28/09/2025
FEATURE | Price for Dignity
On that fateful day of September 21, 2025, throngs of people are in the streets—carrying placards, loud and sweaty under the heat of the sun. All rooted from their deep need to be heard and make a stand. Clearly, silence is no longer an option.
Baha sa Luneta took place and voices were heard. As serious as it might be, it was not for everybody. Some saw September 21 as history. One for the books; and some saw it as entertainment. Just another post to scroll by, or worse something to laugh at.
Many voices there was—one that stood out was “Ibaba ang presyo ng fishball, kikiam, tokneneng, kwek kwek, calamares,” said 33-year-old Alvin Karingal, the so-called “fishball warrior.” Clothed in a red shirt, his backpack strapped to his chest, Karingal walked the streets of Manila shoulder-to-shoulder with students, activists, and citizens demanding accountability.
To some, his cries and pleas were nothing more than a joke and a meme. But for a working class, like him, whose survival depended on his day to day earnings, it was not mere fishballs and kwek kweks—it was time, it was ticking, it is life.
Karingal’s words are alms of every small vendor, workers, and ordinary people whose struggles are invisible to those who live far from hunger.
Battles are the easiest to brush off when it’s not yours. Just like when laughter was an easy answer when the topic is something you don't know. Snide remarks, and jokes that spring from the comfort of not needing to answer the question, “Can my family eat today?” or the quiet struggle of trying to stretch a few hundred pesos to suffice every bill in need to be paid.
Detachment from these—laughter comes easy.
What was shouted may have been about street foods. Laughingstock for some. Shallow for many. But, when voices like his are mocked instead of heard, it shows just how out of touch people had been.
In the end, no demand is too small when it speaks of survival. The call to lower the price of fishballs may sound simple, but it reflects the deeper hunger for fairness and accountability. Behind every plea, every placard, and every march, people are not just asking for cheaper food, but for a life. A life truly worth living for— fair, accountable, and for all.
Article by: Maria Carla Salvame
Layout by: Alexandra Del Castillio
Photo used by: Joel Mark Magay
The photo used is not ours. Rightful credits belong to the owner.
