14/09/2025
Huwag Kang Kukurap
The civil society groups have decided to stage their big rally against corruption on September 21.
And what a day to do it. September 21 is already one of the most famous dates among Filipinos not only because the American funk band Earth, Wind & Fire sang about it (“Do you remember? The 21st night of September. Love was chasing the night, remember?”) but also because it was the day our president’s father, who was president then, declared Martial Law in 1972.
One of the reasons for Apo Marcos’s Martial Law declaration was widespread corruption in the country. That was why the elder Marcos used the term “constitutional authoritarianism,” which he claimed would bring stability and economic reform to the government.
And then the Marcos regime under Martial Law became one of the most corrupt governments in our time.
We hope the irony is not lost on his son, who is actually calling for the end of corruption, specifically on ghost infra projects. Well, the irony is not lost on the CSOs who chose September 21 as the beginning of the widespread kilos protesta.
There is already a clamor from some CSOs to make the protest inclusive by bringing all political groups into the fold—be it Pinklawan, BBM groups, or DDS.
In a now-deleted post, Duterte loyalist Harry Roque called on his “people” to attend all protest rallies and even listed the places and hours when they would start.
Some CSOs said this is already a corruption of the meaning of their anti-corruption rallies. They argued that every project, as well as their contractors, sponsors, and backers, should be included—from Duterte up to Bongbong Marcos. Some say they should go even earlier, meaning from the late Marcos up to the present.
That might include everybody then.
The trouble with “corruption” is that it is a Big Word. Something like “progress,” “development,” and “goodness.” It is so hard to define. Differentiate it from what? Clean or immaculate?
The dictionary lists 200 synonyms for corrupt.
At least the Filipino word is easier to define. Not “korapsyon,” as it is just a corruption of “corruption.” The Filipino word for corruption is “katiwalian,” which comes from “tiwali,” meaning “wrongdoing” or “corruption.”
How poetic that the opposite word only means changing one letter—from an “i” to an “a.” That turns “tiwali” into “tiwala.”
“Tiwala” means “respect,” so “tiwali” means “disrespect.”
We wish the BGC or the “Bulacan Group of Contractors” at the heart of Katagalugan had realized that.
Experts want to narrow the corruption they are protesting as “institutional corruption.”
The American legal scholar Lawrence Lessig defines institutional corruption as a “systemic and strategic influence, which is legal or even ethical, that undermines an institution’s effectiveness by diverting it from its purpose.”
Quite a lot to digest.
“Systemic and strategic influence” means that the influence is not random but part of a broader pattern or strategy. “Legal or ethical” means that the actions causing corruption may not break laws or even be considered unethical in a narrow sense. “Diversion from purpose” means the core purpose of the institution is subverted or weakened by this external influence. “Undermining trust and trustworthiness” means the institution’s ability to serve the public interest is diminished, and the public’s faith in the institution is eroded.
Change the institution to the government, and we get a new dimension of what ails the country.
So what we’re up against on September 21 is going to be huge. It means fighting a part of ourselves that is used to the system. It’s going to be a gargantuan task.
Impossible? Tell that to the Indonesians and the Nepalese.
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Editorial
Mountain Beacon
September 14, 2025
