A Filipino uprising
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
I have a great weather app, Windy.com. It allows me to see and project storms with very high accuracy. It’s well worth the $20 annual fee for premium that has so many measurements from smog to lightning strikes that I can project the camel population in Egypt based on weather there. This morning it showed a typhoon trying to form directly over the Philippines as winds from the Northeast hit dead-on against winds from the southwest and swirled in a great circular pattern over the Philippines.
I took that as a metaphor for the People’s uprising against corruption now taking place on social media. It’s where winds from the olds and winds from the youth swirl about to ridicule, pound, and instruct government officials. Even my Instagram-centered wife is up on current events and adding her howls to the circling wind.
I hope it lasts and makes a difference. It’s honor versus greed, decency versus indecency, national patriotism versus dynasties. I hope the critical mass increases fast and strong enough to punish the main force for greed in the Philippines, the Duterte propaganda force, DDS. I hope it is profound enough to influence President Marcos and the Supreme Court and the 2028 election.
Well, this is The Society of Honor, so you know where we stand.
The olds in the Philippines are doing a slow fade, as they eternally do. So the future of the nation is being passed to the new crop of seniors, which Leni Robredo is joining, along with Leila de Lima, And coming into influence are younger leaders such as Vico Sotto and I hope new influencers such as tennis pro Alex Eala whose patriotism rocks.
I hope the youth are tired of the nonsense.
I hope social media become a howling mob seeking justice.
And I hope it’s an uprising that endures as long as the winds do.
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Cover photo from Gulf News article “Philippines: 10 things to know about the EDSA ‘People Power’ revolution“.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
I just hope your comparison is not correct
I also use Tropicalstormrisk for risk assessment..
Like politics: 2 fronts using the same data but the inevitable is coming whatever way you look at it.
Like current politics: you see a storm slowly developing from far away. We wait till the sh.t hits the fan, then things happen. Things break, lots of damage because we were not prepared… The crying starts, promises are made. 2 days later the sun breaks through, the dead are buried and we go back to the usual routine. Some of the promises result in a little action: a flashy emergency vehicle, used for shopping in the next town and some construction works to fix a dike or road with nice kickbacks for the bosses, all work done such that we need to do the same repairs again next time around.
The rich make money, the poor fix the damage with boards and bags. Business usual.
Let’s hope that the “new movement” is different from the typhoons and the seeds are sown for a lasting change.
Maybe a more hopeful would be a comparison with farming: clearing the land, selection of the seeds, plowing, planting, watering, fertilising, weeding, harvest…. Round and round again, every time a better harvest in spite of setbacks…
Yes, that would be a better set-up, but it does seem to me there is a storm rising and Government is hearing the social media uproar. Three steps forward today. (1) The IBR will review rules to prevent another embarrassing incident like the Davao chapter giving Duterte an award. The noise was huge. (2) Newly sworn in Ombudsman Remulla said he will re-open the Pharmally investigation which puts the Dutertes and Bong Go directly in the cross-hairs. (3) DPWH Sec Dizon turned over something like 470 ghost construction projects to the ICI.
That’s on the heels of ICI yesterday requesting that travel watch orders be put out for a handful of people, including senators.
It seems more like a storm than farming to me, but either can move the nation forward.
the hague has denied duterte interim release, he is now to be examined by 3 expert medical specialists to determine his fitness to stand trial. if duterte cannot walk, he will be given padded wheelchair to ensure his comfort. if he is hard of hearing, he will be provided hearing aids, if he cannot understand english, he will be provided interpreter, if he has high blood pressure, he will be medicated, if he is incontinent, he will be provided diapers, if he is slow to understand the proceedings, he will be provided transcripts. and he will be drilled of what is going to happen at court. all he has to do is be there present in person and keep quiet while his lawyers argue his case.
The Dutertes are really quite clownish. I hope that understanding grows.
Circus clowns!
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/10/11/2479121/dutertes-children-factored-icc-decision-keep-him-detained
Yes, they are tone deaf about civility thinking they can embarrass or intimidate the ICC. Their petulant behavior continued after the ICC decision. They characterize his jailing as kidnapping rather than having a good sense of what has happened, and that it is carefully considered due process.
the whole family seems to be cognitively impaired, lol! both brother and sister are so used to being headliners, they must constantly feed the media monster, albeit to their own detriment.
they must have the final word and just dont know when to keep quiet. so now that their father’s interim release is denied, I wonder what the brother and sister will feed the media next.
at the moment, sara is sour-graping and saying had she been president, she would never appoint remulla as ombudsman.
Cognitively impaired seems spot on. Absolutely no graciousness or diplomatic tact. Just rampaging bulls. Her remarks about Remulla are a case in point, insulting two people with one comment. I fail to find my way into the thought process of people who see that as leadership.
A lot of Filipinos don’t really understand state institutions, in fact many see them as the enemy while seeing people who circumvent them as “leaders”.
It is a holdover of times when institutions were used by the Spanish to control the natives and being a bushwhacker was legitimate resistance. I keep wondering why the Filipino mindset has it so hard adjusting to modern times, even some among thought leaders who SHOULD know better.
It’s understandable when government is the oppressor. Leaders need to earn trust. Hard to do when the backbiting is so loud.
The thinking probably doesn’t even go that deep. Allegiance is closer to home, which is why “he may be corrupt, but he’s OUR mayor or congressman, and he gave us STUFF.”
The political consciousness between the educated city dweller and the outlier townsman or probinsayno is vast. Even in decently sized towns the thinking is more along the lines of a datu-follower relationship, which is why high-minded ideas seldom fit, much less when forced.
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with most Filipinos being at the level of datu-follower, and when many educated Filipinos get angry at this comparison thinking it’s some kind of put-down that’s exactly where the error of thinking starts. There are ways to address people where they are. If the people are at the datu-follower level of political understanding, then the elegant solution is to be a datu and “give” them “stuff” in the form of jobs and better quality of life. Duterte does exactly this when his crowd claims credit for things like the CCLEX bridge, which he was not even responsible for, because it is a fact that CCLEX made the daily lives of Sugbuanons and Oponganons much better.
“The political consciousness between the educated city dweller and the outlier townsman or probinsayno is vast.” I see that for example when I compare the consciousness of many Albay friends/relatives toward politicians like Joey Salceda, who is seen as a trapo nationally.
Locally they see him as a man who took care of the province in his time as governor, with a very modern managerial yet positive populist approach to dealing with natural disasters like typhoons, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. And these accomplishments are real as far as I can see.
VP Leni going back to Naga to run for mayor was probably the best thing she did, as she probably realized how the memory of her husband is held in that town, as a “good governance datu”. I watched her speech in Naga in May 2022, held in Bikolano, online and the vibe was way different from the national one..
P.S. re the Cebu-Cordova bridge, it occured to me that even if some DDS know the truth (that it isn’t from Duterte) that it was initiated by PNoy might matter as little to them as an AFAM contributing to building her house matters to a certain kind of Filipina.
(yeah I know this isn’t nice, but I suspect that some rifts are too deep and some people are beyond helping at least for now)
I sometimes compare Filipino liberals and progressives to the neoliberal (corporatist) majority leadership of the US Democrats who think that going on legacy media (that no one watches anymore) then doing massive broadcast and digital ad buys will get their message out. Whereas US Republicans killed off their neoliberal wing and go directly to where the American people are, on new media, social media, and most importantly, IN PERSON. There are many cities and towns that the Democrats do not even contest, and no Democratic politician has set foot in for decades. That cedes ground to even third-rate Republican candidates who actually go there, then win.
Now I do realize that politics in the Philippines is less developed, to put it mildly, and there is no national organization in which to accomplish going everywhere at once with candidates and surrogates. But the absence of not doing so is also not acceptable as the other side either has local candidates ready, or build alliances with the local dynasties. The US Democratic Party doing ad blitzes at the last minute; the Pink coalition’s last minute dash of socmed meme reposting; just unbelievable political malpractice, though we can forgive the Philippine opposition for not having as much experience, while the Democratic Party here have a current leadership that cannot be forgiven as they should’ve known better.
The Philippines coalition for good governance and a better Philippines (if we may call them that) needs to realize that a national political infrastructure that can plug in the local infrastructures of dynasties that may ally themselves is of utmost importance in the future, so they might as well start building it out now. Depending on legacy media hits just doesn’t work when Filipinos have access to many forms of new media today. There needs to be a sustained presence via surrogates and fans everywhere, all the time, election year or not.
And yes, I have also observed that in the Philippines it is considered loyal allyship to assign credit to “our man” no matter who actually did the thing. But even Sugbuanons that do know that Duterte didn’t actually design, fund or build the CCLEX, they still do not know that the bridge was wholly designed, funded, and engineered by foreign donations and loans. Which is another thing that’s quite sad in the Philippines… it is a fact that the Philippines waits for foreign benefactors to fund and build the big things, when the Philippines should’ve just been doing it themselves to begin with (even if there is a request for outside expert assistance).
oh, we understand state institutions alright. that is why we vote and continue to vote no matter how dire our situation becomes. and we keep changing voted officials too with the hope of hitting a good fit. rare occurrence that one. and we understand bureaucracy maybe only too well that we circumvent it many times, lol! and we are often taken as ultimate idiots which serves us well too, saves us culpability later. until next time. duterte understand this only too well too, that is why he is trying insanity? belatedly only ICC is not likely to buy it and let him get away with genocide.
but seriously, we are used of bending our knees to god and may even bend our knees to demi gods and their ilk too. anything to keep us safe, alive and well. until we build up enough numbers and then things may go differently.
this is about institutional deceit, duterte receiving posthumous golden pillar law award for services to law! IBP davao branch has much to answer for. and of the 600 nationwide recipients all prominent judges and lawyers, only two returned their award coz they didnt want to be lumped in the same category as duterte who has scant respect for the law and now ensconced in the hague.
https://politiko.com.ph/2025/10/12/a-parody-of-integrity-ibp-urged-to-revoke-award-to-duterte/headlines/
not really true we dont prepare b4 storms hit. we board up our houses, secure livestocks, and get to higher ground, yet still, storms get stronger and deadlier and visiting often, we are tired of storms constantly hitting us. still nature is not content with us, there is also earthquake one stronger than the previous. we have earthquake drills by the dozen, yet we can never prepare to the loss of lives and properties, the devastation and the trauma that come after. we prepare to the best of our abilities but nature is crueller and people making nasty comments are not being helpful.
even our hospitals stock up extra medical supplies and staff supposed to go on leave are advised to postpone leave until after disaster struck. same with kapolisan and the militiary, they are often on standby and used as resources in securing localities from looters, and help people reach evac centers.
and we keep eye on one another, keep communication lines as much as possible, and lend hand if need be regardless of our situations. and then we pray sincerely that we may all be delivered safe and well.
Let Leni Lead!
I think you have to get Leni to lead. No one is stopping her.
I have been commenting on the positive changes which are long overdue at least our deafness and blindness are mitigated.
I also do not intend to incite to anything especially sedition all I do and we do is offer our insights.
You are inciting insights. LOL
LOL
it is surprising how many people have the same insights, like minds think alike.
We hope and pray
Indeed we do. And agitate a little.
with hope and prayer comes wisdom and clarity.
This recent earth quakes and the since immemorial corruption of the DPWH is a recipe for a perfect storm
Yes indeed, every quake and every flood will renew the anger.
we shall have whipping posts soon. this november, ombudsman remulla hopes to finish investigation and file cases vs flood scammers: top govt officials including errant senators and congressmen and dpwh personnell as well as contractors like the discayas. if the ombudsman can find and serve notice to the suspects who may have already fled the country despite the look out order.
an interesting article:
Juan Luna started blogging in part because he read The Society of Honor when Duterte was in office. He had voted for Duterte, then started seeing the light, and writing about it. This article is typical of his sharp observations and wit. Mayor Tagalong, lol. I appreciate the insights that President Marcos has placed himself in a bunker of sorts, the lack of opposition leadership, and the potential rise of Vico Sotto (if he’d stop being nationalistically shy like Leni).