This is where our taxes go
With the rise of various issues and debates over the past months, reactors have gone haywire from expressing their support or despise on different decisions and rulings starting from the inauguration of President Rodrigo Duterte after winning in the recent national elections, to the alleged involvement of Senator Leila de Lima in drug trades, up to the hero's burial given to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos last Nov. 18.
This is not the first time that the country was split into different opinions of pros and cons as there were controversies in the past, which tested the unity of Filipinos. One classic example is the first EDSA People Power, which gathered millions of people together to oust the former president Marcos. It is not also the first time that we were bombarded with multiple issues of political affiliations involving our history such as the debate on who among Andres Bonifacio or Emilio Aguinaldo is the first president of the Republic of the Philippines.
However, the current status of the country has been placed under a fiery turmoil intensified by the power of social media. News organizations has been proliferated with hatred and rants as opinions of several citizens, turned netizens, came rushing under posts and news updates regarding political resolutions and subjects.
The opinion section has been considered by some as free spaces to express their ideas, much like online graffiti canvases for their colorful remarks and rants. But for the others, it is an awful section of rude loyalists and avid fans of politicians who did nothing for the country but make their name sound professional in the field of politics.
Duterte has garnered almost 16 million voters which resonates the number of supporters, including avid defenders of his administration. We cannot deny the fact that his followers are indeed as firm as his personality but just like the president, these people raises their judgement way too fast and naively exerting comments that are below the belt. On the other hand, several citizens has also shown their disagreement on the decisions made by the president.
Meanwhile, de Lima has been under fire for trying to probe the War on Drugs which she alleged is instigated by none other than the president himself. With her initiative to investigate the said issue, presently, she has been put to shame after the capture of his former driver who had a relationship with her. But the real shame is not solely on the "immorality", as Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre put it, of De Lima but on the despicable process of probing the senator. The unnecessary questions regarding the "intensity" of their relationship is completely unfathomable.
And recently, the burial of Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani has steered the whole nation, sparking several protests on historical monuments and sites around the country.
People would not bother going out of their homes, writing statements on placards and shouting their lungs out to convincingly express their dismay on the act of burying Marcos in the heros' cemetery if the settlement was absolutely upright. It is not. And they took their sentiments in action, not just through the virtual word of the comments section.
Several issues would have not reached this point of controversial involvements if it wasn't dug up by the president. His words, either with sincerity or perhaps another "joke", turns statements to instant commandments with which his constituents hurriedly put into action without even deliberating about it.
The president's supporters, on the other hand, enthusiastically subscribe to this; without questions and hesitations. Then takes everything to the social media, lambasting anyone who pulls a shot on the president.
The fight must not emerge from the proliferation of "free data" and smart phones. It must not be on how fast we type words, which form comments that flood certain posts on social media accounts. And most certainly, being involved is not just to jump into the bandwagon and boast the rest of our "virtual friends" that we have a stand. But it is greatly because we are on the verge of fighting for what is right not only for the present but for the formation of history and principles for the next generations, for the long-term and not for a certain expiring date.
Everything boils down to a cliché - everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and we cannot take that from them. However, when the people's insights would devour the other side of the plane while they set aside history and the real problem of the society, then there must be something wrong with the process.
This is what it entails us - a country split into opinions of pros and cons, which may have been acceptable if it wasn't for apologists who played unfair with their assertions.
Nonetheless, 16 million voters asked for this, now 98 million Filipinos get it.
