan. Just with the power of our collective emotions were we able to amass such a great number and do it despite all our differences as citizens.

For everyone who came, we saw each other’s faces, we felt each other’s anger and displeasure. We know its real. We know we aren’t alone.

I didn’t think that the #millionpeoplemarch was going to make drastic changes. It was just our opening salvo. I like to think we, as a people and as a nation, bared our fangs. If we could accomplish that in a matter of weeks, through social media, think of what we could accomplish in a month or two – with a leader, with a plan, with an agenda.

If push comes to shove, and we don’t get the transparency that we asked for; if we don’t get the investigation of the corruption that we demanded; if we don’t see justice served to the people who have committed these crimes – we can gather again. And it will be bigger. And we will do more than just show our teeth.

I think the real significance of the #millionpeoplemarch can be found with what we were able to prove to ourselves. Now, looking back, it isn’t the government we were targeting, but it was ourselves. We were waking each other up.

And we are thousands. We are tens of thousands. We are not alone.