TikTok and politics of modest living

Social media platform TikTok has this week exploded with a wave of online activism that has struck at the heart of Philippine politics.

Young Filipinos are calling out the children of government officials who flaunt their extravagant lifestyles — luxury vacations, expensive vehicles, designer fashion, and lavish parties — claiming these are funded by taxpayer money.

What looks like mere cancel-culture is, in truth, an urgent call to reckoning with corruption, privilege, and the ethical obligations of those in power and their families.

The outrage is rooted in deep frustration. As ordinary Filipinos struggle to make ends meet, many see their hard-earned taxes enriching a select few. When TikTok users highlight the indulgent lives of public officials’ children, they aren’t just being petty; they are asking: Where has our money gone to? Why do we ordinary Filipinos continue to suffer while those officials prosper?

Philippine law is clear. Republic Act (RA) No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, requires public officials to act with “utmost fidelity” and forbids the use of office for personal gain.

Just as important, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (RA 6713) goes beyond financial transactions and speaks directly to the way public officials and their families must live their lives.

Section 4 of RA 6713 mandates that public servants and their families must lead “simple and modest lives” and avoid any lifestyle that could be “conspicuously or ostentatiously displayed.” The law explicitly reminds us that public service is not a gateway to wealth, and that families of officials are bound by the same standards of modesty and integrity.

Yet today, TikTok is flooded with proof that these principles are continually ignored. The children of some officials bask in wealth while their parents claim to serve a struggling nation.

The irony is not lost on the public. It is precisely this dissonance that fuels the outrage online, a spontaneous movement among young people not just to embarrass those who wallow in privilege, but to demand that laws — specifically anti-corruption laws already on the books — be applied, enforced, and respected.

This youth-driven campaign should not be dismissed as just another social media trend. It is a growing call for accountability and cultural change. By holding a light to the behavior of officials and their households, citizens are forcing the nation to revisit the standards we have long demanded but rarely seen upheld.

The message is simple but profound: if you choose to serve the public, you and your family must live within the bounds of modesty, transparency, and integrity.

Social media has simply given ordinary people a megaphone for airing pent-up grievances that have long been festering. The real question is whether our leaders and their families — and, yes, their shadowy friends in the private sector — are listening.