Rise against silence

By Noel Galon de Leon

If you have experienced the following problems, or if you know someone who suffers from them, this is exactly the reason why we must join the massive rally in Iloilo City on September 21. Every Filipino today carries a heavy burden. Prices of basic goods are skyrocketing, food that once filled the family table is now becoming a luxury, and electricity bills are draining household incomes. Fuel prices keep climbing, public transport fares grow heavier by the day, yet wages remain painfully low. Millions are jobless, and many who do have work are underemployed, stuck in unstable contracts that barely pay for survival. Poverty is everywhere, while remittances from our overseas workers keep the economy afloat—proof that our government has failed to provide decent livelihoods at home.

But the suffering doesn’t stop with economics. Corruption poisons every corner of governance. Public funds meant for hospitals, schools, and social services are stolen by politicians who live in mansions while ordinary citizens sleep hungry. Justice moves at a snail’s pace, protecting only the rich and influential. Red tape crushes small dreams while dynasties tighten their grip on power, buying votes and silencing dissent. Our democracy is being reduced to a game where the poor always lose.

Human rights? They are trampled. The so-called war on drugs has left thousands dead, many without due process, leaving families broken and communities living in fear. Police abuse their authority, while prisons overflow with the poor who cannot afford bail. Journalists are harassed, activists are red-tagged, and truth-tellers are silenced. Discrimination thrives against minorities, against women, against LGBTQ+ citizens, against the powerless. This is not freedom—this is control dressed as order.

Our schools reflect the same neglect.

Overcrowded classrooms, underpaid teachers, insufficient textbooks, and a curriculum that doesn’t prepare students for real jobs. Parents sink deeper into debt just to buy uniforms, gadgets, or internet for their children. Dropout rates climb, while the best educators leave the country because our system values them so little. What future can we promise the youth if education itself has become a privilege?

Healthcare is equally broken. Hospitals are understaffed, doctors and nurses are overworked, and medicine prices are unbearable. Families lose everything to hospital bills. Children go to sleep hungry, victims of malnutrition and government neglect. Rural areas lack clean water, waste piles up in our cities, and mental health remains ignored. When disasters strike, relief comes late—if at all.

Transportation and infrastructure show the same story of decay. Metro Manila’s traffic is a living nightmare, public transport is outdated and unsafe, and provincial roads remain neglected. Modern trains are a dream, airports are overcrowded, and internet connectivity—a basic necessity today—lags behind most of Asia. Even floods are proof of failure, the result of poor drainage and irresponsible urban planning.

Our environment is under attack. Forests are cut down, coral reefs destroyed, and mining companies devastate ancestral lands. Plastic chokes our seas, smog poisons our air, and climate change threatens our survival. Yet, instead of urgent action, leaders shrug and sell our natural resources to corporations. Farmers and fisherfolk, the ones who feed the nation, are the first to suffer.

Social inequality widens every day. The rich become richer while the poor drown in debt. Rural communities are forgotten. Children are forced into labor, women endure abuse, LGBTQ+ people face discrimination, and elderly citizens are neglected. Violence inside homes mirrors violence in the streets. Teenage pregnancies rise as comprehensive sex education is resisted by the same leaders who moralize about “family values.”

Peace and order? Another illusion. Terrorism still scars Mindanao, insurgencies continue, and political killings erupt during elections. The drug trade persists despite the killings, smuggling thrives, and cybercrime traps victims daily. Ordinary people live in fear while the powerful walk free.

And what about our overseas workers, the so-called modern heroes? Many are exploited, abused, and separated from their families. Children grow up without parents, marriages collapse under distance, and when these workers return home, there are no reintegration programs, no jobs, no dignity—only the cold reminder that their sacrifice fuels a broken economy.

This is the Philippines today. This is why silence is no longer an option.

On September 21, Iloilo will not just host a rally. It will host a reckoning. Every step we take in the march is a protest against exploitation. Every voice raised in the streets is a demand for justice. Every face in the crowd is proof that we are still alive, still fighting, and still determined to take back a nation stolen from us.

If you are tired of endless bills, of wages that insult your labor, of hospitals that treat you like numbers, of classrooms that fail your children, of leaders who lie and steal, of a country drowning in debt and blood—then you belong in this march.

Because the streets are not just for cars. The streets are where the people reclaim their power. The streets are where history is written.

And on September 21, Iloilo will write history.